Christopher Alexander's Utopian Blueprint

Imagine a Federation of independent regions. Each of its cities is a mosaic of distinctive, self-governing neighborhoods, where "people can choose the kind of subculture they wish to live in, and can still experience many ways of life different from their own."

Zoning vs. the Good Samaritan

How labyrinthine zoning rules restricted homeless shelters during the pandemic

Biden Can't Pin Inflation on Putin

If Biden is looking to spread the blame for inflation evenly, he should look in the mirror.

Zap Comix Were Never for Kids!

Disreputable and censored COMIX improbably brought the art form from the gutter to the museums.

Kids Can Learn Without Instruction

Don’t show this to your kids, because they might cry. But guess how much time children in “traditional societies”— indigenous groups pretty much off the grid—spend in direct instruction, the way American kids do in school?

Why a Wealth Tax Is a Bad Idea

Billionaires are better at figuring out what to do with their money than the government will ever be.

Was Censorship the Greatest COVID Threat to Freedom?

WE’RE NOT JUST fighting an epidemic,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization, declared at the Munich Security Conference on February 15, 2020. “We’re fighting an infodemic. Fake news spreads faster and more easily than this virus and is just as dangerous.”

Ukrainians Find Refuge in Previously Unwelcoming Places

Immigration

America's Nuclear Reluctance

ON FEBRUARY 14, 2022, Oregon’s NuScale Power signed an agreement with the Polish mining and processing firm KGHM to deploy NuScale’s innovative small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) in Poland by 2029.

William Ruger on Russia's Invasion of Ukraine

William Ruger, who holds a Ph.D. in politics specializing in foreign policy, is the newly appointed president of the American Institute for Economic Research. A veteran of the war in Afghanistan, he was a prominent voice in calling for U.S. withdrawal from that country. He was picked by former President Donald Trump to be ambassador to Afghanistan, but his nomination was never voted on.

After the War

In the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it’s time for Europe to step up and America to step back.

Jared Polis Wants To Leave You Alone

The Democratic Colorado governor on pandemics, parenting, and partisanship

Surveillance Through the Centuries

A MERICA'S FIRST WIRETAPPING conviction happened in 1864.

THE METAVERSE IS ALREADY HERE

HOW IS VIRTUAL REALITY REMAKING OUR WORLD?

OBAMACARE AND SCOTUS, 10 YEARS LATER

THE PATIENT PROTECTION and Affordable Care Act of 2010, better known as Obamacare, was designed to patch the insurance gaps between Medicare, Medicaid, and employer-sponsored health care, which is bolstered by a tax carve-out for workplace benefits.

Gay History in the City of Secrets

DURING J. EDGAR Hoover's 48 years as FBI director, people often gossiped about whether his bedroom tastes were as straight as his agents' marksmanship, citing everything from his fondness for socializing in male groups to his close relationship with longtime deputy Clyde Tolson.

Zora Neale Hurston's Inconvenient Individualism

The author of their eyes were watching god defies easy political categorization.

11 Insanely Corrupt Speed-Trap Towns

Caught stealing from motorists, these towns disbanded their police forces or even disbanded their governments altogether.

Canceling Putin, Canceling Russians

Reason works with a contractor who lives in small-town Siberia. As Vladimir Putin’s tank convoy rolled toward Kyiv in early March and a flurry of economic sanctions were imposed on Russia by public and private actors, I found myself asking if we could still pay our guy, whether we should do so in bitcoin, and what the consequences might be if we did.

Bars Are Full of Good Ideas

Shutting them down—for prohibition or Covid—does more harm than you think.

The New Campaign for a Sex-Free Internet

Sex, money, and the future of online free speech

Are News-letters the Future of Free Speech?

Substack’s Hamish McKenzie on censorship, discourse, and Joe Rogan

'They Just Took Me Away'

Adults declared “incapacitated” by the courts can lose everything— their homes, their savings, their freedom—to Florida’s sprawling guardianship system.

Welcome to the Nicotine Prohibition Era

Regulators have long targeted tobacco products, but there’s new energy behind outright bans on vapes and cigarettes.

Why Do Legalizers Keep Blocking Pot Banking?

Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer claims to favor repealing the federal ban on marijuana. The New York Democrat nevertheless helped sink legislation that would have removed federal obstacles to banking services for state-licensed marijuana businesses.

This Is the School Choice Moment. Will the GOP Screw It Up?

REPUBLICANS ARE IN DANGER OF SQUANDERING A PROMISING OPPORTUNITY FOR EDUCATION REFORM ON CULTURE WAR SQUABBLES.

THE PANDEMIC KILLED DISSENT IN HONG KONG

WHEN GREAT BRITAIN returned control of Hong Kong to China in 1997, a condition of the transfer was that Beijing would allow the territory to maintain its own government until 2047. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has never liked this agreement, and the COVID-19 pandemic provided the excuse to all but erase the “one country, two systems” distinction.

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE OATH KEEPERS

How Stewart Rhodes went from denouncing authoritarianism to urging an authoritarian crackdown

MIKE SOLANA WANTS YOU TO COMMIT THOUGHT-CRIMES

The Hereticon organizer on deplatforming, tribalism, and why tech dudes and journalists are natural enemies

SAVING THE RAINFOREST, ONE PET FISH AT A TIME

DESPITE THE OBJECTIONS OF ANIMAL PROTECTION ORGANIZATIONS, CAREFUL COMMERCIAL FISHING MAY BE THE BEST BET FOR THE AMAZON AND THE WORLD’S AQUARIUMS.