A bill making its way through the Kentucky legislature would allow businesses that provide "customized, artistic, expressive, creative, ministerial, or spiritual goods or services" to refuse service to individuals or groups based on religious convictions. The bill was obviously written to allow the proverbial Christian baker to refuse to bake a cake for a gay..
Read moreMobs Vying for Power
Over the last few weeks, several videos popped up showing Donald Trump supporters roughing up protesters. In Louisville Trump disciples shoved a young girl around. In North Carolina, a guy sucker punched a young black man heckling the crowd. Police threw the protester to the ground. On Friday, Trump canceled a campaign event in Chicago..
Read moreThoughts from Maharrey Head #36: Rewriting Nullification History (With the Truth)
"10 Minutes Closer to Freedom" In this episode of Thoughts from Maharrey Head, I talk about a recently published academic paper that obliterates conventional thinking about nullification and interposition. In 1798, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison penned the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions in response to the Alien and Sedition Acts. These documents, approved by the..
Read moreAmerica: Untethered from Its Constitutional Moorings
Americans have untethered their government from its moorings. The colonists fought a war to tie government down. Under British rule, government had become more and more arbitrary. Parliament and the King could issue edicts and pass laws detached from any absolute guiding principles. Americans called it tyranny. In the British system, the constitution evolved. Government..
Read moreThoughts from Maharrey Head #35: Donald Trump
"10 Minutes Closer to Freedom" In this episode of Thoughts from Maharrey Head, I share my thoughts on the Trump phenomenon. As a general rule, I don't care much about national politics. I'm particularly apathetic about who inhabits the White House. But the Donald Trump phenomenon is pretty hard to ignore, and I couldn't resist..
Read moreLegislative Testimony: “Right to Try” Bill would Nullify in Practice Some FDA Restrictions on Terminal Patients
Following is testimony I offered before the Alaska Senate Health and Social Services Committee in support of "Right to Try" legislation. SB113 would bypass the FDA expanded access program and allow terminally ill patients to obtain experimental drugs from manufacturers without first obtaining FDA approval. This procedure directly conflicts with the federal expanded access program..
Read moreThoughts from Maharrey Head #34: The Constitution and Federal Lands
"10 Minutes Closer to Freedom" In this episode of Thoughts from Maharrey Head, I talk about what the Constitution has to say about federal land ownership and management. The recent standoff between the feds and ranchers at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon thrust the issue of federal land ownership and control into the..
Read moreMonopoly Government? No Thanks!
In this short video, I explain why I opposes centralizing government power in D.C. (Or anywhere else) Hint: it's not because I think state and local governments are great. https://youtu.be/T0I3Uoh7Flg
Read moreNullification: The Path to Liberty – Burns, Oregon, 2016 (Speech)
The federal government was conceived as an institution with limited, enumerated powers. As James Madison put it in Federalist #45, "The powers delegated by the proposed constitution to the federal government are few and defined." Today we have a system that bears no resemblance to the founders' vision. This supposedly limited government claims the authority..
Read moreRefusal to Cooperate: The Moderate Middle Road Between Revolution and Unlimited Submission
Ammon Bundy and the other ranchers arrested after taking over the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge outside Burns, Oregon,tried to go toe-to-toe with the federal government using raw force and power. They failed. The feds killed one man, and the rest of the ranchers now sit in jail, facing charges under a law passed during the..
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