The founders would have been shocked to learn that their nation would outlaw the homebrewing of beer—shocked, among other reasons, because Thomas Jefferson, Sam Adams, and other founders brewed beer themselves. Finally, after 80 years, homebrewing has been re-legalized in all fifty states. The American Homebrewers Association summarizes: Even after…

“The Obama administration announced Tuesday that it is delaying a major provision in the [ObamaCare] health care overhaul, putting off until 2015 a requirement that many employers offer health insurance”—a date after the 2014 congressional elections—Fox News reports. This political move illustrates (among other things) that ObamaCare is creating a…

Today the Supreme Court ruled the federal government may not discriminate against gay couples recognized by states as married. By throwing out the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which forbade the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages, the Supreme Court ruled that DOMA resulted in “deprivation of an essential…

Regarding Barack Obama’s speech yesterday on so-called “climate change,” the Washington Post asks, “Is Obama waging a ‘war on coal’?”—and answers, “To a large extent, the answer is yes,” in that he is seeking to expand costly regulations of coal-fired plants. But it’s worse than that. Among other things, Obama…

The Catholic Church claims the late John Paul II enacted a miracle. As if that were not remarkable enough, the pope is alleged to have enacted his miracle posthumously! Nick Squires reports for the Telegraph: The Vatican has secretly attributed a mystery miracle to the late John Paul II, clearing…

[caption id="attachment_9908" align="alignright" width="300"] Image: InSapphoWeTrust[/caption] Should Congress pass a “media shield” law to protect news agencies such as Fox News and the Associated Press from the sorts of government actions recently taken against those organizations by the Department of Justice? The DOJ seized phone records of the AP and…

Yesterday I appeared on the Larry Elder radio show to discuss the food stamp program, now known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Through Elder, I learned that more than two dozen members of Congress took what they called the SNAP Challenge, through which they protested proposed cuts to…

The new Superman film, Man of Steel, is a good movie with a great theme. It is a competently directed story of a powerful alien who grows up on Earth with human parents; who comes to love his adopted planet and the people living on it; and who, as an…

The little girl who swore she was “never going to quit, never, never,” now has a fighting chance to live. Ten-year-old Sarah Murnaghan previously had been put on the bottom of the list to receive an adult lung (the only type likely to become available) because the Department of Health…

As science writer Matt Ridley reports, Leo James, William McEwan, and other researchers at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge have profoundly advanced the understanding of how antibodies work, opening the door to potential advances in how doctors treat infectious diseases. James summarizes his lab’s work on his web…

“‘Elizabeth,’ he cleared his throat, ‘there’s something I need to ask you.’ She stopped breathing. If this was the question, the timing was odd—but she didn’t care.” These lines set the tension in Quent Cordair’s latest short story, The Match. Frank does not ask the question Elizabeth hoped for. Instead,…

There’s a lot wrong in the world, and, here in the United States, where government is expanding its rights-violating activities, lovers of liberty can easily become pessimistic. But, with a series of 30 charts, Rob Wile of Business Insider promises to “restore your faith in humanity.” The good news he…

Now this promises to be a world-changing development: Google plans to launch blimps and other “high-altitude platforms” above sub-Saharan Africa and southeast Asia to bring the internet wirelessly to a billion or more additional people, the Wall Street Journal reports. With what will these people access the internet? Google is…

On June 4, Becky Gerritson, a founder of the Wetumpka Tea Party in Alabama, testified before congress about the IRS’s abusive practices toward Tea Party groups. Her poignant words deserve repeating. Gerritson began by explaining what motivated her to become involved in the Tea Party movement: In order to paint…

Sarah Murnaghan is a ten-year-old girl suffering from cystic fibrosis. If she does not get a lung transplant, she will die, likely within weeks. But so far she has been unable to receive a lung transplant because a federal agency—the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)—has decided that children…