No, you aren’t imagining it. There was a time when the Scandinavian countries could reasonably boast that it was in the grim, cold north of Europe that the most liberal, socially tolerant societies were to be found.
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Noted Homophobe Named Norway’s “Role Model of the Year”
Fifty years ago, as it turns out, according to the UK Telegraph : In 1951, a quiet, picturesque village in southern France was suddenly and mysteriously struck down with mass insanity and hallucinations. At least five people died, dozens were interned in asylums and hundreds afflicted.
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CIA Doses French Bread With LSD?
On Tuesday I noted USA Today ’s cover story on the prospects for marijuana law reform. Three recent legislative developments reinforce the impression of growing tolerance (or at least waning repression): On March 2, Hawaii’s Senate overwhelmingly passed a bill that would eliminate criminal penalties for possessing up to an ounce of marijuana, currently a misdemeanor punishable by up to 30 days in jail and a fine of up to $1,000.
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Marijuana Decriminalization Advances
Writing at Investors Business Daily , Independent Institute economist Robert Higgs argues that government intervention in the economy is strangling private sector investment: The current investment drought does not simply reflect the housing bust that followed the residential investment boom that peaked in 2005. To be sure, real residential investment fell tremendously, by almost 53% from 2005 to 2009, with especially rapid declines the past three years. Yet real nonresidential investment also fell greatly last year, by 18% from its 2008 peak
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How Government Spending Harms Private Investment
On March 4, 2010, Jacob Sullum, Nick Gillespie and Virginia Postrel appeared on a special episoode of Fox Business Network’s Stossel devoted to prohibition to discuss drug laws, ridiculous media scare stories, and legalizing markets in human organs. Approximately 30 minutes. Go to Reason.tv for downloadable iPod and audio versions
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Reasoners on The Tube: Jacob Sullum, Nick Gillespie, & Virginia Postrel Talking Drugs, Media Hysteria, and Human Organ Markets on Very Special…
Even if Democrats extract the votes to put ObamaCare over the top, writes Shikha Dalmia, it will at best be a Pyrrhic victory for them. Regardless of the outcome, this monstrosity might cost the Democrats the Congress this November, ruin the party for a long time, and prematurely render Barack Obama a lame duck president for the rest of his term. View this article.
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New at Reason: Shikha Dalmia on the ObamaCare Quagmire
CNN has a pretty good review of the pitfalls of foreign aid , looking at how the massive effort in Haiti could end up harming the country in the long run. Given that there are about 10,000 NGOs at work in Haiti right now, and that the United States has already spent $700 million on aid to Haiti, it would be good to have some signs that it’s not, you know, making things worse. What’s the right way to provide aid?
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NGOs Falling Short in Haiti
Non-stop bad news won’t stop Nancy Pelosi! Here’s an overview of the last day or so of developments in her never-ending quest to drum up enough votes to pass a health reform bill in the House. Multiple reports indicate that the Senate parliamentarian confirmed that the Senate cannot vote on a reconciliation “fix” bill until the House actually passes the Senate bill
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For Nancy Pelosi, There Is No Such Thing As Bad News
From our April issue, Senior Editor Michael C. Moynihan reports on the scene in Massachusetts as he followed Republican state legislator Scott Brown and Democratic gaffe master and Attorney General Martha Coakley in their race for the late Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat.
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New at Reason: Michael C. Moynihan on the Revolutionary Takeover of Ted Kennedy’s Senate Seat
Uh oh, the violent teabaggers are at it again, hyperbolizing about totalitarianism and advocating open revolt : The mounting anger and hatred, coursing through the bloodstream of the body politic, make violence and counter-violence inevitable. Brace yourself.
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Heyyyyy! Think the Time Is Right for a Palace Revolution
