"Congress shall make no law...abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."--First Amendment, U.S. Constitution

If there's one thing the United States stands for, it's unfettered free speech. It is...

I've never been a fan of politics. By its very nature, politics is inclined toward corruption, deception and the accumulation of power. So I am always leery of religious individuals, Christians in particular, who turn presidential elections into a test of one's religiosity.

Until recently, it has generally been assumed...

The oil and gas crisis is putting an escalating number of Americans in peril of losing their livelihood. Skyrocketing fuel prices are affecting everything from the five-day work week and family vacations to essentials like clothing and food. In Hawaii, for example, residents are paying $8 for a jar of...

"Dissent is the greatest form of patriotism."--Thomas Jefferson

Let me tell you a story about 56 men who risked everything -- their fortunes and their lives -- to take a stand for truth.

These men laid everything on the line, pledged it all -- "our Lives, our Fortunes, and...

"Power is in inflicting pain and humiliation."-- George Orwell, 1984

Compliance weapons, also known as non-lethal or non-deadly weapons, have become the rage in law enforcement. On paper, these weapons seem like a welcome alternative to bloodshed, especially if it means protecting law enforcement officials from dangerous criminals and minimizing...

"There was once an ancient city. The ancient city fell."
-- Virgil, The Aeneid

Increasingly, parallels are being drawn between the Roman Empire and the current American Empire. Yet while some may look to Rome as an inspiration, others believe it casts a dark shadow over us and our...

According to autopsy reports, 4-year-old Rebecca Riley died from an overdose of psychiatric drugs. At age 2, Rebecca was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). At 3, she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, also known as manic depression. By the time she died on Dec. 13, 2006, little Rebecca...

"I am more afraid that we are really rats in a trap. Or, worse still, rats in a laboratory. Someone said, I believe, 'God always geometrizes.' Supposing the truth were 'God always vivisects'?"--C. S. Lewis

In Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, the death toll from a killer cyclone stands at...

"I can hear another drum beating for the dead that rise, Whom nature's beast fears as they come and all I see are dark eyes."--Bob Dylan

In a pop music world where issues are seldom addressed and creativity and individuality have been lost, Bob Dylan, who just turned 67, is...

"The Congress shall have Power to...declare War..."
- Article I, Section 8, US Constitution

We have a president who does just about whatever he wants, the Constitution be damned. He has, among other things, asserted unchecked unilateral power, conducted surveillance on American citizens in violation of federal law and...

"If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face."
--George Orwell

It has been 60 years since George Orwell published his novel 1984. Described as political satire, it is, in reality, a political prophecy.

1984 portrays a global society of total control...

Bill O'Reilly: This is the most fun interview you've ever done, I know it is. I can just tell.
Hillary Clinton: I was going to say it's the most fun interview you've ever done.
O'Reilly: It is. Well, I don't know about that.
Clinton: Come on. Get...

The media is once again in a feeding frenzy. Its latest victim is the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, former senior pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, of which presidential contender Barack Obama is a member.

If you buy into what the media is reporting, much of it culled...

"The right of freely examining public characters and measures, and of freely communicating thereon... has ever been justly deemed the only effectual guardian of every other right." -- James Madison

In our post-9/11 world, government secrecy has become an accepted norm, whether the topic is national security, government spending or...

According to the New Jersey ACLU legal director, Marcus Borden has fostered a "destructive environment" for students. What did Borden, a high school football coach in East Brunswick, N.J., and a recipient of the national Caring Coach of the Year award, do to create such a "destructive" environment?

He...

The world is finally seeing China for what it is: a totalitarian dictatorship.

It's widely known that China has been rounding up and persecuting First Amendment advocates. These Chinese dissidents who use the Internet and demonstrations to protest what China has been doing often disappear or are sent to...

In George Lucas' film THX 1138 (1970), the police in a futuristic state make citizens compliant by shocking them with "pain prods." After seeing the movie, I remember thinking that if the police were ever allowed to use implements such as these, we would rapidly move into a police state....

"I may not get there with you, but I know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land." -- Martin Luther King, Jr., Macon Temple, April 3, 1968

For a brief moment in 1968, the attention of the nation focused on the tiny Lorraine Motel in...

On March 11, 2008, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released the results of a study which found that nearly 26% (1 in 4) of American teenage girls ages 14-19 have at least one sexually transmitted disease. This report and its ramifications, however, were quickly shelved so that...

"The very rich," observed F. Scott Fitzgerald, "are different from you and me." And nowhere is this so-called difference more apparent than in the growing divide between poor and working class Americans and the rich who rule over us.

While working class Americans are getting poorer (there are five...