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Appearing on  Real Time With Bill Maher , amateur Latin America scholar Sean Penn details his recent humanitarian trip to Haiti, reveals that he has started an NGO, and praises the United States military’s reconstruction efforts in Port-au-Prince, calling it the “most noble [military] mission since World War II.” (Penn has apparently forgotten the  2004 operation  to provide relief to parts of tsunami-ravaged South Asia.)  But as is his wont, Penn couldn’t get through the interview without reference to the beneficent Venezuelan and Cuban governments (who supplied “narcotics” in Haiti, despite their own drug shortages) and how Hugo Chavez is unfairly maligned in the United States media. How should one combat this misinformation campaign?

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Sean Penn Wants Me Thrown In Jail

Reason Contributing Editor Tim Cavanaugh will appear on Neil Cavuto’s Fox Business News show today to discuss the fiscal crisis in Greece and Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou’s financial life coaching session with President Obama. Starting at 6pm EST on Fox Business Channel

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Reason Around Town: Tim Cavanaugh Goes Greek With the Number One Name In Business…Cavuto! 6pm EST on FBN

Is marijuana responsible for John Patrick Bedell’s suicidal assault on the Pentagon? Yes, says Washington Post blogger Charles Lane, although his theory of the plant’s criminogenic effects is slightly more sophisticated than Harry Anslinger’s

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Did Marijuana Kill John Patrick Bedell?

For those of us who place more trust in free markets than state-directed economies, we must inevitably (and repeatedly) confront the skeptical interlocutor who details the “successes” of Swedish social democracy. “If state intervention into the economy is so bad, high taxes so destructive, then why is Sweden such a success?” It’s an irritatingly simple question with a incredibly complicated answer, though I do recommend pointing out, when the conversation turns to health care and secondary education, that nothing, in a state the confiscates a massive portion of your income, is “free.” But as many have pointed out, during its boom years, Sweden was a pretty free market place; from the 1970s through the 1990s—when taxes and regulation dramatically increased—the economy slowed until it spun out in the early 1990s.

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“So Why Is the Swedish Welfare State So Successful?”

Rober Shiller, co-creator of the Case-Shiller housing index, is a wonderfully informed observer of U.S. real estate and is always worth paying some attention to

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Ein Volk, Ein Haus, Ein Shiller: We Need to Pay For Deadbeats to Preserve “National Identity”

There are two million civilian federal workers. 1.1 million of them have direct private sector equivalents. And they are laughing their asses off at those private sector suckers, who are doing similar jobs for less pay—often a lot less

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Government Workers Are Earning More than You. Sucker.

Jeffersonville, Indiana seventh grader is suspended after turning down drugs offered by a classmate.

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Zero Tolerance Follies

I have previously  expressed   unease  with strident critics of Islam like Geert Wilders, the shock-haired Dutch MP who claims that “moderate Islam does not exist” and once compared the Koran to  Mein Kampf .

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Will the Next Dutch PM Be a “Hate Criminal”?

Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter is pushing a 2-cent-per-ounce tax on sweetened beverages, which would be the highest such levy in the country. The Philadelphia Inquirer says it’s a way to “treat the city’s weight and wallet problems…with the same remedy.” You could also say it’s a way to take people’s hard-earned money while simultaneously meddling in their personal choices, but politically that might be less appealing. Nutter’s proposed tax is 35 times the state’s beer tax, 10 times as heavy as Chicago’s soda tax, and twice the rate advocated by anti-fat crusader Kelly Brownell, who is overjoyed at the thought of forcing poor people to forsake their favorite beverages.

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It’s a Nutter Idea, and It Just Might Not Work