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Should We Obey All Laws?
Walter E. Williams
Let's think about whether all acts of Congress deserve our respect and obedience. Suppose Congress enacted a law -- and the Supreme Court ruled it constitutional -- requiring American families to attend church services at least three times a month. Should we obey such a law? Suppose Congress, acting under the Constitution's commerce clause, enacted a law requiring motorists to get eight hours of sleep before driving on interstate highways. Its justification might be that drowsy motorists risk highway accidents and accidents affect interstate commerce. Suppose you were a jury member during the 1850s and a free person were on trial for assisting a runaway slave, in clear violation of the Fugitive Slave Act. Would you vote to convict and punish? A moral person would find each one of those laws either morally repugnant or to be a clear violation of our Constitution. You say, "Williams, you're wrong this time. In 1859, in Ableman v. Booth, the US Supreme Court ruled the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 constitutional." That court decision, as well as some others in our past, makes my case.

Change…and Some Hope
Victor Davis Hanson
The Rasmussen Tracking Poll recently had Romney up 50 to 42 over Obama. At this early juncture, such polls mean nothing -- except as diagnostic indices of why perhaps both candidates go up and down in popularity. So why has Barack Obama plunged in the polls these last few days? The Republican slugfest is over. The media cannot headline any longer the daily conservative suicide. Barack Obama’s job report came out at 8.1% unemployment -- but, more importantly, with information that a smaller percentage of adult Americans are working than ever before, and fewer in absolute numbers than nearly four years ago when Obama took office. So someone must be asking, “What then was the lost $5 trillion for?” Note, in this regard, the 5.4% unemployment rate that won George Bush the slur of a “jobless recovery” in 2004.

Obama’s Contempt for the Voters
David Catron
Last week Obama's re-election team released a television ad in a variety of battleground states listing the president's "accomplishments." A shameless knockoff of Ronald Reagan's famous "morning in America" spot, this preposterous piece of propaganda begins with the administration's standard complaint about the economic crisis Obama "inherited" and goes on to claim that he somehow saved the country because, "He believed in us. Fought for us." What he really believes about us, however, is better illustrated by what is missing from the ad. It contains no mention whatsoever of Obamacare, the health care "reform" law that Obama and his supporters have, until the beginning of the current election cycle, referred to as a "historic" piece of legislation and his "most important domestic achievement." Such a glaring omission suggests the president and his advisors believe the voters are too dumb to remember that he and his congressional accomplices wasted a year cobbling together their unconstitutional health care boondoggle while unemployment raged out of control.

Islam Arrives in the Basque Country
Soeren Kern
The Basque regional government in northern Spain is drafting a controversial new Law on Religious Institutions, which states that mosques and prayer rooms with a capacity of fewer than 300 people will no longer require prior local government approval. The draft law is generating considerable opposition from elected officials of all political stripes, who fear the new measure will encourage the proliferation of mosques throughout the Basque region. The mayor of the Basque capital Vitoria-Gasteiz, Javier Maroto, said in an interview that the practical effect of the new law will be that "any fruit and vegetable shop can be converted into a mosque and there will be nothing we can do about it." He has promised to fight the new law, which he believes will encourage "mosques to spring up like mushrooms." The debate comes as a new survey shows that one in four Basques reject the idea of having a mosque in their neighborhood, and according to a new survey commissioned by the Basque regional government in northern Spain, one in five do not want a Muslim as a neighbor.

The Road to Minimalism
Tony Rubolotta
A minimalist world is not a pleasant place to live and not peaceful at all. Why are so many Americans determined to travel that road? Unlike a Crosby and Hope road movie, there won't be any laughs, cute tunes or happy ending on the road to minimalism. Minimalism is the way of totalitarian states and of those states that have a totalitarian economy. Fear for life, liberty and property keeps the citizen slaves at work to the extent that it can. War provides the distraction that some greater cause demands more sacrifice and that economic problems are due to external causes. Minimalism will mean less of everything for everyone except those who have the political connections to get extra ration cards and preferential treatment. Minimalism will also mean lower quality, not just in goods but in services as well. I have met many minimalist people in my life who always look busy but never seem to get much done. They are always grumpy, always complaining, always have excuses, always think they should be paid more and seethe with envy. Imagine an entire country of people like that.

A Censored Race War?
Thomas Sowell
When two white newspaper reporters for the Virginian-Pilot were driving through Norfolk, and were set upon and beaten by a mob of young blacks -- beaten so badly that they had to take a week off from work -- that might seem to have been news that should have been reported, at least by their own newspaper. But it wasn't. "The O'Reilly Factor" on FOX News Channel was the first major television program to report this incident. Yet this story is not just a Norfolk story, either in what happened or in how the media and the authorities have tried to sweep it under the rug. Similar episodes of unprovoked violence by young black gangs against white people chosen at random on beaches, in shopping malls or in other public places have occurred in Philadelphia, New York, Denver, Chicago, Cleveland, Washington, Los Angeles and other places across the country. Both the authorities and the media tend to try to sweep these episodes under the rug as well.

Alias Marx & Alinsky
Edward Cline
Calling socialists liberals is as deceptive as calling goose gizzards foie gras. It fools no one but the epistemologically blinkered. The term liberal allows liberals to pose as concerned, generous and forward-thinking individuals and to act under what was once an honorable term for anyone who advocated or endorsed liberty. And as any well-read American knows, liberals do not advocate liberty. Quite the opposite. The subject here is the devolution of the term liberal, not its evolution. Even out-and-out communists are called liberals. President Barack Obama is called a "liberal." The late Senator Ted Kennedy was called a "liberal." Barney Frank is a liberal. Obama's cabinet is largely staffed by liberals (unless outed, as self-confessed communist Van Jones was). Communism and socialism still carry a bad reputation, so everyone, including the Main Stream Media, and even well-intentioned pundits and commentators friendly to liberty, use the term liberal.

The Wheels Are Coming Off the Wind Energy Gravy Train
Marita Noon
The wind energy industry has been having a hard time. The taxpayer funding that has kept it alive for the last twenty years is coming to an end, and those promoting the industry are panicking. Perhaps this current wave started when one of Big Wind’s most noted supporters, T. Boone Pickens, said in an MSNBC interview, “I’m in the wind business...I lost my ass in the business.” But the industry’s fortunes didn’t get any better when the Wall Street Journal wrote an editorial titled, “Gouged by the wind,” in which they stated: “With natural gases not far from $2 per million BTU, the competitiveness of wind power is highly suspect.” Citing a study on renewable energy mandates, the WSJ noted that states with renewable energy mandates “paid 31.9% more for electricity than states without them.” A comprehensive article in the Financial Times concluded that the “US renewables boom could turn into a bust,” the enthusiasm for renewables “could fizzle out,” the US wind industry is stalling and may go into reverse,” and “governments all over the world have been curbing support for renewable energy.”

The Rise of Black-on-White Violence
Alan Caruba
The media and the usual race-mongers made sure that all of America knew about George Zimmerman’s killing of Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida on February 26. The local police initially did not arrest Zimmerman because it was an obvious case of self-defense. There was no such outcry, however, when a month later on March 26 a 50-year-old white man was attacked and beaten with a hammer by two black teens, in Midway, Florida, just six miles from Sanford. The Orlando Sentinel published a description of the attackers, but neglected to mention their race. One of them had just finished a seventeen month prison sentence. On May 9, the Star-Ledger of Newark, NJ published an article, “Group of 10 or 15 ‘thugs’ rob and beat 5 people following Prudential Center concert, cops say.” There was no reference to their race in the article and when I emailed the reporter for clarification, I received no response. This kind of double standard is rampant in the reporting of black-on-white attacks...

The Lochness Monster of Treaties Keeps Rearing Its Ugly Head
Darlene Casella
United Nations Convention Law of the Sea could have been dreamed up by Blackbeard. The Jolly Roger should fly over the Law of the Sea Treaty. It is theft of the high seas. President Obama hopes to leave a legacy, ratification of the Law of the Sea Treaty. If you want the United States Navy and American deep sea companies to fall under the jurisdiction of the United Nations, you will love the latest incarnation of LOST. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced that it is time for the United States to ratify the pact which sets rules on navigation and exclusive economic zones; because it gives the United States a “seat at the table” of the International Seabed Authority, and restores US leadership. Senators John Kerry and Richard Lugar push for ratification. United Nations agenda for wealth redistribution began decades ago with “The New International Economic Order.” This became the work of Karl Marx admirer Elisabeth Borgese, “Ocean Development Tax.” Adopted by LOST, it transfers wealth and technology from the USA to other nations; disguised as fees. Transfer is accomplished by the Jamaica based International Seabed Authority.