"I would highly recommend that you learn more about the Advocates for Self-Government's views on liberty if you would like to be reminded of what America is supposed to stand for."

— Robert Ringer, bestselling author of Looking Out for #1 and Restoring the American Dream

 

Record High: 58% of Americans Say Re-Legalize Marijuana

A historic new Gallup poll shows that an overwhelming majority of Americans now want to re-legalize marijuana. 

Fully 58% of voting-age Americans support re-legalizing marijuana — up fully 10% in just one year. Only 39% are opposed. 

In recent issues we have reported on the fast-growing support for marijuana re-legalization, as indicated by polls. 

But this new poll is a breakthrough. Gallup notes: "now for the first time, a clear majority of Americans (58%) say the drug should be legalized."

Further, demographics are on the side of liberty on this issue. The strongest support for re-legalization comes from Americans aged 18 to 29 — a whopping 67% are for it. 

Gallup: "It is likely that this momentum will spur further legalization efforts across the United States." 

Longtime advocates of re-legalization were elated by the poll.

"Legalization is now the mainstream position and supporters of perpetuating our war on marijuana will continue to be further relegated to the fringe," declared NORML Communications Director Erik Altieri. "The American people... see that a new approach to marijuana policy is both required and possible." 

"Marijuana prohibition has been an abject failure," said Rob Kampia, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP). "Most Americans realize it is unjust, wasteful, and counterproductive to invest in the criminalization of adults for using a substance that is far less harmful than alcohol."

To put this poll in perspective, the first time Gallup surveyed this question in 1969 only 12% of Americans were in favor of re-legalization.

Gallup notes that the growing support for re-legalization parallels support for another libertarian cause.

"The movement to legalize marijuana mirrors the relatively recent success of the movement to legalize gay marriage, which voters have also approved now in 14 states," says Gallup. "Public support for gay marriage, which Americans also overwhelmingly opposed in the past, has increased dramatically, reaching majority support in the last two years,"

The Berlin Wall of marijuana prohibition is fast crumbling. Libertarians should be greatly encouraged by this. It shows that bold libertarian political change is possible in a relatively short time, even on such a controversial issue. It also indicates that demographics are on our side on important related issues. 

Report: U.S. Economic Freedom Fading; U.S. Falls to 17th Place

That's the disturbing finding of the 2013 Economic Freedom of the World Annual Report, a highly-regarded study of economic freedom around the world. 

The annual study is prepared by the Economic Freedom Network, a group of independent research and educational institutes in nearly 90 nations and territories worldwide. The group describes the report as "the world's premier measurement of economic freedom."

From 1980 to 2000, the United States was generally rated the third freest economy in the world, ranking behind only Hong Kong and Singapore.

But policies of the Bush and Obama administrations have decimated that ranking. Today, the U.S. languishes in 17th spot. 

Hong Kong again topped the rankings of 152 countries and territories, scoring 8.97 points out of a possible 10. Hong Kong was followed by followed by Singapore (8.73), New Zealand (8.49), and Switzerland (8.30).

Also ahead of the United States: United Arab Emirates (8.07), Mauritius (8.01), Finland (7.98), Bahrain and Canada (each 7.93), and Australia (7.88)… and six more. 

Scores are for 2011, the most recent year for which the data is available.

More disturbing than the rankings is the U.S.'s score, which shows a sharp drop in the amount of economic freedom. After generally rising from 1980 to reach a score of 8.55 in 2000, the U.S. has now fallen to a considerably lower 7.73. 

"Unfortunately for the United States, we've seen overspending, weakening rule of law, and regulatory overkill on the part of the U.S. government, causing its economic freedom score to plummet in recent years," said Fred McMahon of the Fraser Institute, co-author of the report. 

"This is a stark contrast from 2000, when the U.S. was considered one of the most economically free nations and ranked second globally." 

The worst countries? Venezuela has the lowest level of economic freedom worldwide, with Myanmar, Republic of Congo, Zimbabwe, and Chad rounding out the bottom five. (North Korea and Cuba could not be ranked because of a lack of data.) 

The worldwide average economic freedom score rose slightly to 6.87 out of 10, compared to 6.74 last year. However it remains below its peak level of 6.92 in 2007.

These scores are extraordinarily important, because, as the report shows, economic liberty is literally a matter of life and death. Extensive research shows that people living in countries with high levels of economic freedom enjoy greater prosperity, more political and civil liberties, and longer life spans. 

"The link between economic freedom and prosperity is undeniable: the nations with the most economic freedom also offer people the best quality of life. Compare the bottom-ranked countries, where oppressive regimes deny their citizens opportunities for economic growth and personal freedom," McMahon said. 

On average, the poorest 10 per cent of people in the freest nations are more than twice as prosperous as the average population of the countries with the least economic freedom. 

Among the highest-ranked countries, the average income of the poorest 10 per cent of people was $10,556 (U.S. dollars) in 2011, compared to only $932 (U.S.) for those living in the least free economies.

The report defines the cornerstones of economic freedom as personal choice, voluntary exchange, freedom to compete, and security of private property.

The report measures economic freedom in five different areas: (1) size of government, (2) legal structure and security of property rights, (3) access to sound money, (4) freedom to trade internationally, and (5) regulation of credit, labor, and business.

The full report goes into all of these issues in far greater detail. It is available free at www.freetheworld.com. 

VIDEO: The NSA Has "The Whole World in Its Hands"

Every day more NSA bombshells hit the news. And no one seems able to stop them.  

So it's time to bring out the big guns: calling the Kinsey Sicks! 

Yes, the Kinsey Sicks — stars of music, film, and Las Vegas and Off-Broadway live shows. Known worldwide for over 16 years as "America's Favorite Dragapella Beautyshop Quartet."


In this hilarious yet alarming video, the Kinsey Sicks turn the traditional American spiritual "They've Got the Whole World in Their Hands" into a smart and sassy Edward Snowden-inspired all-out assault on the tyrannical NSA and the police state that agency is busily building. (Be sure you catch all the lyrics: they're printed just under the video, click on "Show  more.")

Maybe humor can do what politics has so far failed miserably at. Share this with your friends (and, like it or not, with your favorite government spy agency — because you know they're watching)! 

Liberty Resource: 2013 Edition of FREE Gun Rights E-Book

Gun Facts by libertarian writer Guy Smith is a free ebook, updated in 2013. Smith says his book is devoted to "debunking gun control myths and providing citable evidence." 

Gun Facts has been downloaded into more than 165 countries with well over a million direct copies in circulation.

Gun Facts is written in an easy-to-read digest form. Each chapter presents common gun control myths and fallacies, then counters with documented facts (with over 530 detailed footnotes and numerous insightful charts). The book is concise, just a bit over 110 pages.

Gun Facts provides excellent info for speeches, debates, letters to editors, and more. Virtually every major gun control topic is covered: assault weapons, guns and crime, gun show "loopholes," ballistic finger printing, firearm availability, gun control outside the U.S., accidents, etc. Finding information is fast and easy.

Gun Facts is a very useful resource on this crucial and sometimes contentious topic — and, again, it's free in ebook form. (A paper copy is also available for purchase.) 
 

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Intellectual Ammunition is written by Liberator Online editor James W. Harris. His articles have appeared in numerous magazines and newspapers, and he has been a Finalist for the Mencken Awards, given by the Free Press Association for "Outstanding Journalism in Support of Liberty."

GOP "VS" OBAMACARE: "It is not an exaggeration to say the GOP establishment is more sympathetic to Obama's case for the centralized welfare state than to the Tea Party's case for limited government and individual liberty. … Remember, Republicans are the guys who gave us a new Medicare prescription-drug entitlement when Medicare was already tens of trillions of dollars in debt. They are the guys who ran in 2012 as the saviors of Medicare — even though they well knew that slamming Obama over taking money out of Medicare would make it much more difficult to address Medicare's unsustainable costs in the future. They are the guys who accept core premises of Obamacare: Republicans do not make the case that health care is like any other commodity in a free market rather than a corporate asset to be centrally managed. The disagreement between statist Democrats and the GOP establishment is about the degree of government intrusion in health care, not the matter of government intrusion in principle. Republicans are also the guys who want to keep some of Obamacare's core, anti-free-market elements — e.g., provisions that forbid denial of coverage owing to preexisting conditions and that keep 'children' on their parents' coverage until age 26." — Andrew C. McCarthy, "The Art of the Impossible," National Review Online, October 19, 2013. 

ABOLISH THE U.S. DEP'T OF DYSTOPIA: "From its inception, the [Department of Homeland Security] has operated as something akin to a federal Department of Dystopia, encouraging the proliferation of surveillance cameras, armed personnel carriers and police drones across Main Street America with some $35 billion in Homeland Security grants. … [The] Senate should abolish Homeland Security." — Gene Healy, Cato Institute, "Instead of Confirming Jeh Johnson, Senate Should Abolish Homeland Security," DC Examiner, October 21, 2013. 

RAND PAUL — SHOW SOME COMPASSION: "Federal Judge Timothy Lewis recalls a case where he had to send a 19-year-old to prison for 10 years for 'conspiracy.' What was the 'conspiracy?' This young man had been in a car where drugs were found. I don't know where many of you in this chamber went to high school, but I'm pretty sure one of us might have been in a car in our youth where someone might've had drugs. As this young man was sentenced to a decade behind bars, he turned and screamed for his mother as he was escorted away. Before the arrest, this young man was going to be the first in his family to go to college." — Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) testifying in favor of ending mandatory minimum sentencing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sept. 16, 2013.

FIRST OBAMACARE, THEN… "Canada Has Death Panels — And That's a Good Thing." — title of article at Salon.com by Adam Goldenberg, Oct. 21, 2013. Excerpt: "When taxpayers provide only a finite number of acute care beds in public hospitals, a patient whose life has all but ended, but whose family insists on keeping her on life support, is occupying precious space that might otherwise house a patient whose best years are still ahead." 

THE FASTEST WAY TO NOT: "In San Francisco, Apple unveiled its new products. Apple said, 'This iPad is the fastest and most vivid way to not be able to log on to the Obamacare website.'" — Jimmy Kimmel, Oct. 22, 2013.

LENO ON OBAMACARE INNOVATION: "Here's my favorite part: The president said yesterday that if it's taking too long you can bypass the [Obamacare] website and enroll by mail. Only the federal government could come up with a website that's slower than sending something by mail!" — Jay Leno, Oct. 22, 2013.

LENO: PUT NSA IN CHARGE OF OBAMACARE WEBSITE: "What the president should do is put the NSA in charge of the website. That way there's nothing to fill out. They already have all our information. You just put your name in." — Jay Leno, Oct. 24, 2013.

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"They Said It..." is compiled by Liberator Online editor James W. Harris.