The SOPA Brouhaha Explained

Want to know the exact what, why, and how of the dangers SOPA (and similar legislation, PIPA) poses to the internet?  This video is for you.  It's 11 minutes long, yes, but it's a good 11 minutes to spend educating yourself to explain exactly why this proposed internet censorship is such a problem.  Remember, even if SOPA fails, there is sure to be another bill in a similar mold sooner or later.  It's better for us as liberty activists to be knowledgeable and prepared sooner.

Auburn Limits Student Free Speech

I'm a Georgia Bulldog through and through, so that naturally places me at odd with Auburn fans (including my parents) at the height of football season. Though I cheer for the "Dawgs" when they're on the field, I stand with the Tigers when they fight their administration to regain the free speech rights which are justly there.

In this editorial, an Auburn alum and PhD student speaks out against his school's coercive speech codes, which ban the display of anything in dorm room windows, and demonstrates how they are inherently unconstitutional:

What made this incident so egregious is that the university permitted other students to display their bumper stickers, flags, and signs in dorm room windows. This double-standard suggests that Auburn, a public university, was more interested in suppressing ideas associated with a popular political candidate than it was in the safety and welfare of the student body.

Auburn’s policy is to ban the hanging or displaying of items that obstruct residence hall windows. This policy represents an alarming restraint on student speech. Total bans on expression are, among other things, too often subject to abuse of discretion and arbitrary prosecution. The Auburn incident is a case in point.

 Read the full editorial here.

America, past and present

It’s easy to pick out the most unsavory aspects of our history and claim that if not for the benevolent efforts of the state, we would still be mired in our own version of the Dark Ages. This strategy, however, conveniently ignores the fact that there is much more to American history than slavery, corruption, and sixteen-hour workdays.

The next time you hear someone fuming about conservatives and libertarians who “want to set us back 100 years,” consider whether it would be so horrible to live in a United States where – for example – there was no federal income tax, wars had to be explicitly declared by Congress, and the government could not just print up and lend out as much money as it desired.

Or for a different perspective, consider whether Americans 100 years ago would want to live in a country where:

• The government can secretly assassinate American citizens.
• The national debt exceeds the gross national product.
• A handful of undeclared wars are ongoing at any time.
• Federal agents can search their mail and tap their phones without a warrant.

In other words, the United States we live in today. Which America sounds better now?

Such a snapshot is obviously an incomplete portrait of life as we know it, and it would be unfair to condemn the 2012 United States on the basis of a few (substantial) shortcomings while ignoring its many accomplishments. It is likewise incorrect to judge the United States of years past based only on its faults.

A Reason to Be Optimistic

A Reason/Rupe Poll (yes, that is why I choose the title for this article -- pun intended) last September showed some very encouraging data about our generation (18-29 year-olds).  The highlights:

• About 86% favor a "spending cap that prevents it from spending more than it takes in during a given year"
• Roughly 74% favor a "constitutional amendment to require a balanced federal budget"
• 38% favor a decrease in spending with no tax increases as the "best way to reduce the national debt," which is the larger than any group supporting tax increases
• These young people "overwhelmingly support allowing workers to opt out of Social Security and Medicare at 64 percent and 65 percent, respectively"
• 38% do not believe they will receive any Social Security benefits when they retire and 44% believe the same is true for Medicare benefits, which "may in part explain their openness to reforming the programs"
• 62% are open to supporting an independent or third party candidate in 2012