San Francisco may tighten smoking ban

From the SF gate report:
Mayor Gavin Newsom has proposed prohibiting tobacco sales in pharmacies, including Walgreens and Rite Aid. The city’s public health chief said the proposal is modeled after rules in eight provinces in Canada but has not been tried anywhere in the United States.
Supervisor Chris Daly has proposed legislation that would vastly limit [...]

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The nanny-staters

I had written earlier about the Japanese government acting as health police to force its citizens to slim down. Here’s a CNN video on the matter.
One thing struck me after watching the video – not many people seem that unhappy at what I would consider an outrageous interference into one’s private matters. Well, if they have that attitude, I guess [...]

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Protesting against paternalism

If you, like me, think it is outrageous that the US government tells you that you may not indulge in internet gambling, you can call, fax or email House Financial Services Committee and let your views be known. For more details, click here.
If you decide to act, please do so by Tuesday. That’s when the house [...]

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A paradox for the outraged libertarian

If you are a rebel and the law comes in the way of your natural course of action, you would probably feel justified in violating it. But what if those in power decide they are going to stop you from doing something that you hadn’t planned on doing anyway? What do you do if there is [...]

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Your health is my business

One of the dangers of publicly funded healthcare is that it increases the likelihood of the government micromanaging your health and other private affairs. Jacob Sullum wrote an excellent article in Reason last year about the totalitarian implications of public health. The Japanese government is the latest to prove him right.
Under a national law that [...]

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A modern day Romeo and Juliet

She was 82. He was 95. They had dementia. They fell in love. And then they started having sex.
What happened next? Read this to find out.
Speaking strictly for myself, I will do everything — and I really mean everything — in my power to ensure that my freedom can never be curtailed by a loved one or [...]

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Speechless till eternity

One of the many good arguments libertarians and other advocates of complete free speech offer in support of their position is the slippery-slope argument. Basically, once you restrict certain types of speech, the bar is lowered and the censorship gets more and more oppressive with the passage of time. The result is a slow but [...]

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The ACLU and freedom

The American Civil Liberties Asoociation has, over the years, done a lot of commendable work in defence of freedom. Particularly praiseworthy is its consistent defence of the First Amendment. It has frequently extended legal help to protect those whose free speech rights have been threatened. It has fought for the separation of the church and [...]

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The politics of fear

Believe it or not, a guy was told he could not get on to the plane wearing his gun toting T-shirt. A picture of the offending T-shirt is below:

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again — the terrorists’ greatest victory wasn’t bringing WTC down or carrying out those London bombings. It was changing liberal [...]

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Ice paradise?

According to this article, Iceland has the happiest people on the planet:
Highest birth rate in Europe + highest divorce rate + highest percentage of women working outside the home = the best country in the world in which to live. There has to be something wrong with this equation. Put those three factors together - [...]

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Libertarianism and the intellectual property paradox

Intellectual property laws, such as those relating to copyright or patents, are a source of considerable disagreement among libertarians. The reason is not hard to see. In the words of Rodrick Long,
When libertarians of the first sort come across a purported intellectual property right, they see one more instance of an individual’s rightful claim to [...]

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Paul Gate

The goal of Paulville.org it to establish gated communities containing 100% Ron Paul supporters and/ or people that live by the ideals of freedom and liberty.
Link.
I am curious — will a Paulville resident have the freedom, for instance, to question the ideals of freedom and liberty? What if a resident has a change of heart after [...]

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Lest we forget

Deborah Jeane Palfrey, the so-called D.C. Madam, killed herself last week. She was due to be sentenced soon for offences related to an elite prostitution ring she ran from 1993 to 2006. In her suicide note addressed to her mother, she wrote:
I cannot live the next 6-8 years behind bars for what both you and I have come [...]

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Liberty, tyranny and the majority

Damon Root has an excellent article at Reason where he discusses liberty and federalism in the context of a draconian South Dakota law that, if the voters decide so, would ban virtually all kinds of abortions.
Look at it like this. The United States Constitution guarantees a number of specific individual rights, including free speech and the [...]

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Libertarianism and Objectivism

Libertarianism and objectivism have always shared a somewhat uneasy relationship. Most libertarians, while acknowledging the importance and influence of Ayn Rand’s ideas, nonetheless feel a certain degree of discomfort with the more simplistic or dogmatic aspects of her message. In the words of Nick Gillespie, former editor of Reason Magazine, Rand is “one of the most important figures in the libertarian movement” and she ”remains [...]

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