A Gallup Poll released on August 24 in which Republican and Republican-leaning Independents nationwide were asked to choose which candidate they supported for the 2012 GOP Presidential nomination showed Rick Perry in the lead with 29% of the votes, followed by Mitt Romney with 17%, Ron Paul with 13%, and Michele Bachmann with 10%. No other candidate managed to poll more than 4%.

Scientists at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have found that when just 10 percent of the population holds an unshakable belief, their belief will always be adopted by the majority of the society. The scientists, who are members of the Social Cognitive Networks Academic Research Center (SCNARC) at Rensselaer, used computational and analytical methods to discover the tipping point where a minority belief becomes the majority opinion. The finding has implications for the study and influence of societal interactions ranging from the spread of innovations to the movement of political ideals.

One more reason to allow same-sex marriage? Former New York Giants wide receiver David Tyree spoke out against gay marriage Wednesday, claiming it is the first step towards "anarchy." If so... then what are we waiting for?!

New York isn't North Korea, but it's the closest thing you'll find in the U.S. -- at least according to a new report from a libertarian think tank.

A Mercatus Center study has pegged New York as the country's "least free" state, 49 slots behind "Live Free or Die" New Hampshire. Its authors gave the state particular abuse for its taxes, "by far the highest" in the country, according to their methodology.

True to their libertarian ways, however, they also said that New York would have scored higher if it had legalized gay marriage.

KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Reuters) – A 5-year-old girl could face murder charges in the recent drowning of a toddler in a bathtub, police said on Thursday.

Kansas City police are waiting for a medical examiner's report on how Jermane Johnson Jr., died, but have investigated the death as a homicide, spokesman Darin Snapp said Thursday.

Nine States--Hawaii, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Montana, North Dakota, Oregon, Vermont, and West Virginia--allow industrial hemp production or research in accord with state laws. However, federal law is standing in the way of farmers in these states growing what may be a very profitable crop. Because of current federal law, all hemp included in products sold in the United States must be imported instead of being grown by American farmers.

The problem with the contemporary media narrative on protest is that, in its refusal to understand the nuances of anarchism, it is using the term as a euphemism for "dangerous", "violent" or "bad".... The dangers of this way of thinking hardly need explaining. There are flickers of McCarthyism in the way the state is currently dealing with those it perceives as threatening. Potential anarchists are intimidated and smeared, and denied liberty on the grounds of nebulous and almost Orwellian charges.

This isn't an exhaustive list, by any means. But it's a list of 16 recent news items that spell trouble. From Wal-Mart itself warning people of inflation, to the fact that food manufacturers are quietly reducing the size of food packages (so that they don't have to raise prices ... for the time being), there's trouble on the horizon.

The author suggests not panicking, not worrying ... and looking to agorism.

A change in state police policy could create problems for Amish gun-owners in Illinois, as a rule requiring photos to be on gun-owner ID cards will soon be applied to their community.

As the blog Amish America writes Monday, many Amish people use guns to hunt deer and other game, and to disperse "varmints."

In the film it is imagined that an identical unpopulated Earth is discovered. Well... there isn’t an identical Earth, so the transition is an important part of the puzzle, especially if you consider the tragic consequences of every historical attempt to abolish private property.

Peter Joseph imagines a massive revolution where the hidden masters in their smokey rooms realize the jig is up... and he skips straight to children siting in a high tech history class. That’s not really good enough.

Jacque Fresco has a more detailed plan.