“Red Flag” Laws Violate Human Rights

Red-flag legislation is all the rage, politically. I don’t call them laws because they aren’t laws. Laws can’t violate natural human rights; this legislation does. Imposing or enforcing legislation that violates life, liberty, or property in any way makes you the wrongdoer. It doesn’t change matters to write words giving yourself permission to violate people. Legislation can’t make wrongs right, and it is wrong to punish someone for something you imagine they might do.

On Business

Just as companies accept their employees labor in exchange for money, they also accept their customers money in exchange for goods and services cooperatively produced by their employees. Companies do not and may not take their customers money. We must never forget these salient facts.

A Loophole for the Lawless: “Qualified Immunity” Must Go

On August 11, 2014, officers from the Caldwell, Idaho Police Department asked for Shaniz West’s permission to enter and search her home. They were looking for her ex-boyfriend. West authorized the search and handed over her keys. Instead of entering and searching the home, though, the police brought in a SWAT team, surrounding the building.  “[P]olice repeatedly exceeded the authority Ms. West had given them,” a lawsuit she filed complains, “breaking windows, crashing through ceilings, and riddling the home with holes from shooting canisters of tear gas, destroying most of Ms. West and her children’s personal belongings.”

Real Democracy Requires a Separation of Money and State

As we enter a new year, the running battle between the world’s governments and the world-changing technology known as “cryptocurrency” continues. As 2019 drew to an end, Swiss president Ueli Maurer asserted that Facebook’s digital currency (not a real cryptocurrency), Libra, has failed “because central banks will not accept the basket of currencies underpinning it.” Politicians want to regulate — or, if possible, kill — cryptocurrency.