CATEGORIES

KAMALA HARRIS IS A FLOP

THE UNDERWHELMING VICE PRESIDENCY OF AN UNPOPULAR FORMER PROSECUTOR HAS CREATED A SUCCESSION PROBLEM FOR THE DEMOCRATS.

CIVIL LIBERTIES: WHERE WAS THE MIDTERM PUBLIC SAFETY BACKLASH?

DESPITE PREDICTIONS THAT rising violent crime would sink candidates who support criminal justice reforms, those candidates mostly survived their 2022 midterm elections. What's more, reform-minded prosecutor and sheriff candidates defeated incumbents in a few key races.

DRUGS: A WIN FOR PHARMACOLOGICAL FREEDOM IN COLORADO

A DECADE AGO, Colorado became the first state to legalize marijuana for recreational use, something 20 other states have done since then. Colorado set a new precedent for drug policy reform in November, when its voters approved a ballot initiative that decriminalizes a wide range of conduct related to consuming five natural psychedelics.

THE LIFE CYCLE OF A THIRD PARTY

THE LIBERTARIAN PARTY has always been fractious, but its infighting has intensified since the Mises Caucus, a faction opposed to \"wokeism,\" took control of the organization. Many of the party's more socially liberal members have exited since the takeover and in some cases, they're trying to take the party's state affiliates with them.

THE KKK'S PUSH FOR A FEDERAL EDUCATION DEPARTMENT

\"THE GREATEST DUTY of America today is to build up our educational system.\" That sentiment probably seems anodyne, like something you might have heard on the campaign trail in the recently concluded midterms. A century ago, it represented the top priority of the Ku Klux Klan.

SCHOOL CLOSURES CAUSED LEARNING LOSS

TESTS MEASURING THE academic performance of American schoolchildren consistently show dramatic declines in scores between the years directly before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. While the full scope of learning loss is not yet known, the data indicate that many children entered the 2021 school year with unprecedented education gaps that were likely exacerbated by widespread school shutdowns.

TAIWAN SHOULDN'T COUNT ON U.S. SUPPORT

IT WAS INEVITABLE that U.S. military and economic support for Ukraine's self-defense against Russia would spark comparisons to our relationship with Taiwan.

REGULATION" IS IT 'TREASON' TO OPPOSE PROTECTIONISM?

AT LEAST ONE member of a federal advisory panel thinks it's \"treason\" to oppose a law that protects the domestic shipping industry from foreign competition, even though the result of that law is higher prices for American consumers.

BURGER KING VS. HENRY VIII

WHEN IT COMES to fresh, tasty food, who had it better? Henry VIII, king of England from 1509 to 1547, or you and me going to Burger King with $10 in our pockets? \"The Burger King Whopper is actually a combination of foods from different parts of the world that wouldn't have come together for most of human history,\" says historian (and Reason contributor) Katrina Gulliver. And Henry VIII \"would never have seen a potato\" either, without which a delicious side of fries would be impossible.

Keri Blakinger Is a Figure Skater and a Felon

KERI BLAKINGER IS many things: a former elite figure skater, an Ivy League graduate, a prolific criminal-justice journalist, a convicted felon. The Texas-based writer recently published Corrections in Ink (St. Martin’s Press), a memoir that strings these seemingly disparate lives—from her near-Olympic rise to her drug addiction to her two-year prison stint to her Cornell graduation—into one very compelling narrative about redemption, second chances, and what you’re probably getting wrong about the legal system.

THE U.S. AND THE HOLOCAUST

Otto Frank-father of Anne, the teenager whose posthumously published diary became standard reading for students learning about the Holocaustfled with his family from Germany to Amsterdam in 1933. But the Nazis eventually followed him there. One target of their 1940 bombing campaign was the U.S. consulate in Rotterdam, where Frank's visa application was destroyed along with everything else.

How Venture Capital Made the Future

LIBERATION CAPITAL,\" AS investor Arthur Rock called it, \"was about much more than keeping a team together in the place where its members happened to own houses.\" In 1957, Rock took a gamble on the \"traitorous eight\"-a team of promising engineers at Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory-and counseled them to free themselves of their authoritarian boss by quitting en masse and striking out to form Fairchild Semiconductor.

Psychiatrists Do Not Know What They Are Treating

AS A BOY, especially while lying in bed or suffering a fever, I was periodically troubled by harshly critical voices that vaguely charged me with misconduct and failures of character. As I grew up, the murmuring Greek chorus was replaced by a single voice, which by then I recognized as my own.

Stop Spazzing Out About 'Spaz'

SOCIAL MEDIA, STREAMING, AND A NEW ERA OF DIGITAL SELF-CENSORSHIP

JOHN CLEESE ON HOW WOKENESS SMOTHERS CREATIVITY

IN A CAREER that has spanned seven decades—and included such classic shows and movies as Monty Python’s Flying Circus, Fawlty Towers, Life of Brian, and A Fish Called Wanda—the comedian John Cleese has relentlessly satirized politics and religion while stretching the boundaries of decorum and good taste.

D.C. METRO GOES OFF THE RAILS

PUTTING WASHINGTON’S TRAIN SYSTEM BACK ON TRACK WILL TAKE MORE THAN BETTER BUREAUCRACY.

GOVERNMENTS SCRAMBLE TO MANAGE REGULATE, AND THROTTLE CRYPTO

MOST DANGEROUSLY OF ALL, THEY'RE STARTING TO MAKE THEIR OWN CENTRAL BANK DIGITAL CURRENCIES.

PROSECUTORS SHOULDN'T BE ABOVE THE LAW

BY GIVING POWERFUL LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICIALS ABSOLUTE IMMUNITY FROM CIVIL LIABILITY, THE SUPREME COURT LEAVES THEIR VICTIMS WITH NO RECOURSE.

PUERTO RICO INCHES TOWARD SELF-DETERMINATION

REP. RAÚL GRIJALVA (D-Ariz.), chair of the House Committee on Natural Resources, was pissed. The prominent progressive had just left a July 26 committee meeting on the Puerto Rico Status Act, a legislative compromise negotiated by the territory's nonvoting House member, Rep. Jenniffer GonzálezColón of the New Progressive Party (PNP).

RELIGION: AGAINST GAME OF THRONES CHRISTIANITY

FOR MANY MEMBERS of the so-called New Right, one thing is clear: Classical liberal principles are not getting the job done.

HIGHER COSTS FOR HIGHER ED

WHEN PRESIDENT JOE Biden announced in August that he was canceling thousands of dollars in student loan debt for most current borrowers, he explained that his plan was partly a response to the rapid rise in the cost of higher education.

ONE FOOT OFF THE GRID

WHEN OUR WATER was turned off one morning last January, we assumed it was due to the sinkhole slowly expanding across the width of our single-lane street in South Philadelphia. But we could only guess, as no one answered the phone at the Philadelphia Water Department, and the first city employee didn't show up on our street until four hours after the taps died. When one of my elderly neighbors asked how long it would take to restore service, the city guy said his crews were swamped. It took 27 hours.

THE NEW DEAL AND A FEDERAL ABORTION BAN

THE U.S. SUPREME Court's ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization (2022), which eliminated the constitutional right to abortion, has raised the possibility of a future Republican-controlled Congress seeking to ban abortion nationwide. If that happens, the resulting courtroom battles will likely center on a New Deal-era precedent that vastly expanded the scope of congressional power.

THE LABOR MARKET IS BROKEN

INFLATION IS UP. The stock market is down. Unemployment is just 3.5 percent. Yet labor force participation remains stubbornly low, with only 62.3 percent of the civilian population working or actively looking for work-well below pre-pandemic levels. And even before the pandemic, that figure had been steadily declining for years.

We Are Living Robert Heinlein's Dream

A new generation of companies has made space travel affordable.

We Are Going to the Moon

Thanks to the rise of private spaceflight companies, mankind will have a future off-earth.

The Case for Space Billionaires

What critics of the private space race get wrong

If You Want to Get High in Space

After SpaceX founder Elon Musk smoked a blunt on Joe Rogan's podcast in 2018, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson was happy to cut him some slack. "Let the man get high if he wants to get high," Tyson told TMZ. "He's the best thing we've had since Thomas Edison."

America's Other Space Agency

How the FCC went from regulating telegraphs to regulating satellites

The Twin Crusades Against Drugs and Guns

Americans are suffering the "unjust, cruel, and even irrational" consequences of the wars on intoxicants and firearms.