Essays

20 Investment Insights from Peter Lynch

"5. Stocks are most likely to be accepted as prudent at the moment they’re not. For two decades after the Crash, stocks were regarded as gambling by a majority of the population, and this impression wasn’t fully revised until the late 1960s when stocks once again were embraced as investments, but in an overvalued market that made most stocks very risky. Historically, stocks are embraced as investments or dismissed as gambles in routine and circular fashion, and usually at the wrong times." Continue reading →

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All Government Policies Succeed in the Long Run

"Many people, for good reason, have concluded that the surest test of whether a politician or public official is lying is to ask, Are his lips moving? An equally simple test may be proposed to determine whether a seemingly failed policy is actually a success for the movers and shakers of the political class. This test requires only that we ask, Does the policy remain in effect? If it does, we can be sure that it continues to serve the interests of those who are actually decisive in determining the sorts of policy the government establishes and implements." Continue reading →

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FATCA: a Tool of the Electronic Surveillance State

"If FATCA’s sole purpose were to 'recover' tax revenues from assets squirreled away offshore by American 'fat cats,' it seems odd that it targets only individuals and specifically exempts reporting on accounts held by U.S. corporations. On the other hand, targeting individuals makes a lot of sense if FATCA’s purpose is directed towards something else: adding to U.S. government agencies’ global electronic 'map' of personal information. It should be further understood that any data transmitted by foreign financial institutions will not be confined to the IRS but will be handed over ('upon request,' of course) to other 'three-letter' agencies of the U.S. government." Continue reading →

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Pot And Pregnancy: It’s Harmless, So Why Are Moms Still Prosecuted?

"Weighing decades of research, it’s fairly safe to say that marijuana during pregnancy has very little to no effect on the developing fetus. Unfortunately, child welfare laws in many states do not agree. Some states equate smoking marijuana while pregnant — whether to alleviate nausea, vomiting, stress or depression — with felony child neglect or abuse. Given that marijuana is the most widely used drug by women of child-bearing age, and the potential for women to use marijuana without knowing they’re pregnant, this is a women’s rights issue. Why should a woman surrender autonomy over her body, her children and her approach to motherhood to civil authorities, whether she uses cannabis or not?" Continue reading →

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Public school students being tracked continually

"Because of her religious beliefs, Andrea Hernandez was expelled – yes, expelled from John Jay High School in January 2013! Next week: Victory! Andrea Hernandez has been readmitted to that school and, because she would not abandon her American right to religious freedom, that school district has stopped using the RFID badges tracking program. I will delightedly show you how all this happened, setting a legal precedent that other American students wielding the Constitution may follow. In view of John Whitehead’s continuous teaching of what the Constitution actually says, I wish he were running for president in 2016." Continue reading →

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Know your rights, read the Constitution

"Is the government spying on Americans legal and lawful under the Constitution? Perhaps you’ve delegated that decision to the 'experts', but my advice is go check it yourself. See the Amendments that cover being secure in your papers and effects. The Constitution isn’t a hard read, although there are many that want to pretend words don’t mean what they obviously mean. You are naïve to expect some politician or bureaucrat will protect your ownership interests, also known as rights. It’s truly up to you to carefully read the contract between you and the government and to verify that the government is living up to its part of the bargain. If you don’t know how to run your government it will run you." Continue reading →

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Jeffrey Tucker: 3 Important Lessons from a Canadian Border Crossing

"I was at the Canadian border, headed toward the freedom that exists a few feet beyond the last security check. I was gently waved down a side corridor. Ninety minutes later, I was let go, but not before something truly alarming happened. I’m pretty sure that the Canadian government captured a mirrored version of my smartphone — which pretty much holds the whole of my life. I’ll explain precisely how this happened in just a bit — in the hopes that perhaps you can take precautions that I did not. But let’s first establish that this practice is not unusual. According to documents obtained by the ACLU, this has become the standard backdoor method of search used today by governments around the world." Continue reading →

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Licensed to Kill: Growing Phenomenon of Police Shooting Unarmed Citizens

"This mindset that any challenge to police authority is a threat that needs to be 'neutralized' is a dangerous one that is part of a greater nationwide trend that sets law enforcement officers beyond the reach of the Fourth Amendment. Equally problematic is the trend in the courts that acquits officers involved in such shootings, letting them off with barely a slap to the wrists. What exactly are we teaching these young officers in the police academy when the slightest thing, whether it be a hand in a pocket, a man running towards them, a flashlight on a keychain, or a dehumanizing stare can ignite a strong enough 'fear for their safety' to justify firing on an unarmed person?" Continue reading →

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Police Are More Dangerous To The Public Than Are Criminals

"The American public is too brainwashed to be able to defend itself. Consider the fact that cops seldom face any consequence when they murder citizens. We never hear cops called 'citizen killer.' But if a citizen kills some overbearing cop bully, the media go ballistic: 'Cop killer, cop killer.' The screaming doesn’t stop until the cop killer is executed. As long as a brainwashed public continues to accept that cop lives are more precious than their own, citizens will continue to be brutalized and murdered by police psychopaths." Continue reading →

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Rahm Emanuel’s Gun Free Zones

"Chicago is the nation's death-by-gunshot capital. The mayor of Chicago's solution to the problem is to create more 'gun-free zones.' To even the casual observer the commonality among all the tragedies described above is clear ---'gun-free zones.' It seems the only place we see people getting shot up is in 'gun-free zones', so Mr. Mayor please explain, why in the world would we want more of them? There is one mass-shooting incident not appearing on this list, however. That's because it never occurred. On December 9, 2007 at approximately 1:00pm Matt Murray walked into New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado heavily armed and ready to kill as many as he possibly could." Continue reading →

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