AP: Land mines will be hidden killer in Yemen decades after war Ed: As I peruse the latest editorials and news clippings covering the latest concerning the Saudi slaughter of one of the poorest nations in the world, I am continually amazed at the amount of sheer propaganda aimed at whitewashing the murder of an entire nation by means of U.S.-made weapons by the Saudi ruling class. The facts are ghoulish: 85,000 children dead from blockade-induced starvation. Although our minds can’t pin faces, lives, pain, and death to large numbers, it is murder nonetheless. Despite this, the Wall Street Journal assures us that the Saudi monsters truly desire peace. It is unbelievable garbage, that, in a just world, would be ridiculed and shamed into oblivion, yet it persists. War, massacres, genocide, persist today, despite the professed intentions and values of our very own government. Rather than a bright Solstice, Yemeni families are preparing for their own deaths this Christmas, deaths that are not inevitable, but the clear consequence of decisions made by the Political Class, buoyed and buffeted by the indifference of the voting masses.

TAC: The Great War Christmas Truce: “They were positively human”

CATO: U.S. withdrawal from Syria puts a check on mission creep

Mises: In praise of Christmas tree salesmen

Reason: Prison food is a national tragedy

Motherboard: The U.S. just legalized hemp, a key source of CBD

The Conversation: How Big Data created a big problem in science

The American Conservative: Washington melts down over Trump’s Syria withdrawal

Reason: Report: Imprisoning people who can’t afford bail costs taxpayers $15 billion per year

FEE: Senator Elizabeth Warren introduces legislation to create a government-run pharmaceutical manufacturer

The Intercept: Before criminal justice reformer is even sworn in, St. Louis prosecutors have joined the police union

Reuters: German magazine Der Spiegel says journalist fabricated stories for years

Techdirt: ICE seizes over 1 million websites with no due process; apparently unaware that copyright and trademark are different

The Free Thought Project: School cops indicted after leaked video showing them savagely beating 14-year old kid

APP: Gun control allowed the Holocaust to happen

Orlando Sentinel: Cops and schools had no duty to shield students in Parkland shooting, says judge who tossed lawsuit

FEE: Audit finds government spent $14 million in taxpayer funds to hire 2 border patrol agents

Sun Herald: US airstrikes kill 62 “terrorists” in Somalia over the weekend Ed: This is how terrorism is generated

LA Times: The war in Afghanistan isn’t a ‘stalemate’. The U.S. has lost.

Mises: New York City attacks the property rights of Jewish private schools

Reason: Syracuse cops force doctor to probe man’s rectum for drugs, then bill the man for it.

Truthdig: Number of journalists murdered in retaliation nearly doubled in 2018

Cato: How legalizing marijuana is securing the border

The Intercept: Texas elementary teacher loses job after refusing to sign pro-Israel oath

And more from Antiwar.com: The strangest loyalty oath you’ve probably never heard of

Washington Examiner: Rand Paul considers law banning lobbyists working for foreign governments

Reason: How the ‘dead suspect loophole’ lets Texas police hide records of jail deaths and shootings

Forbes: Neither Saudi Arabia nor the Fed can “pump up markets”

Ars Technica: Man sues feds after being detained for refusing to unlock his phone

Sooner Politics: Muskogee public schools appear to break state law in arrest of student

LA Times: On the Texas-Mexico border, everyone’s a suspect

VICE: The US has more military operations in Africa than the Middle East

Seattle Times: The iconic US company raising the stature of corrupt governments around the world

Reason: Did the Florida Supreme Court just give cops more leeway to kill with impunity? Ed: If cops can use ‘stand your ground’ against civilians, then civilians should have the right to use it against power-crazed cops.

Techdirt: The intelligence community’s official whistleblower channel is going to start hunting down leakers

FEE: Nobel Laureate Vernon Smith: Markets could restore prosperity to Venezuela almost immediately

Ars Technica: Central Londoners to be subjected to facial recognition test this week

SingularityHub: How DeepMind’s AlphaZero mastered complex games with no human input

LA Times: Countless Americans are carrying guns. Police are killing too many of them.

Mises: George HW Bush’s wars set the stage for 25 years of endless war

Salt Lake Tribune: 2018 has been a deadly year for journalists

TAC: Think Eastern Europe is authoritarian? Try Germany and France.

Techdirt: New York court tells CBP agent he’s not allowed to pretend he’s a traffic cop

JEFFREY TUCKER: Regulators are not what makes food safe

PETER VAN BUREN: You don’t have to love Julian Assange to fear his prosecution

FEE: Harvard study shows the dangers of early school enrollment

Reason: Lawsuit alleges California cops stole weed and cash during traffic stops

The Intercept: U.S. military says it has a “light footprint” in Africa. These documents show a vast network of bases.

Reuters: Saudi Arabia inks deal for Lockheed’s missile defense system

Mises: The many ways governments create monopolies

High Times: Medicinal psilocybin initiative is one step closer to Oregon’s 2020 ballot

Futurism: Five U.S. sites are now enrolling patients for MDMA clinical trials

Activist Post: Meet IARPA: Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity

Reason: GM will shut down factory built on land seized in controversial 1981 Poletown taking

SingularityHub: Digital authoritarianism is rising. Here’s what that means.

And of course he will get away with it.

This time at an Alabama mall on Thanksgiving night. The legally-armed young man was gunned down by cop while fleeing his attackers.

By far the greatest factor that would affect my decision to carry a concealed weapon is how a cop would react when he found out. Some states require that police be immediately informed of the concealed weapon. How would the cop react in the moment? Would some primitive part of his brain coax him into taking this opportunity to commit murder, knowing he would get away scot-free?

There clearly must be an immediate reevaluation of the relationship between police and our Constitutional right to carry a self-defense weapon. More people than ever are exercising their right to carry a means of defense, and it is clear that many officers have no idea how to deal with it.

The Federalist: World War 1 was the beginning of America’s foolish foreign intervention habit

Also The Federalist: Amazon HQ will cost New Yorkers $61,000 per employee

TAC: Trump defends the indefensible in Yemen

Reason: UK anti-terrorism efforts are terrifying to anyone who favors free speech

FEE: Resisting the human impulse to make saints and witches Ed: I’ve always wondered what it is about us that compels us to either worship or burn others.

The Hill: Another decade lost to the global war on drugs

Techdirt: Court to law enforcement: You can’t seize a house for 15 hours before obtaining a warrant

Mises: Latin America has fewer guns, but more crime

VERONIQUE DE RUGY: A woman’s right to a free market

Antiwar.com: The case against Wikileaks is a crisis for the First Amendment. Ed: The First Amendment’s primary purpose is to protect speech criticizing the powerful. Non-controversial speech doesn’t require protection. It is the “controversial” criticism of every aspect of our rulers that requires robust protection, including Wikileaks. I’ve debated internally whether the First Amendment protections extends to instances of personal insults with the intent to provoke: example: walking up to someone’s wife and making lewd and vicious remarks about her. If you get knocked out, were your free speech rights violated? The First Amendment was consecrated at a time when duels were still fought over insults and slights, so I wonder how far the Founders believed the First Amendment truly extended. Disclaimer: I am not advocating for the return of the duel, and I am not advocating for physical violence.

Tulsa World: Responding to security concerns, Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority removes addresses of growers, processors from online database

A step toward liberty: OMMA approves more than 12,000 medical marijuana licenses

Kansas City Star: Medical marijuana or your gun? In Missouri, you’ll have to make a choice

FEE: How driverless cars will help Americans escape police oppression

The Guardian: “It can rewire people’s brains”: how traumatized veterans turned to underground MDMA therapy

Reason: Are the FDA’s E-cigarette restrictions legal?

Unz: Thanking vets for their “service”. Why?

Futurism: A super-spicy plant could help end the opioid crisis

Daily Mail: Why 536 AD was the worst year to be alive