The Humble Libertarian original

I think there are a couple big dangers worth pointing out about the #MeToo meme. For one, it may have blown sexual assault out of proportion by conflating it with sexual harassment. This is because of how the meme was formulated: So that when someone posts it, they could mean a range of things from being horrifically raped to someone just being very rude to them. But with sexual assault featuring prominently in this meme, packaging the two all together like that risks painting an inaccurate picture of the world. ...in a campaign that is purported to make us more aware of how things really are out there. But because of this meme, is the world looking like it might be a lot worse than it really is? When I brought this concern up in a discussion, a friend of mine said something I agree with 100%: "I think it's the prerogative of anybody who has been raped to be as vague as they choose." But right before he said that, he said this: " I don't ...

An important video to watch: The Truth About George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin

Exercise your 5th Amendment right! A law school professor and former criminal defense attorney tells you why you should never agree to be interviewed by the police. Not only is this incredibly informative, it's incredibly entertaining! It's like Robin Williams giving a lecture on how to exercise your rights.

By: Wes Messamore Our hats are off to the Bartholomew Brothers! Talk about rebels. Last year, these gentleman hung a giant banner up on the side of a highway proclaiming in large, bold letters: “TAXES = THEFT.” Not only that, they did it wearing V for Vendetta-style Guy Fawkes masks ( which we are still giving away if anyone is interested )! Then the cops showed up... Read the rest of my article at The Silver Underground . Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

Pictured Above: Official prescription tablet for medicinal alcohol, 1933. Credit: The Rose Melnick Medical Museum I put a lot of time into this article last night. It's rich in facts and source material and cites reliable sources, law enforcement, and medical authorities. This is an idea whose time has come. Please help me push it past the tipping point by sharing information and educating voters about marijuana. Read my entire article at The Independent Voter Network . Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

This is really disappointing news. If you thought the Supreme Court of the United States just scored one for liberty in the recent GPS tracking case, think again: By Davi Barker at The Silver Underground : In the case of US v. Jones the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that law enforcement required a warrant to install a GPS tracking device on nightclub owner Antoine Jones’ car. In doing so they tossed out his drug conspiracy conviction and life sentence. But before we celebrate we have to ask, why does all the coverage of the story read like, “law enforcement might need a probable-cause warrant” and “law enforcement  in most instances must get a search warrant.” Well, because that’s the language used by the Supreme Court Justices in what’s being called the most important Fourth Amendment case in the computer era. Although all nine Supreme Court Justices agreed to overturn the charges in this case, they disagreed five to four as to why. Justice Alito wrote that pol...

The LA Times reports : Armed with a search warrant, Nelson County Sheriff Kelly Janke went looking for six missing cows on the Brossart family farm in the early evening of June 23. Three men brandishing rifles chased him off, he said. Janke knew the gunmen could be anywhere on the 3,000-acre spread in eastern North Dakota. Fearful of an armed standoff, he called in reinforcements from the state Highway Patrol, a regional SWAT team, a bomb squad, ambulances and deputy sheriffs from three other counties. He also called in a Predator B drone. As the unmanned aircraft circled 2 miles overhead the next morning, sophisticated sensors under the nose helped pinpoint the three suspects and showed they were unarmed. Police rushed in and made the first known arrests of U.S. citizens with help from a Predator, the spy drone that has helped revolutionize modern warfare. But that was just the start. Local police say they have used two unarmed Predators based at Grand Forks Air Force Base ...

In The Huffington Post today, Radley Balko discusses the nationwide trend of police militarization over the last 30 years: But America's police departments have been moving toward more aggressive, force-first, militaristic tactics and their accompanying mindset for 30 years. It's just that, with the exception of protests at the occasional free trade or World Bank summit, the tactics haven't generally been used on mostly white, mostly college-educated kids armed with cellphone cameras and a media platform. Police militarization is now an ingrained part of American culture. SWAT teams are featured in countless cop reality shows, and wrong-door raids are the subject of "The Simpsons" bits and search engine commercials. Tough-on-crime sheriffs now sport tanks and hardware more equipped for battle in a war zone than policing city streets. Seemingly benign agencies such as state alcohol control boards and the federal Department of Education can now enforce laws an...

"A new ballot initiative, painstakingly written by a pair of Standford University law professors, seeks to reform the Three Strikes Law in California by restoring it to its original intent, which supporters argue was to keep truly dangerous criminals like murderers and rapists in prison for life without forcing non-violent offenders to spend years behind bars." Read my full coverage at The Independent Voter Network . Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

Amanda Knox , the American exchange student studying abroad in Italy who was convicted in December of 2009 along with her Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito , of sexually assaulting and murdering her roommate, British exchange student Meredith Kercher , had her conviction overturned Monday by an Italian jury of eight on the basis of faulty DNA evidence. Amanda Knox was released within an hour and is flying back to the United States with her family Tuesday morning. The full live blog of the proceedings at Amanda Knox 's appeals trial can be read here at CNN.com . CNN's full coverage report on the story can be read here . Every possible question you might have about Amanda Knox 's appeal, the court's decision, and what will happen now is answered in FAQ format here . A comprehensive archive of content dedicated to proving that Amanda Knox 's murder conviction was a wrongful conviction can be accessed here . Hat tip: memeorandum . Wes Messamore , Edito...

"A new FBI report released Monday is brimming with startling figures about the four-decades-old War on Drugs. Shockingly, in the United States, there is a drug arrest every 19 seconds, making for a total of 1.6 million drug arrests in 2010 alone." 1.6 million. In one year. Read the rest of my article at CAIVN. Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

The Washington Post reports : "'Never before in the United States have producers of a lawful product been required to use their own packaging and advertising to convey an emotionally-charged government message urging adult consumers to shun their products,' the companies wrote in the lawsuit filed in federal court in Washington." Oh no! Don't say that! Some legislator's going to go: "Hmmm. Good point. Why go through all this trouble? We should just outlaw cigarettes altogether!" Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

This is starting to get out of control: "Protests throughout The Golden State have erupted over a recent string of police violence against unruly homeless men loitering in public areas, with demonstrations last weekend and more scheduled for this coming weekend. The public outrage, gaining much of its momentum and raising awareness through the Internet and social networking sites like Facebook, is drawing local and national media attention to an alarming number of excessive force incidents in recent days by local police departments against homeless men in California-- some of them fatal." Read my entire article at CAIVN . Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

From my most recent CAIVN article: "Any one of us could be an addict at any time. Addiction is not fundamentally a moral failing -- it's not a disease of weak-willed losers. When you look at the biology, the only model of addiction that makes sense is a disease-based model, and the only attitude towards addicts that makes sense is one of compassion." -David Linden, professor of neuroscience at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the chief editor of the Journal of Neurophysiology Read the entire article at CAIVN . Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

Oklahoma's News on 6 reports : An Oklahoma woman believes outrage over the Florida murder case almost cost her her life. The 26-year-old says a crazed woman tried to kill her because the woman thought she was Casey Anthony. It happened in Chouteau last Friday night, July 8, 2011, just days after the Casey Anthony verdict. Sammay Blackwell hopes she never hears this again: "You look like Casey Anthony, I'm like 'okay,'" she said. Blackwell doesn't think it's funny after what happened last week. Blackwell works at a convenience store in Chouteau and said Shireen Nalley came in that night around 10 p.m. and looked strange, very suspicious, then left after buying gas. "I just couldn't keep my eyes off of her," she said. Sammay got off work at 10:30 that night and walked out to her car, which was parked on the other side of the building, and got inside. "Began to back out and looked and I could tell she was staring dire...

From my most recent CAIVN article: This time last year, we reported on the success of drug decriminalization in Portugal ten years earlier. But if there's any doubt that decriminalization would be as effective here in America, look no further than the more recent success of Philadelphia, which effectively decriminalized marijuana possession in small amounts last June. One year later, Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams estimates the city has saved $2 million. Read the entire article at CAIVN . Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

Sitting at Mafioza 's with a beer in hand, just a little south of Downtown Nashville, an establishment whose libertarian owner allows Middle Tennessee's libertarians to meet once monthly for "Liberty on the Rocks," I found myself both captivated and repulsed by the stories that Reason Magazine 's Radley Balko was telling me across the table. This was early last summer, shortly before I left Nashville to move to Washington DC, which Radley had just left. He had just moved to Nashville to work on a book he was writing about the horrific corruption in Mississippi's justice system. After hearing some grisly tales, I didn't have to ask why he moved to Tennessee instead of Mississippi to write the book: he needed to be closer to the state, but didn't quite feel comfortable living in it while writing this telling exposé. That scary. In this July's issue of Reason Magazine , Radley Balko shares some of these stories from Mississippi and elsewhere, and...

From my most recent CAIVN column: "These two Supreme Court rulings might just be a perfect, jurisprudential microcosm of the laws, policies, and attitudes that continue to exacerbate prison overcrowding in California." Visit CAIVN to find out why. Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

Onion News Network : The court ruled a white teen who stabbed a classmate to death will face the jury as a 300-pound black man. This cracks me up. It's a satirical take on the systemic racism in the American system of criminal law and detention. I highlighted racial disparities in sentencing earlier this year. Hat tip to reader, Andrew for sharing this video: Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

Today’s ruling vindicates the constitutional first principle that ours is a government of delegated, enumerated, and thus limited powers. Like Judge Hudson in the Virginia case, Judge Vinson recognized that the individual mandate represents an unprecedented and improper incursion beyond those powers: the federal government, under the guise of regulating commerce, cannot require that people engage in economic activity. And this is as it should be: if the only limit on congressional power were Congress’ own assessment of the wisdom of each assertion of such power, the Constitution would be obsolete — as would any conception of checks and balances. Read the rest of Ilya Shapiro's article at Cato-at-liberty.org Ilya Shapiro is a senior fellow in constitutional studies at the Cato Institute Grant Davies , Regular Columnist, T H L Articles | Author's Page | Website