There are some professions, of course, where licensing is important. For example: If there's someone out there claiming to be a top heart surgeon whose only qualifications are having played Operation as a child, then I'm going to have a problem with that. I'm definitely going to say that jail time is appropriate in this instance.
Keeping some people behind bars often hurts more than it helps - not only for the people who had been incarcerated and their families but also for society in general.
See, locking people up who present no real danger to society isn't just unfair to those people and those who love them. It is, but it's also unfair to the people who pay to keep them there: the taxpayers. Let me be clear: Locking someone up is not free.
The truth of the matter is, 'uncomfortable' does not equal 'unsafe,' and 'disagreement' does not equal 'danger.'
The truth is, sometimes the best way for the government to help those in need is to stop itself from 'helping' them at all.
Now, to anyone with even half a brain, a newspaper apologizing because a reporter did some reporting makes about as much sense as a doctor apologizing because he gave someone a diagnosis.
Absolutely no one should be arguing for a system aimed at increasing ignorance.
There are cruel, terrible things that happen in this world that are even more traumatizing than the existence of Jeff Sessions. Yes, it can be painful to read about them - but we can never hope to change what we cannot first recognize.
Personally, my general winter rule is that, if I'm not being paid to leave my apartment, then I'll be damned if I'm leaving.
See, as a libertarian, I am actually far more liberal on the issue of immigration than many people might expect.
Straight-news pieces are supposed to be just that: straight news. They are not supposed to be biased, and a longtime practice for ensuring this is to ask all subjects of a story for their comment.
Politics has become absurdly, stupidly, restrictively partisan.
One of the main foundations of our country is supposed to be that we value individuality, and unfortunately, that seems to be getting lost.
Too many people don't look at things objectively and try to see the facts; they instead look at them through their partisan lenses and try to figure out how to twist or spin them to fit their own 'side.'
It's true: Whenever I see a government rule that could clearly be used to punish people for doing innocuous things, it is never enough for some government official to just assure me that it won't be used that way. Those assurances, after all, aren't binding; they're lip service.
The bottom line is: If any government has a rule that would legally allow it to punish people for things that don't deserve punishment, then that law should be scrapped or changed.
All too often, I will see people on the left slam Trump for the way he treats or talks about other people. Then those same individuals - sometimes even in the same breath - will go on to say even worse things about the people who voted for him.
The bottom line is: It is fine to have issues with President Trump; I've had them myself. The thing is, though, the best way to argue against the things that you disagree with is never to use abusive tactics.
It's always better to treat those with whom you disagree with compassion - if not for compassion's sake, then because it makes it much more likely that they'll actually be willing to listen to what you have to say.
Although I certainly do love animals, I have to admit that I also love eating them. (Particularly cows. And chickens. And the occasional lamb).
I am, quite clearly, no fan of PETA or its way of thinking - but that doesn't mean that I want the group to be silenced. Instead, I have simply done what we all are supposed to have the right to do in this country: to use my own speech to counter what I disagreed with, rather than to move to silence it.
College is supposed to be a place that prepares its students for the real world. That's the entire purpose of attending! Learning how to be an engaged citizen is something that should be encouraged in this kind of environment, not restricted.
People often give Biden a pass for inaccurate and misleading statements - writing them off as nothing more than Crazy Uncle Joe being Crazy Uncle Joe.
It's time to stop locking people up for victimless crimes.
See, believe it or not, I actually support complete free speech not because I don't care about the welfare of the American people. I support it because I do.
It's true: What one person might consider 'hate speech,' another might consider to be harmless, or even funny.
The greatest risk in giving our government any power to control our speech is that it would then have a vehicle to prohibit speech that was critical of it.
See, one of the greatest things about living in the United States is that we have the absolute freedom to say whatever we want about our government, while being protected against government retaliation.
If you have ever read my columns, you know how important free speech is to me... and how important it should be to everyone.
I can't be alone in saying that humor has gotten me through some hard times in my life.
I know that money is precious - but, at least to me, laughter and expression are even more so.
The truth is, one of the best things about being 15 years old is that things like candy are still exciting. Once you get older, once you've been knocked down enough by this cruel thing we call life, that just won't be the case anymore. Eventually, you'll become jaded.
Kids only have a certain number of years to be kids, and the last thing we should be doing is incarcerating them for wanting to make that short-lived magic last.
It's true: I can't think of even a single way in which society suffers because of a 15-year-old trick-or-treater.
The United States of America is supposed to be a free country, and its law enforcement is supposed to exist to protect and serve its citizens.
Most of my columns at National Review focus on PC culture, and sometimes, when I write about some idiotic, anti-free-speech idea presented by some idiotic, anti-free-speech student or professor, people will ask me why I wasted my time writing about it.
Let me be clear: It's not that I'm not a patriot because I want to keep flag-burning legal, it's that I want to keep flag-burning legal because I am a patriot.
Is burning an American flag a disgusting, reprehensible act? Yes, it absolutely is, and I would tell that to the face of absolutely anyone who has done so.
The flag is a symbol of our freedom, and burning it absolutely is one of the least patriotic things that a person could possibly do. I say 'one of the least' because I can think of a few things that would actually be less so - and, as a matter of fact, I think that banning flag-burning would absolutely be on that list.
Don't like flag-burning? Fine. Hate flag-burning? Me too! The thing is, though, hating something doesn't always mean that the answer is to call on government powers to ban it - and, in fact, I'd say that that is rarely the best solution, especially when it comes to speech.
Fall means that all of the Joy of Summer is officially over, and all of those hack fall activities that people seem to pretend to enjoy to make themselves feel better begin.
People actually have the nerve to ask me if I want to go to a haunted house. Why would I want to go to a place where I have to pay my money for creepy strangers to be able to harass me without legal repercussions?
Football is, honestly, so objectively bad that I have always been convinced that the only reason it is so 'popular' is some kind of mass conspiracy. Everyone who 'likes' it is just pretending to like it because they see other people 'liking' it, and now we are all forced to endure it.
Beto O'Rourke may think he wants to be president, but I am here to help him recognize the truth: What he really wants to be is an Instagram model.
To me, it seems pretty obvious that socialism is terrible. After all, do you know what's not terrible? Freedom.
Yes, dodgeball encourages competitiveness. Yes, the stronger, more athletic kids are going to be more successful at it than the weaker ones, but what game doesn't have winners and losers?
One thing is clear: Our governments have too many laws.
Make no mistake: Deciding to abstain from the Pledge of Allegiance does communicate something, and therefore, it is a form of speech. It's also a form of peaceful protest, the right to which is another one of our values.
Few things are more important to me than the values that we hold dear in this country, and so I believe that there are few things that could be more important to teach our students in the classroom.