So many of the issues of our time — or perhaps any time — hinge on whether one considers the full context, or only one element of it.
Archive | Law
Guns Save Lives
We almost never hear about these hundreds of thousands of defensive uses of guns from the media, which will report the killing of a dozen people endlessly around the clock.
Fact-Free Crusades: How Gun Control Laws Disarm Law Abiding Citizens
The dirty little secret is that gun control laws do not actually control guns. They disarm law-abiding citizens, making them more vulnerable to criminals, who remain armed in disregard of such laws.
Gay Marriage and The Role of State
The legitimate functions of a properly limited government do not include either stigmatizing gay behavior or applauding it.
Selling Horse Meat as Beef: Buyer Beware, Too?
In my last article I wrote about stores selling products past their best before date—such as the expired canned lobster pate, which raised demands for legislation against selling expired food products in Canada. I argued that such legislation would be a violation of the sellers’ and consumers’ right to liberty: if stores want to sell [...]
Consumer Protection: Regulation vs. Reputation
A Canadian woman recently bought a can of lobster pate at a Wal-Mart store. The pate was about a year and half past its best before date, and the woman claimed that she felt ill about four hours after consuming some of the pate. In this era of the nanny state, the story did not [...]
Columbine Survivor Asks the Hard Questions About Guns
It’s amazing. When Hollywood celebrities who support gun control or gun bans advocate these policies, we’re supposed to humbly and uncritically listen. Even when some celebrities, such as Rosie O’Donnell, support gun bans while claiming special exceptions for themselves, we’re supposed to remain sanguine about their hypocrisy. Yet when the victims of one of the [...]
The Twenty-Eighth Amendment
The rectangle of light in the acres of a farm was the window of the library of Judge Narragansett. He sat at a table, and the light of his lamp fell on the copy of an ancient document. He had marked and crossed out the contradictions in its statements that had once been the cause [...]
The Founders and the “General Welfare”
The Constitution limits the powers of the Federal government. However, even a perfect document cannot stand up to philosophical evasion and corruption. Without the proper moral base, the principles of the Constitution could not be defended, much less kept alive. To illustrate this, let us consider a few words in the preamble of the Constitution—what [...]
To Braid or Not to Braid
Benta Diaw immigrated to the United States from Senegal. She decided to open a business braiding hair as she was taught by her grandmother in Africa. However, the state of Washington declared her business illegal. Was Diaw misleading her clients and using dangerous chemicals on their hair? Was she engaging in some other form of [...]