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A Serious Mistake
“I have signed this bill,” President Barack Obama said months ago about the National Defense Authorization Act, “despite having serious reservations with certain provisions that regulate the detention,...
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Central Planning, Clarified
Last Friday, the President of the United States signed an Executive Order on “National Defense Resources Preparedness,” and it’s gotten no small amount of attention. It seems to commandeer the entire...
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Down With the Capital
My wife and daughter have devoured Suzanne Collins’s trilogy of dystopian novels, The Hunger Games, Catching Fire and Mockingjay, and they let me accompany them to this weekend’s blockbuster movie of...
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Man Attacks Success
“Over the past decade, this all-volunteer force has been put to the test and has succeeded,” wrote Thomas E. Ricks, a fellow at the Center for a New American Security, in Sunday’s Washington Post. But...
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A Caricature Worth 25 Lashes?
One hallmark of a free society is the legal right to make fun of our leaders. Several times per week I engage in ridicule as well as argument against the folks who think they know what they are doing...
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Tea & Tyranny
We were not invited. Instead, the presence of 27 of the world’s “Sovereign Monarchs” was properly and politely requested for a lunch last week with one Liz Windsor, in celebration of her 50th year on...
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Harappan Puzzles
Civilization first emerged around rivers: In Egypt, the Nile; in the Near East, the Tigris and Euphrates; in China, the Yellow River; and in the India-Pakistan-Afghanistan region, the Indus River...
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Robots in Amber
In 2010, Newark, New Jersey, collected more than $3 million in fines based on the watchful (and programmed) work of red-light/amber-light intersection cameras. The next year there were even more...
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Two Legacies
Two great economists died this month. Anna Schwartz, co-author with Milton Friedman of the classic A Monetary History of the United States, 1867-1960, passed away last Thursday, at age 96. For reasons...
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The Price of Liberty
Happy Independence Day! Though I understand if you are not feeling all that exultant, today. Last week’s Supreme Court decision allowing the unconstitutional 2,700-page monstrosity known as Obamacare...
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Spice Trade
“Who knows how this got out,” one scientist mused, trying to account for how a synthetic marijuana substitute leaked out of his lab and onto . . . the black market. I’ll echo that “who knows?” and...
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Can Do America
Canning was revolutionary, in its heyday, soon after the process was perfected. Canned foods became an integral part of everyday American life. And still are: Canned soup, vegetables and beans, for...
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Concerned and Confused
Why call it “political correctness,” when it’s simply “political” and so terribly incorrect? Whatever we call it — “a totalitarian impulse” comes to my mind — placing Angela McCaskill on administrative...
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A Civilized Context
I think of people as basically good. Most folks treat me well enough. I can navigate my neighborhood at night; I can go to an ATM unmolested in most cities I visit; often, I get smiles — and it isn’t...
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Celebrities, Cannabis, Change
A new website, Marijuana Majority, makes an impression by listing famous people who think America’s laws against marijuana are crazy, unjust, or at least not very wise. The site is elegant; it presents...
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Libre from Cuba?
Some Cubans will soon be free to escape the Cuban dictatorship. The Cuban government recently announced it would end exit visa requirements by mid-January. After which, Cubans wanting to go abroad will...
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Equally Unequal
Two court cases come to our attention, courtesy of Cato’s Ilya Shapiro. Both involve the favoring of members of one group over another. The Sixth Circuit ruled that a voter-approved amendment to the...
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The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Our Youth
Adults have expressed disappointment in the behavior of young people since civilization began. You can read complaints about “the kids these days” on cuneiform tablets. That being said, I have some...
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Precious Gifts
There’s a quiet on Christmas morning . . . after Santa has come and gone . . . and the kids are still sound asleep . . . sugar plum fairies dancing to their gentle snoring. A moment to stop and think....
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It’s a New Democracy!
Another New Year. Should I have used an exclamation point? Shouted out the calendrical truth? When each new year brings the same old nonsense, an exclamation point seems a bit like overkill. British...
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