Mark this on your calendar: July 4, 2007.  Unbeknownst to most Americans---I say “most” because only a very few people in this country know anything about this coming “groundbreaking” event. Those who do, besides myself, are a few columnists and reporters that I know and trust; people I have alerted to what the Bush administration has planned for that date.

The National ID Card has been protested so much around the country that the imposition to make it come alive in 2008 has been pushed back to 2009.

The three branches of government (Executive, Legislative and Judicial) are co-equal. Each branch has specific duties and responsibilities which, at various times throughout history, various individuals have seemed intent on ignoring.  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is the most recent and flagrant example of presumptive abuse of power, but she by no means is the ‘Lone Ranger’.

Crises in America seem to be intractable, unresponsive to every proposed solution - every solution but one, that is.

Irvine, CA--The U.S. Supreme Court recently heard arguments in the case of Wilkie v. Robbins. The case began when Harvey Frank Robbins refused to grant an easement over his land to agents of the Bureau of Land Management. In response, the agents initiated a campaign of harassment against Robbins that included trespassing on his property and leaving it in disarray, videotaping his guests, and asking the Bureau of Indian Affairs to impound Robbins’s cattle. In its arguments to the Supreme Court, the government maintained that retaliation of this sort is within the government’s just powers. In his brief to the Court, Solicitor General Paul Clement put it bluntly: “There is no Fifth Amendment right against retaliation for the exercise of property rights.”

Sarbanes-Oxley Treats Businessmen as Guilty Until Proven Innocent - Imagine opening tomorrow’s newspaper and reading this: “Citing all-too-frequent child abuse and neglect, Congress has proposed the Parenting Reform Act. Under the proposed law, all parents must swear that they have not ‘caused unreasonable physical harm or danger’ to their children. To verify compliance, all parents will be required to submit their children to a monthly full-body inspection by the new Parental Oversight Board, and account for every cut, scrape, and bruise that inspectors find. If a parent cannot prove the ‘reasonableness’ of any injuries to the Board’s satisfaction, it could result in a loss of custody and 20 years in prison.”

The government’s interest in using technology to detect terrorism and other threats has led to increased use of data mining. A technique for extracting useful information from large volumes of data, data mining offers potential benefits but also raises privacy concerns when the data include personal information. 

New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, a proponent of socialistic state-planning, takes a shot at Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman.

Irvine, CA--In response to a request by a group of business lobbyists to amend some portions of the controversial Sarbanes-Oxley accounting law, SEC chairman Christopher Cox has come out in favor of preserving the law as is. Alex Epstein, a junior fellow, at the Ayn Rand Institute, says both sides are wrong. “Sabanes-Oxley should be neither amended nor preserved. It is a fundamentally corrupt law that should be repealed.

Who owns the Federal Reserve and why do we allow the Federal Reserve to continue to control our entire economy?

In response to recent rises in gas prices, we are once again hearing calls for the government to “do something” to force prices lower. But no matter what the price of gasoline is, such calls are wrong. All market fluctuations in the price of gasoline, up or down, are a good thing--and none of the government’s business.

The Castle Doctrine is now in Texas awaiting Governor Perry’s signature. That makes sixteen states now in support of citizens.

The State legislature of Nevada wants to be sure your home’s Feng Shui is smooth. New Mexico’s officials want to be sure that your “space” is well arranged. They are all about home decor. In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me if they have the Home Improvement channel constantly playing in all state offices so that legislators can keep up on the latest tips. They must be experts, fanatically concerned with interior decorating, after all. 

Surfing our daily newspaper seldom tells me much more than the lottery results, a local basketball team’s loss.,crocodiles on the endangered list, McCain’s fundraising blitz., vaccines to be dumped, and a Macy’s or Dillard’s half-page clearance sale ads.

Irvine, CA--On March 26 the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the case of Leegin Creative Leather Products, Inc. v. PSKS, Inc., where the justices will decide whether antitrust law forbids a manufacturer from setting a minimum retail price for its products. In the past, judges have ruled that this is “price-fixing,” and therefore must be prohibited. Critics of this precedent, including the Bush administration, claim that it is “outdated” and “cannot withstand modern economic analysis.”