After years of hearing about how federal agencies believe that the warning signs of a domestic terrorist include people who are gung-ho for the Second Amendment, or who are contemptuous of Congress, and even folks who get perturbed at waiting in grocery store lines – there is a new terrorist warning sign of which I […]

Wash. Times: The ‘You Are the Government’ Canard
Washington Times, April 15, 2013 BOVARD: The ‘you are the government’ canard Obama joins predecessors in blaming his overreach on us by James Bovard In his continuing campaign to subvert the Second Amendment, President Obama recently unveiled one of the oldest tricks in the demagogue playbook. Speaking in Colorado, he declared that since America is […]

Your Tax Dollars at Work and Play
I’m sitting here filling out my IRS Form 1040 and just realized that I’m suffering from a severe deficit of idealism. To rectify that defect, I re-read this op-ed I wrote in 2011…. Washington Times, April 14, 2011 Uncle Sam’s big plans for your hard-earned tax dollars by James Bovard Congratulations – your tax payment […]

Dictatorship of Lawyers
Lawyer-huckster Peter Angelos is in the news this week. A Wall Street Journal editorial notes that Angelos’s asbestos lawsuit racket is rapidly losing its credibility. Early in this century, I did a piece for the Freeman on how lawyers and politicians (such as Andrew Cuomo and Eliot Spitzer) were in cahoots to wreck industry after […]
If NYPD had killed this cyclist, they might have sent Next-of-Kin a bill for the body bag
New York Post reports today that the New York Police Department sent a $1263 bill to a cyclist who was struck by an unmarked police car. The Post’s account makes it sound like the police car sideswiped the biker. Otherwise, the cops might have written their victim a ticket. The Post reports: “The case is […]
Congress Boinking? New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest
To celebrate Income Tax Week, the New Yorker is having a cartoon caption contest. Submit your entries here. I have not yet thought of any caption that would be even only half-obscene. Maybe I’ll come back to this after I finish up with my 1040.

Ripping the Raisin Regime in USA Today
USA Today April 5, 2013 (also syndicated nationwide via Gannett) Fight for the Right to Grow Raisins by James Bovard If the Supreme Court cannot smack down the raisin racket, then it should forfeit any pretense of safeguarding Americans’ rights and liberties. The Supreme Court could soon end one of the federal government’s most archaic […]