By Matthew Hayward The Census: From Counting People to Collecting Control The Constitution established the census as a straightforward tool for representation—nothing more, nothing less. Article I, Section 2 mandates an enumeration every ten years to determine how many representatives each state is allotted. That’s it. Simple. Effective. Proportional representation was the goal, and the census was designed to achieve it. So how did we end up here—with government agents asking about the number of bathrooms in our homes, our ethnic identities, and everything in between? This is the creeping hand of central planning at work. What began as a tool to empower individual representation has been twisted into a mechanism to empower bureaucrats, planners, and those who believe they know better than free individuals how to run their own lives. Central Planning: The False Promise of Data The justification for prying into the most intimate details of our lives is always the same: “We need the ...

....In the past few weeks, I have been gathering signatures for I-1068, an innovative to remove criminal penalties for marijuana. I have yet to hear one coherent and rational opposing argument for ending the war on drugs. The essence of virtually every argument supporting state-sponsored controls and regulations is based on unreasonable assumptions rather than being based on or supported by statistical data. I would challenge anyone to give me one reason that logically trumps individuals' rights and justifies social control over others. I would also like a source as to where this authority is derived, as it is clearly a Constitutional infringement to have the federal government encroaching on State's rights. I have patiently listened to emotional ploys and irrational and poorly thought-out arguments to oppose the ballot measure. Arguments range from people telling me about their child's abuse of the drug to empty allegations of its conflict with their faith. I have listen...