Gene Healy

Drones pose a threat to Americans' privacy

Gene Healy — Tue, 22 May 2012 00:00:00 +0000

"Don't drone, me, bro!" -- that's one way to sum up Charles Krauthammer's heated reaction to last week's news that the Federal Aviation Administration had loosened restrictions on local police departments' use of surveillance Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. "Stop it here, stop it now," Krauthammer exclaimed on Fox News's "Special Report" Monday, "I don't want to see it hovering over anybody's home. ... I'm not encouraging, but I am predicting that the first guy who uses a Second Amendment weapon to bring a drone down that's been hovering over his...

http://washingtonexaminer.com/people/gene-healy

From Watergate to Wedgiegate

Gene Healy — Tue, 15 May 2012 00:00:00 +0000

From Watergate to Wedgiegate -- the Washington Post's investigative journalism has sure come a long way. If last week's "expose" on Mitt Romney's prep-school bullying is any indication, from now on the fully informed voter will have to pore over every nasty prank potential candidates committed as kids. Thanks to the Post, the punditocracy spent the better part of last week debating the forcible haircut that Romney gave a fellow student 47 years ago. The incident in question makes teenaged Mitt look like an abusive jerk. But it's not clear what it tells us about...

http://washingtonexaminer.com/people/gene-healy

Gene Healy: Libertarian Gary Johnson: Spoiler alert?

Gene Healy — Tue, 08 May 2012 00:00:00 +0000

As a small-"l" libertarian, it's not often I can say that National Public Radio cheers me up on my way into work. But it did the trick yesterday morning with an "All Things Considered" feature titled "Libertarians Find Their Voice in 2012 Race." "Somewhere on the path to the White House this year," the announcer declared, "a powerful set of ideas began to creep into the mainstream debate over which direction the country will take ....free and open markets and extremely limited government. Those ideals are now becoming more mainstream." Case in point, according to NPR, was the...

http://washingtonexaminer.com/people/gene-healy

Gene Healy: Let's not broaden the 'War on Despair'

Gene Healy — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Unwinding with one of my guilty pleasures recently -- Spike TV's "Ultimate Fighter" reality show -- I caught a couple of recruitment ads for America's armed services with an oddly touchy-feely tone. The first showcased the Navy's new slogan, "A Global Force for Good." "I have heard the call to serve," the narrator proclaims, and he'll carry that call close to his heart until "the anguish of those less fortunate has been soothed." The second featured a voice-over intoning that: "Marines move toward the sounds of tyranny, injustice and despair -- with the courage and...

http://washingtonexaminer.com/people/gene-healy

Gene Healy: Even a creep like Edwards gets the benefit of the law

Gene Healy — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 00:00:01 +0000

Jury selection began last week in U.S. vs. Johnny Reid Edwards. The former senator and presidential candidate (that is his real, given name) faces up to 30 years in the federal pen for allegedly violating federal campaign contribution limits, all in a scheme designed to conceal from the voting public the child he fathered with mistress Rielle Hunter. How Edwards got into this mess is a testament to what a creep he is. But it's also an object lesson in how dangerous ambitious federal prosecutors can be. At issue is over $900,000 in "living expenses" Edwards' allies gave to Ms....

http://washingtonexaminer.com/people/gene-healy

Gene Healy: 'Hunger Games' doesn't fit TSA's dystopian vision

Gene Healy — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 21:14:00 +0000

At the top of the box office for the third week in a row, "The Hunger Games," based on Suzanne Collins' bestselling post-apocalyptic novel, is the biggest hit Hollywood's had in some time. That's no accident: In troubled times, Americans go for dystopian diversions. "Dystopian fiction is more popular than it has been in more than 50 years," explains a recent article on Goodreads.com, a popular book-discussion Web site. From WWII through the Cold War, "Fear of the State" was the dominant theme in books like "1984" and "A Clockwork Orange." That fear is still present, but...

http://washingtonexaminer.com/people/gene-healy

Gene Healy: Do blood and guts make for good presidencies?

Gene Healy — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 19:46:00 +0000

Popularity hounds that they are, American presidents pay close attention to two sets of polls. The first is the presidential approval rating taken regularly in polls of ordinary Americans. The second is the perennial presidential ranking survey, where historians and political scientists are asked to judge presidential "greatness." "Legacy"-minded presidents might learn some strange lessons from these scholarly surveys. For instance, Harry Truman, who launched our first major undeclared war, routinely beats his successor Dwight Eisenhower, who kept the peace during hair-trigger tensions...

http://washingtonexaminer.com/people/gene-healy

Gene Healy: Busybodies of the world, unite!

Gene Healy — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 20:36:00 +0000

A smoke, a drink, and maybe a bag of chips in the privacy of your own home -- they're the guilty pleasures of life for many of us. But it's increasingly hard to escape those who want to deny them to you -- for your own good. To take one small but irritating example, this Wednesday, the city council of Elk Grove, California, will consider a bill to ban smoking in all apartment buildings, publicly or privately owned. You might see this as an effort to "harass the people and eat out their substance." Others prefer to call it "public health policy." Earlier this year, Ronda...

http://washingtonexaminer.com/people/gene-healy

A re-elected Obama wouldn't be the end of liberty

Gene Healy — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 23:52:00 +0000

I yield to nobody in my conviction that Barack Obama's presidency has been a disaster for the Republic. Last week, in this space, I even suggested that some of his offenses rose to the level of impeachable "high crimes and misdemeanors." Yet, try as I might, I can't convince myself that the 2012 election is a "hinge of history," and it's "game over" for liberty unless he's defeated. If Obama wins, the fight goes on; if he loses, don't pop the champagne corks just yet. Consider that, since FDR, few second-term presidents have been capable of great mischief. Obama may...

http://washingtonexaminer.com/people/gene-healy

Congress must decide if it or the president declares war

Gene Healy — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 20:25:00 +0000

Last week, in a hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., asked Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, "do you think you can act without Congress to initiate a no-fly zone in Syria?" Panetta -- a former congressman -- bobbed, weaved, and waffled: "Our goal would be to seek international permission and we would ... come to the Congress and inform you and determine how best to approach this ...." That answer would be "breathtaking to the average American," Sessions declared: you're going to seek "international permission" and then maybe you'll tell...

http://washingtonexaminer.com/people/gene-healy