Land Of The Flea

Do US drone kills need an oversight board? How would it work?

"Should the US establish some sort of secret court to conduct judicial oversight of drone strikes used to kill terror suspects? Committee Chairman Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D) of California said that the time has come to shine a light on the drone program and any other method of targeted killing used in the war against terrorism. She and other senators, she said, were considering legislation establishing a secret court to oversee the targeted killing process, similar to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance court, which now looks at national security wiretap applications within the US." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingDo US drone kills need an oversight board? How would it work?

America’s Baby Bust

"For more than three decades, Chinese women have been subjected to their country's brutal one-child policy. Those who try to have more children have been subjected to fines and forced abortions. Their houses have been razed and their husbands fired from their jobs. As a result, Chinese women have a fertility rate of 1.54. Here in America, white, college-educated women—a good proxy for the middle class—have a fertility rate of 1.6. America has its very own one-child policy. And we have chosen it for ourselves. Forget the fiscal cliff, the sequestration cliff and the entitlement cliff. Those are all just symptoms. What America really faces is a demographic cliff." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingAmerica’s Baby Bust

Amish leader sentenced to 15 years for beard-cutting ‘hate crimes’

"The leader of an Amish cult — who allegedly ordered followers to forcibly cut the beards and hair of those who criticized his leadership — was sentenced to 15 years in prison. The 67-year-old Samuel Mullet Sr. was convicted not just of assault but of hate crimes, as prosecutors said the victims’ right to religious expression was violated. The sentence sat between what the government asked for — life in prison — and what the defense sought, which was at most two years. Fifteen others implicated in the crimes were sentenced to between one and seven years in prison." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingAmish leader sentenced to 15 years for beard-cutting ‘hate crimes’

Excessive Criminal Laws Trap Honest American Businessman

"Florida seafood importer Abner 'Abbie' Schoenwetter spent years in a U.S. federal prison for supposedly violating the laws of Honduras... even though the Honduran government proved he was innocent. In an appalling miscarriage of justice, Schoenwetter lost his thriving business and years with his family. This shocking true story warns of the U.S. government creating new criminal laws that affect every American -- a problem known as overcriminalization." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingExcessive Criminal Laws Trap Honest American Businessman

Oil and Water: An Armed Citizenry and a Police State

"So, it is the worst of times and it is the best of times. It is the worst of times in terms of the expansion of federal administrative law. It is the best of times in terms of the inability of central governments to impose their plans on their populations apart from a vast expansion of the money supply, which is going to lead to the undermining of the welfare state and the destruction of federal legitimacy in the eyes of the people. It is more of a train wreck than it is a tipping point. It is more of a collision between assertions on paper in Washington versus the expansion of monetary digits, which is also taking place in Washington." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingOil and Water: An Armed Citizenry and a Police State

Paul Craig Roberts: It Has Happened Here

"Some Americans claim that we have had police states during other wartimes and that once the war on terror is won, the police state will be dismantled. Others claim that government will be judicious in its use of the power and that if you are doing nothing wrong you have nothing to fear. These are reassurances from the deluded. The Bush/Obama police state is far more comprehensive than Lincoln’s, Wilson’s, or Roosevelt’s, and the war on terror is open-ended and is already three times longer than World War II. The Police State is acquiring 'squatter’s rights.' Moreover, the government needs the police state in order to protect itself from accountability." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingPaul Craig Roberts: It Has Happened Here

Bob Higgs: The Relentless March of the U.S. Police State

"The question is: how much farther must we travel down this road before people will be compelled to admit that 'the land of the free' is more a reassuring myth than a description of the land in which we actually live—to recognize that the freedoms to go shopping and browse the Web are not enough to make a society genuinely free?" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBob Higgs: The Relentless March of the U.S. Police State

Epileptic man mistaken for drug abuser beaten by Indianapolis police, lawsuit claims

"The man's sister, who works nearby, tried to advise officers that he was suffering from epilepsy and not under the influence of drugs, but the lawsuit says officers ignored her. Lynn was booked into jail on charges of resisting arrest, public intoxication and a felony count of disarming a police officer. Lynn's lawyer wrote that he never knowingly tried to grab the officer's Taser during the struggle, and the charges against Lynn were dismissed on Nov. 28, 2012. His lawsuit alleges false arrest, assault, false imprisonment and excessive force by the IMPD officers." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingEpileptic man mistaken for drug abuser beaten by Indianapolis police, lawsuit claims

Columbia-Juilliard Student (and Award Winning Musician) Committed for 30 Days After Cursing at Professor

"After cursing at a professor during a Spanish final, former Columbia-Juilliard student Oren Ungerleider was involuntarily committed to St. Luke’s Hospital and kept there against his will for 30 days, according to a lawsuit he filed against the University this month. When he arrived at St. Luke’s, Ungerleider was interviewed by a series of psychiatrists, and he refused to answer their questions, the complaint says. When he tried to leave, three doctors tackled him and forcibly injected him with the drug Haldol. Doctors medicated him against his will and kept him in containment, it says." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingColumbia-Juilliard Student (and Award Winning Musician) Committed for 30 Days After Cursing at Professor

Fugitive Chris Dorner against the LAPD: ‘He knows what he’s doing. We trained him’

"Dorner, 33, who was fired from the LAPD in 2008, is accused of killing three people and wounding two others in self-declared 'unconventional and asymmetrical warfare' against his former comrades, a week-long rampage which terrorised police from San Diego to LA and by Friday had shifted to the icy wilderness of Big Bear. An 11,000 word rambling manifesto he posted on Facebook tried to explain his actions – and listed a 40-person hit list. Schools, stores and hotels were in lockdown and officers in helmets and body armour trekked warily through the snow lest the fugitive, a former navy reservist and trained marksman, a cop killer and a killer cop, had left traps." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFugitive Chris Dorner against the LAPD: ‘He knows what he’s doing. We trained him’