No one to blame for his dismal showing except himself.  Pandering to the GOP establishment while simultaneously selling himself as rightful heir to the liberty vote and his father’s R3volution was a recipe for failure.  He said he failed to “ignite the brushfires of liberty”, but should he really be surprised?  The Neocon chicken hawks never liked him to begin with, his last name being ‘Paul’, and his attempt to court those same chicken hawks proved, in the eyes of many liberty activists, that Rand didn’t have the courage to stand for liberty on principle, and was too much of an opportunist for their taste.

Ron’s supporters went to barricades for him because he had the guts to stand alone.

According to OpenSecrets.  Now Pharma executives are worried that Presidential candidates will demand reform.  Yeah right.  The doorway between regulators, lobbyists, political staffers, and the executives of these companies revolves so fast that it effectively does not exist.

Down from 65% in 2011.

…hating the government?  This election season seems to prove it.  It’s sad to see how easily people let themselves be divided up into opposing groups, classes, races, nationalities, et cetera, and then pitted against each other.  The politician seeking to inflame your fear of some “outside” threat is the principal threat to your well being.

More evidence that the War on Terror is big business, and the political class has no intention of it ending any time soon.

The always-excellent Doug Bandow writes on the expensive, tragic, wholly predictable, failure that has been the US occupation of Afghanistan.

The “market” isn’t a “thing” or a “place”, it’s a process.  More specifically, it’s a process of voluntary cooperation among hundreds, thousands, millions of individuals operating within an environment where the only prohibition on the statute books is the use of force.  All actions must be volutarily entered into.  Pretty simple, right?  It is, but seems to be one of the most difficult concepts to explain to someone not already amenable to the notions.  “What should government do?”  “We have to do something!”  “There ought to be a law!”  It is nigh impossible to explain persuasively to most people that the process of voluntary interaction that libertarians short-hand into “the market” is the source of all prosperity, that too much “law” (artificial law, or “legislation” as Hayek would call it) and too active a government is the source of poverty, strife, unemployment, crime, and conflict.  More on this in the excellent article, The Market Doesn’t Solve Problems; People do.

The foundation of the philosophy of liberty is voluntary cooperation.  To expand voluntary cooperation as far as possible is to expand liberty.  At the heart of the desire to expand voluntary cooperation is the understanding that the liberty for every individual to make their own choices, unencumbered by government restriction and regulation, is the source of all prosperity.

How often do you see cops speed through town twice as fast as everyone else?  Or turn on their lights to make an illegal u-turn or drive through a red light?  All the time.  This lady apparently got sick of it, and chased the cop down, who was allegedly doing 90mph.  He apologized to her, but what are the odds that she could’ve received a beat-down and night in jail instead?  A cop confident enough to believe he can break the law with impunity probably wouldn’t draw the line at speeding.

He’s the only candidate to win the state while opposing the crony Renewable Fuel Standard.

…in case the Empire attempts to embarrass Iran.  (article)