In this follow up video to The Philosophy of Liberty: Property, we explore Frederic Bastiat's concept of Legal Plunder. Is it ever OK for government to steal your stuff and give it to someone else? Or is government just a glorified organized crime syndicate ala Tony Soprano? Does it really make sense for citizens to plunder each other like competing bands of vikings?

How did "our" civil servant civilian police we go from handguns and the occasional shotgun to Machine guns, Armored vehicles, and a mentality of "inflict maximum damage on the enemy" versus doing their level best to enforce laws while respecting constitutional rights?

Thousands of newly released documents about water contamination at Camp Lejeune add to the evidence that the military long knew about tainted tap water blamed for deaths and illnesses among Marines and their families, and that officials covered up the information for years, a North Carolina congressman said Friday. On Thursday, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., released more than 8,500 Department of Defense documents relating to the water contamination that continued at the base for decades.

The Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) released its final major audit over the weekend, delivering quite a bottom line: it cannot say how much U.S taxpayers lost while trying to rebuild Iraq, but it was a lot. The U.S. government Iraq relief and reconstruction program had serious internal control weaknesses that put billions of American taxpayer dollars at risk of fraud, waste, and abuse. The precise amount lost to fraud and waste may never be known, but SIGIR’s audits and investigations have demonstrated that the amount could be substantial.

America: We’re (Not) #1!

And, sources for those of you interested:

China hits back on U.S. human rights

Beijing, China (CNN) -- China criticized a "woeful" human rights record in the United States on Friday, a day after a U.S. report said Beijing's own record is getting worse, with harsh crackdowns on dissidents.

"The United States' tarnished human rights record has left it in no state -- whether on a moral, political or legal basis -- to act as the world's 'human rights justice,' " China said in an annual report on U.S. human rights.

24th anniversary of the 1988 attack on Flight 655, an Iranian passenger airliner that was shot down over the Strait of Hormuz by the US Navy, killing all 290 civilians aboard.

Revenue Canada says BitCoins aren't tax exempt

Just in time for tax season, the Canada Revenue Agency says the users of Bitcoins will have to pay tax on transactions in the upstart digital currency.

The Disneyfication of Times Square really has come full circle—the formerly gritty crossroads of the world has become so family-friendly that it's starting to become seedy again, thanks to a mob of street hustlers dressed as cartoon characters demanding tips from tourists. On Sunday, a man dressed as Cookie Monster allegedly shoved a child and cursed at his mother when she didn't tip fast enough, and several other characters have been arrested in recent months. The situation has attracted so much media attention that now regulation is being considered.

"When the US invaded Iraq in March 2003, the Bush administration estimated that it would cost $50-60bn to overthrow Saddam Hussein and establish a functioning government. This estimate was catastrophically wrong: the war in Iraq has cost $823.2bn between 2003 and 2011. Some estimates suggesting that it may eventually cost as much as $3.7tn when factoring in the long-term costs of caring for the wounded and the families of those killed."