Bloomberg Persecutes Cooperative Shop Owner: $60,000 Fine For Selling Lighters Shaped Like Guns

	Latest From Brandon Smith June 4, 2013 The Terrible Future Of The Syrian War » The Vietnam War and Syrian conflict today have a great deal in common, though the cast of characters has been rearranged slightly. This time, the U.S. and Europe has supported the insurgency. The government of Bashar al-Assad has been cast as the "villain." Russia and China are now playing the role of mediators and peacemakers. More » Outside The Asylum Doing It Wrong » Late last week, as the controversies created by President Barack Obama and his Administration came dangerously close to spinning out of control, Attorney General Eric Holder stepped before select members of the Fourth Estate in an effort to turn America's frown upside down. Of course, Holder required the reporters to keep their confab "off the record." More » Personal Liberty News Supreme Court: Cops Can Take Your DNA Just Like Fingerprints » Weeks ago, many people throughout the Nation expressed concern that a version of a forthcoming immigration reform bill included provisions that would allow the Federal government to keep a "biometric database." A Monday Supreme Court ruling brings the prospect of a Federal biometric database closer to reality—and it could affect anyone in the United States caught in the criminal justice dragnet.  More » With Family Rates Up To $20k Per Year, No Surprise Most Americans Unsure Of Buying Into Obamacare » As the January 2014 deadline looms for Obamacare to take effect as the law of the land, nearly two-thirds of Americans are still on the fence about buying insurance under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Meanwhile, the embattled IRS has released an enforcement schedule that assumes a family of five will have to pay $20,000 a year, at minimum, for health care coverage under the controversial law. More » Issa's 'Paid Liar' Remarks Highlight Liberal Willingness To Follow White House's Every Command » House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) has spent the better part of his recent career grilling officials close to the Barack Obama White House for what many conservatives see as gross Administration failures. Now he's catching heat for calling White House Press Secretary Jay Carney a "paid liar" for his many duplicitous remarks about the President's role in the IRS scandal. More » Bloomberg Persecutes Cooperative Shop Owner: $60,000 Fine For Selling Lighters Shaped Like Guns » Fred Shayes, owner of a small tourist shop in midtown Manhattan, is going to have to go out of business if Mayor Michael Bloomberg's office doesn't let up. The city's Department of Consumer Affairs is fining him $60,000 because his store was selling cigarette lighters that looked like tiny guns, even though Shayes cooperated with officials as soon as he realized the items weren't allowed in Bloomberg's gun-panicked nanny state.  More » Health Tips Statin Drugs At Best Ineffective, At Worse Deleterious Despite a massive increase in the use of statin drugs, Sweden saw no lowering of the rate of heart attacks in its population, according to a recent population-based study. Researchers looked at the country's population during the period from 1998 to 2003, when the use of statin drugs to control cholesterol levels increased more than threefold. More »