Articles

Exciting things are happening in the flying car industry (yes, there is a flying car industry). CBS reports that Terrafugia, an American company, just conducted a successful test flight of its flying car. A Dutch company successfully tested its model in the same week. These amazing developments have the potential to…

In a delightful essay for the Library of Economics and Liberty, economist David Henderson explains why property rights enable people to live together peacefully rather than fight over preferences and resources through the political system. Henderson opens with the questions, "Should restaurants allow smoking or not? Should schools teach evolution…

The Tea Party is ready for a “hostile takeover” of Washington, or so argues Matt Kibbe, president of FreedomWorks. Recently I interviewed Kibbe about his forthcoming book, Hostile Takeover: Resisting Centralized Government's Stranglehold on America. Kibbe said his book “works on the analogy of what a hostile takeover is in…

Why have fifteen states joined the Department of Justice in persecuting several book publishers and Apple? Why do many in the media refer to the leaders of these businesses as “conspirators,” as though they were criminals? The producers are guilty of the heinous “crime” of selling digital books through willing…

Last week at the annual conference of the Association of Private Enterprise Education, I had the opportunity to interview Warren Orbaugh, director of the Henry Hazlitt Center at the Francisco Marroquín University. Orbaugh discussed the work of Manuel “Muso” Ayau, who founded the university to support the ideas of free…

Last week, at the annual conference of the Association of Private Enterprise Education, I interviewed Matt Kibbe, president of FreedomWorks, about the development of the Tea Party. Kibbe said, among other things, that the Tea Party is becoming more directly political, focusing on get-out-the-vote efforts and the like, and, more…

In a distressing sign of the times, the New Jersey government has turned to outright theft of people’s gift cards in the Garden State. As the Christian Science Monitor summarizes: Pursuant to a law passed two years ago, the New Jersey Department of the Treasury will soon compel sellers to…

Decorated eggs, the Easter Bunny, pretty dresses, lavish meals, Peeps, chocolates, extravagance, joy—religious claims to the holiday notwithstanding, Easter is a celebration of spring, fertility, and fun. People of faith are free to celebrate the alleged resurrection of Jesus. But people of reason ignore that myth and celebrate the secular…

In a speech to the American Society of Newspaper Editors this past Tuesday, Barack Obama condemned the Republican budget proposal as “thinly veiled social Darwinism.” Why? Because Republicans would spend slightly less money on welfare and other programs than Obama proposes, and increase government spending at a slightly slower rate…

The New York Times is calling for the government to “step up” its support for AmeriCorps, while reprimanding Republicans who want to reduce or eliminate funding for it, castigating them for forgetting “the value of community service.” AmeriCorps’ activities, which consist primarily in working with other non-profit organizations to “build…

After attending a conference in Las Vegas earlier this week, I had the chance to see Penn & Teller’s magic show at the Rio. A big part of why their show is so entertaining is that they present interesting ideas in novel and provocative ways. Their show is something of…

No, Colorado cannot unilaterally impose tax obligations on out-of-state businesses, U.S. District Judge Robert Blackburn ruled recently. Blackburn threw out Colorado’s 2010 “Amazon Tax” that sought to force out-of-state sellers to assist the state in collecting sales taxes from residents. The judge ruled that the controls “impose an undue burden…

The Justice Department continues its assault on the property and contract rights of Apple and various book publishers. Bloomberg reports that the DOJ “is close to a settlement with three of the world’s biggest publishers on e-book price contracts with Apple Inc.” According to the antitrust laws under which the…

Richard Salsman in a new piece in Forbes.com makes an illuminating point about the efforts to defend ObamaCare: Defenders of ObamaCare before the Supreme Court last week argued from precedent, reminding the justices that there were already scores of mandates embedded throughout America’s semi-socialized health care system – including the…

Fox News reports that Khulood Badawi, an officer in the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), “used Twitter to send a picture of a bloodied child in her father’s arms with a caption: ‘Palestine is bleeding. Another child killed by Israel. Another father carrying a child into a…