See also Miscellany, Search and Seizure Issues.

The legalization of marijuana in two states has changed the climate in American politics on this issue.  We began discussions in the first part of the year, and added a couple more articles in this half.

• Employee drug testing answers, appeared 7/1/14:  looks at current law concerning the previous question of whether employee drug testing is still lawful.
• Licensed to drink, appeared 8/19/14:  suggests better ways to control alcohol and other recreational drugs.

If the drug lobby is correct, we'll see more on this subject in the days to come.

See also Church and State, Marriage Law Articles, Freedom of Expression, Health Care.

There are of course articles in other categories that deal with discrimination; these are specifically aimed at that issue.  There were a couple in the first half of the year, and in the second half we added a couple more.

• Liberal Democrats offend women again, appeared 7/8/14:  looks at the problem with judging politics by labels.
• Racial oversensitivity, appeared 12/30/14:  looks at the First Lady's warped perspective on the subject of racism, illustrated by her reaction to a simple and obvious request which is exactly non-racial in nature.

See also Discrimination.

We began looking at issues related to The Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. Obamacare) in the early part of the year, and continued in the latter half.

• Hobby Lobby:  The key points, appeared 7/15/14:  gives a summary of the central issues as decided by the Supreme Court in Hobby Lobby v.Burwell, deciding that for-profit close corporations can claim religious exemptions to paying for insurance providing abortofacient medical care.
• Wheaton College and the Hobby Lobby decision, appeared 7/22/14:  explains further the reasoning in Hobby Lobby v. Burwell, and why the injunction granted in Wheaton Collge v. Burwell was logical arising from it.
• Hobby Lobby and contraceptive costs, appeared 7/29/14:  notes an aspect within the Hobby Lobby v. Burwell decision which suggests that a company which declines to include some or any coverage for contraception under the Affordable Care Act would not from that see a lower insurance bill.
• Principles, corporations, and Eden Foods, appeared 8/5/14:  looks at the witch hunt aspect of the attack on Eden Foods, the nonsense being spouted by the attackers, and raises the question of when the constitutional right to have anything became the right to have it given to you by someone else.
• Health insurance costs, good news and bad, appeared 12/9/14:  explains why consumers in several states need to go back to the market this winter to avoid paying more for their health coverage.

This is another hot issue bound to raise more points in the months and even years ahead.

See also Senatorial 2013, Gubernatorial 2013.

It may not have seemed like a major election year, but with a Senate race and every seat in the House of Representatives contested, New Jersey voters needed some background.  In puruit of that, I also attempted to contact each of the major party candidates, and those who responded were covered in articles covering those interviews, listed below.

• New Jersey 2014 election congressional district 12, appeared 7/25/14:  looks at the candidates in this district, Republican Doctor Alieta Eck and Democrat Assemblywoman Bonnie Watson Clark.
• New Jersey 2014 election congressional district 11, appeared 8/1/14:  looks at the candidates in this district, Republican incumbent Rodney Frelinghuysen and Democratic challenger Mark Dunec
• New Jersey 2014 election congressional district 10, appeared 8/8/14:  looks at the candidates in this district, Demoratic incumbent Donald Payne and Republican challenger Yolanda Dentley.
• New Jersey 2014 election congressional district 9, appeared 8/15/14:  looks at the candidates in this district, Democratic incumbent Bill Pascrell and Republican challenger Dr. Dierdre Paul.
• New Jersey 2014 election congressional district 8, appeared 8/22/14:  looks at the candidates in this district, Democratic incumbent Albio Sires and Republican challenger Jude-Anthony Tiscornia, Esq.
• New Jersey 2014 election congressional district 7, appeared 8/29/14:  looks at the candidates in this district, Republican incumbent Leonard Lance and Democratic challenger Janice Kovach.
• New Jersey 2014 election congressional district 6, appeared 9/5/14:  looks at the candidates in this district, Democratic incumbent Frank Pallone and Republican Professor Anthony Wilkinson, Esq.
• New Jersey 2014 election congressional district 5, appeared 9/12/14:  looks at the candidates in this district, Republican incumbent Scott Garrett and Democratic challenger Roy Cho.
• New Jersey 2014 election congressional district 4, appeared 9/19/14:  looks at the candidates in this district, Republican incumbent Chris Smith and Democratic challenger Ruben Scolavino.
• New Jersey 2014 election congressional district 3, appeared 9/26/14:  looks at the candidates in this district, Republican former Mayor Tom MacArthur and Democratic Committeewoman Aimee Belgard.
• New Jersey 2014 election congressional district 2, appeared 10/3/14:  looks at the candidates in this district, Republican incumbent Frank Lobiondo and Democratic challenger Bill Hughes, Jr. (son of the previous congressman of that name).
• New Jersey 2014 election congressional district 1, appeared 10/10/14:  looks at the candidates in this district, Democratic State Senator Donald Norcross and Republican challenger Garry Cobb.
• New Jersey 2014 ballot issues, appeared 10/14/14:  explains and discusses the two public questions on the November ballot, one fixing a problem with the rules concerning bail in non-death penalty cases, the other shifting money from one purpose to another.
• New Jersey 2014 Senate election, appeared 10/17/14:  looks at the candidates in the Senate race, Democratic incumbent Senator Cory Booker and Republican challenger Jeff Bell.
• The New Jersey 2014 Senate race:  Closer than expected, appeared 10/21/14:  examines some of the reasons Cory Booker is not so far ahead of Jeff Bell as would be anticipated.
• Bell-Booker candle:  Light from the debate, appeared 10/28/14:  shines a bit of light on the Senate race with a look at the candidate debate.
• Election Day:  Time to vote, appeared 11/4/14:  talks about the importance of preparing yourself before you vote, and voting once you are prepared.
• New Jersey 2014 election results, appeared 11/4/14:  covers the Senate and Congressional races and the ballot issues.
• The Post-election doldrums, appeared 11/11/14:  notes that in the aftermath of an election interest in political issues wanes rapidly--and suggests why it should not do so.

Articles based on personal interviews with candidates, in the order in which their responses were received:

• Mark Dunec, New Jersey 11th district Democratic Congressional candidate, appeared 7/30/14, challenging incumbent Republican Rodney Freylinghuysen.
• Yolanda Dentley, New Jersey 10th district Republican Congressional candidate, appeared 8/6/14, challenging incumbent Democrat Donald Payne, Jr.
• Jude-Anthony Tiscornia, New Jersey 8th district Republican Congressional candidate, appeared 8/13/14, challenging incumbent Albio Sires.
• The Candidate interview process, appeared 8/20/14, explains how interviews were conducted and why some candidate interviews have not appeared.
• Janice Kovach, New Jersey 7th district Democratic Congressional candidate, appeared 9/3/14, challenging incumbent Leonard Lance.

With the election behind us, this section is probably finished.

See also Church and State, Freedom of Expression, Discrimination.

The Examiner editorial staff requested that political columnists address the issues surrounding the homosexual marriage debate.  With some trepidation I began in 2012, and have returned to the subject repeatedly throughout my tenure here.

1. On negative population growth, appeared 8/12/14:  considers the use of special legal considerations to promote desired public policies.
2. Discriminating between I.V.C.F. and L.G.B.T.Q., appeared 9/23/14:  looks at the inequities in the decision by the State of California to deny funding to an on-campus student group that rejects the current view of homosexuality.

See also Freedom of Expression, Privacy Issues, Discrimination.

The subject arose in the latter half of this year, on multiple fronts.

• Copyright:  Why it exists, appeared 8/26/14:  its origin and original purpose.
• Copyright:  Recorded music, appeared 9/2/14:  about song piracy, legal rights, and the likely impact on the future of music.
• The Redskins Trademark, appeared 9/9/14:  considers whether a billion dollar team ought to be forced to sacrifice millions of dollars in merchandising licenses because a select group is offended by what it views as a racial epithet.

I'm sure this section will grow over time.

The topic began in 2012, and resurfaces frequently, with one more article added in the latter half of this year.

1. Ridiculous Application of Gun Control Law, appeared 9/16/14:  reports a couple of cases in which seemingly sensible if reactionary rules have led to absurd results in application.

Gun control has been a hot topic as long as I have been aware of the political process, and is not likely to go away, so there will surely be more of these to come.

See also Legislation, Health Care.

Taxes are always an election issue, but few voters understand the tax process, why it is as it is, and what impact would come of changing it.  Thus it seems reasonable to provide something of a primer on taxation, looking at what we do, why we do it, and how it might be changed, with what impact.

1. Basic taxation:  Income tax, appeared 9/30/14:  gives a starting point for understanding the income tax concept and the primary point of deductions.
2. Consumption tax and the myth of equity, appeared 10/7/14:  looks at the potential impact of a national sales tax.

I had plans to continue this, gradually, when other issues were not pressing.

See also Marriage Law Articles, Freedom of Expression, Health Care, Discrimination.

Our discussions of the religious aspect of First Amendment law began early in 2013 and have continued intermittently since then.

• Public Religious Holidays, appeared 12/16/14:  Christians and Muslims both feel that the decision by a Maryland school board to take religious holidays off the school calendar is an attack on their faith--for very different reasons which do not actually apply.

It is a topic that arises occasionally, and certainly will be revisited.

See also Miscellany.

This is the section to which this page will be added, which began at the end of 2014.  With the loss of MJYoung.net in 2014 the convenient index and often still useful earlier articles vanished from the web.  This series was an attempt to restore that material.  That has since shifted back to supporting M. J. Young Net through the Patreon compaign to keep the material here instead.

1. New Jersey Political Buzz index 2012, appeared 12/17/14:  provides explanation and links to all articles published in the first calendar year of this assignment, including articles under the categories Birther Issue Articles, Birth Certificate Issue Articles, Coalition Government Articles, Marriage Law Articles, Homeland Security Articles, Gun Control Articles, and New Jersey Issue Articles.
2. New Jersey Political Buzz index early 2013, appeared 12/24/14:  continues the list of articles through the former half of the year, covering Gun Control Articles, Marriage Law Articles, Search and Seizure Issues, Church and State, New Jersey Issue Articles, Miscellany, Gubernatorial 2013, and Senatorial 2013.

See also Homeland Security Articles.

Although technically our focus is on New Jersey, sometimes the people of New Jersey are--or perhaps ought to be--concerned about events on the world stage.  Just as the year was ending, this article opened the topic.

• East Jerusalem housing project:  Doing what we would not condone, appeared 12/23/14:  President Obama wants to bring sanctions against Israel for allowing something within their borders which we do all the time.

That is the list of all articles published during our final full calendar year as Political Buzz Examiner; one more index will cover the last half year.