Free Talk Live

SEATTLE -- Cars are becoming more and more fuel-efficient, and you would think that's a good thing. But Washington state is actually losing money because of it and as a result, the state is now considering a "pay-by-mile" tax. The state predicts gas tax collected today won't add up to enough cash to pay for future road projects. Drivers of fuel-efficient cars are spending less at the pump, which means they are paying less in gas tax while driving the same amount of miles.

Gay blog critique of a new video released by the Competitive Enterprise Institute (A Day in the Life of the Regulatory State). Libertarians have a lot to overcome if the comments of this blog piece are any indication of the hurdles.

This is a link to the earliest mention of the Free State Project on NPR. Indeed, it was my introduction to the FSP.

It has been a little over a month since Coloradans approved a groundbreaking law legalizing small amounts of marijuana for recreational use. Now that the celebratory haze has settled, state officials and marijuana advocates on Monday began sifting through the thorny regulatory questions that go beyond merely lighting up.

The Connecticut state Senate passed legislation last week that would hold police officers in the state personally liable for violating a citizen's First Amendment right to videotape their actions. The bill is sponsored by Sen. Eric Coleman (D-Bloomfield).
"Sometimes we become aware of incidents where police officers have been overzealous or abusive and not act in a very complimentary way towards the citizens who deserve to be served and protected," Coleman said.

“In Washington County – where Ron Paul was incredibly strong – the caucus was delayed until next week just so the votes wouldn’t be reported by the national media today.

“Of course, their excuse for the delay was ‘snow.’

“That’s right. A prediction of 3-4 inches – that turned into nothing more than a dusting -was enough for a local GOP official to postpone the caucuses just so the results wouldn’t be reported tonight.

“This is MAINE we’re talking about. The GIRL SCOUTS had an event today in Washington County that wasn’t cancelled!

Boat captain designs his own oil skimmer, purchasing parts from a local hardware store with his own money, to help clean up the Gulf oil spill. Once again, the free-market efforts of individuals acting outside official "government" or BP response.

Democratic New Hampshire state representative Nick Levasseur reportedly updated his Facebook status to say this yesterday: "anime is a prime example of why two nukes just wasn't enough....."

(Does anyone have any more information on this? Is this true? Can this be true?)

When we – when the courts – sanctioned random stops on the roads a quarter-century ago, it set the precedent (legally and psychologically) for the universal, probable-cause-free TSA gropes of today – and worse yet to come (such as the “malintent” profiling that reportedly is being tested for deployment and not just at airports, either).

We’ll see a similar progression as a result of the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals’ ruling last month that “talking back” is a sanctionable affront to the Person of a cop – and not free speech.