CATEGORIES

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.

American Elections Are a Mess, and They Always Have Been

The long, weird history of partisan electoral shenanigans

Qatar's World Cup Cruelty

Qatar’s bid to boost its global standing by hosting the 2022 FIFA World Cup is hardly unprecedented.

Finance for Teens

Our homeschooling family didn’t sign up for this class, but there’s lots to learn from economic turmoil.

'This is Bigger Than Basketball'

Enes Kanter Freedom on China, the NBA, and free speech

It's Been 50 Years Since Humans Walked on the Moon

We were supposed to go back to the moon last week. We were also supposed to go back five weeks before that in mid-September, and six months before that.

TERRAFORM THE GALAXY

SEVERAL INFLUENTIAL PHILOSOPHERS and environmentalist thinkers argue that terraforming Mars and other planets, making them suitable for humans and other Earth life, would be immoral. As we near a day when terraforming is actually possible, the arguments against it are worth reviewing and rebutting.

ARE WE STILL AWED BY THE HEAVENS?

IS SPACE MORE awesome than ever, now that we've walked on the moon and beheld the stunning photos transmitted by the James Webb telescope? Or is the night sky, thanks to modernity, more meh? In particular, do kids find the universe more meh than the metaverse?

THE FRACTAL, FRACTIOUS POLITICS OF THE EXPANSE

TAKING HUMANITY FROM EARTH TO THE STARS ISN'T EASY.

FROM SPACE REGULATOR TO ASTRONAUT

George Nield spent his government career thinking about space. Then he got to fly.

SPACE IS AN OPPORTUNITY TO RETHINK PROPERTY RIGHTS

HERE'S WHAT COULD HAPPEN WHEN JOHN LOCKE AND HENRY GEORGE GO TO THE MOON.

THE MILITARY-UFO COMPLEX

HOW A MOTLEY CREW OF SAUCER HUNTERS GOT A PLACE AT THE PUBLIC TROUGH

What Wikipedia Can Teach the Rest of the Internet

Jimmy Wales talks about why his online encyclopedia works, how to improve social media, and why Section 230 isn’t the real problem with the internet.

The New Abortion Prohibition Era

Americans disagree about abortion. This is the understatement of 2022, yet it bears repeating in the wake of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the June Supreme Court decision that returned abortion policy to state and federal legislatures. Ten states have already banned abortion and another four have prohibited abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, which amounts to nearly the same thing.

Workers Are Consumers Too

Since Taking Office, President Joe Biden has sought to position himself as an ally of working Americans. His administration is enacting what it calls a “worker-centric” trade policy, and the president scarcely seems to give a public address without mentioning the importance of union jobs.

The Dangerous Lesson of Book Bans in Public School Libraries

An obscure Supreme Court case provides a roadmap through the curricular culture war.

We Have a Printing Paper Problem

A new supply chain parable for our times

Grow Your Own

Always a good hobby, gardening is also a hedge against supply disruptions.

Digital Immortality or Deathbot?

Would you want your persona to live forever in the metaverse after your physical body shuffles off this mortal coil? That is what the metaverse platform Somnium Space plans to offer its users, starting in the next year or so, with its Live Forever service.

INTERNET SEARCH IS BETTER THAN EVER IF YOU KNOW HOW TO USE IT

IN FEBRUARY, THE software engineer and blogger Dmitri Brereton wrote an essay titled “Google Search Is Dying” for his personal website.

INFLATION WON’T WHIP ITSELF

REPUBLICAN PRESIDENT GERALD Ford was simultaneously one of the luckiest and unluckiest presidents when he took office in 1974.

Glenn Greenwald on Corporate Media and Identity Politics

LAWYER-TURNED-JOURNALIST Glenn Greenwald’s work with whistleblower Edward Snowden to reveal illegal government surveillance won a Pulitzer Prize in 2014. That same year he helped launch The Intercept, but he abruptly resigned six years later after a disagreement over editorial policy. In July, Reason’s Nick Gillespie spoke with Greenwald at FreedomFest 2022 in Las Vegas, Nevada.