The Future of Nuclear after Fukushima
Many are wondering if one of the casualties of Japan's tsunami last spring is the nuclear industry. Without question, the meltdown of the reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant was a wake up...
View ArticleIs High Speed Rail Becoming China's White Elephant?
The Heartland Institute has done a great service by making widely available a reprint of a feature article on China's faltering high-speed rail adventure (increasingly misadventure). The article, "Fast...
View ArticleThe Dangers of "Caylee's Law"
It was once suggested, as a general rule of staying alive, never to fly on an airline named after a state or the owner. As a general rule of sound government, it's also a good idea never to enact a law...
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Fear of a Muslim America
In March, almost 10 years after the attacks of September 11, 2001, America’s uneasy, contradictory relationship with Islam was on full display at two congressional hearings. The first, a House...
View ArticleStimulus: $28 billion Creates 65,110 jobs
Bob Poole's most recent edition of Surface Transportation Innovations newsletter (No. 93, July 2011) reminded me of this study from the General Accountability Office (June 2011) throwing a lot of cold...
View ArticleCA Supreme Court Upholds Plastic Bag Ban
The California Supreme Court ruled unanimously last week to uphold a plastic bag ban in Manhattan Beach, overturning two prior rulings. The plastic bag ban in question was instituted in 2008 by...
View ArticleDistorting Reagan's Record
Remember the big Reagan tax increase of 1982?Well, certain elements of the press do, all of a sudden, and, lo and behold, after years of demonizing Ronald Reagan as a fiscally irresponsible tax-cutter,...
View ArticleRichard Cordray as CFPB Director is No Better than Elizabeth Warren
After a year of dithering, on Monday, July 18, President Obama finally nominated someone for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) directorship—and surprise, surprise, it is not Elizabeth...
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The Facts About the Debt Ceiling
Editor’sNote: Reason columnist and Mercatus Center economist Veronique de Rugy appears weekly on Bloomberg TV to separate economic fact from economic myth.Myth 1:If a deal is not reached by August 2,...
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The Declaration of Independents
When was the last time you read the Declaration of Independence? Go ahead and call it up; give it a quick scan. Don’t focus on the detailed bill of particulars against King George (“He has called...
View ArticleFundamentalists vs. the First Amendment
Religious fundamentalists threaten the American way of life by seeking to impose their will upon us, because they hate our freedoms. So say lawmakers in a growing number of (mostly Bible Belt) states...
View ArticleErasing the "I" from Marriage
Every few years, the stars misalign and some social conservative comes out and does the political equivalent of baying at the moon. In the wake of 9/11, Dinesh D’Souza penned a whole book explaining...
View ArticleReturn to Normalcy
Editor's Note: This column is reprinted with permission of the Washington Examiner. Click here to read it at that site.Last week brought the unsurprising news that the Transportation Security...
View ArticleAn Environmentalist Joins the Reality-Based Community
Eco-activist and journalist Mark Lynas owes Bjorn Lomborg an apology. Back in 2001, Lynas famously smashed a cream pie in Lomborg’s face at a public meeting in Oxford to protest his then-new book The...
View ArticleSneak Surrender
Only in Washington, D.C., would Mitch McConnell's Rube Goldbergian plan to capitulate on the national debt limit without admitting it be taken seriously. The Senate minority leader's "Plan B" is...
View ArticleThe Eternal Fallout Shelter
In the summer of 1961, 100 pessimistic members of an Arizona-based religious sect called the Full Gospel Assembly Church spent about $250,000 (in current dollars) on food, locked up their homes, and...
View ArticleGood Idea, Wrong Time
When a reporter recently asked President Barack Obama about the House Republican efforts to pass the Cut, Cap and Balance Act of 2011, Obama explained that politicians "don't need a constitutional...
View ArticleA CFPB Political Deal
The Richard Cordray nomination to head the CFPB may have created a political opportunity. From our perspective, the CFPB is a bad thing. It is well-intended in theory (other than Elizabeth Warren's...
View ArticleWhen Ignorance Is the Best Excuse
When Rupert Murdoch went before the British Parliament yesterday to testify about the News of the World hacking scandal, he did not attempt to downplay the severity of his employees’ crimes. Rather, he...
View ArticleThe Real Effects of Gambling
Gambling has proliferated in America in recent years, and it's not about to stop. The Illinois legislature has approved a bill authorizing more casinos as well as slot machines at race tracks. Ohio has...
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