Dan Goldberg of the New Jersey Star-Ledger recently claimed that the federal government is subsidizing America’s “obesity epidemic.” Citing a report from the New Jersey Public Interest Research Group (NJPIRG), Goldberg notes: Because the federal government chooses to subsidize corn and soy—key ingredients in junk food—instead of fruits and vegetables,…

Ralph Peters—retired Army officer, Fox News “Strategic Analyst,” and early supporter of President George W. Bush’s Mideast policies—has come to an important realization that all lovers of liberty should heed: Democracy doesn’t mean freedom. With the very best intentions, we got it wrong. By elevating the establishment of democracy above…

Looking for a platform to chastise House Republicans for excluding the federal food stamp program from its farm bill, New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez recently visited the state's largest food bank, the Hillside chapter of the private Community FoodBank of New Jersey (CFBNJ), “to highlight his support for the Supplemental…

Do we properly have freedom from religion? Some say no. In June, Texas Governor Rick Perry signed new legislation permitting displays of religious expressions in tax-funded schools. He rationalized the law by saying, "Freedom of religion doesn't mean freedom from religion." And Roy Costner IV, the high school valedictorian who…

Stem cell research holds enormous promise for human health care, and scientists at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) recently advanced that potential dramatically. Melissa Healy reports for the Los Angeles Times: For the first time, scientists have created human embryos that are genetic copies of living people and used…

Should municipal and county government be permitted to own and operate local high-speed Internet systems—Community Broadband Networks (CBNs)? Timothy Karr of Freepress.net and Gerry Smith of Huffington Post (among other writers) argue that governments should be permitted to own and operate CBNs because this provides “competition” against big Internet service…

The government taxes different corporations radically different amounts and in significantly different ways. A new study by the General Accountability Office (GAO) examined “special exemptions and exclusions, credits, deductions, deferrals, and preferential tax rates” regarding corporate taxes. Some 80 different corporate tax structures are designed to “support federal policy goals”…

The proposed federal Marketplace Fairness Act (MFA) grants states the authority to compel online and catalog retailers ("remote sellers"), no matter where they are located, to collect sales tax at the time of a transaction—exactly like local retailers are already required to do. The issue the bill purportedly aims to…

The movie 42: The Jackie Robinson Story is not a full biography on the life of Jackie Robinson, the black baseball player who broke Major League Baseball's "color line." Rather, the film covers the three year period from the 1945 signing of Robinson to a minor league contract by Brooklyn…

The use of standardized testing in government schools—as mandated by George W. Bush’s 2001 No Child Left Behind Act and supported by the Obama administration—has triggered “an expanding revolt against high-stakes standardized tests and the use of students’ scores to evaluate teachers, schools, districts and states,” writes Valerie Strauss for…

Two cases before the U.S. Supreme Court—separate challenges to California’s Proposition 8 and the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA)—could lead to a momentous decision on gay marriage. But there are indications that the court may sidestep the broader issue of whether gay marriage is a constitutional right, and instead…

Lately, many Republicans have become sympathetic to the idea of giving legal status to illegal immigrants. But not Ann Coulter. She labels all such plans “amnesty” and harangues Republicans who support it. Amnesty, in this context, means relieving current undocumented aliens of the legal penalties associated with breaking immigration laws,…

Verlin Stoll operates a no-frills funeral parlor in St. Paul, Minnesota. As the Miami Herald’s Glenn Garvin notes, Stoll’s fees start at “just $250, about one-tenth the city’s going rate. No hearse, no chapel, just simple service for working-class folks who can’t afford to spend a lot of money to…

Michelle Rhee—a former Baltimore teacher who gained national attention as Washington DC’s first public schools chancellor, and founder of StudentsFirst—has acquired a reputation as an aggressive education reformer unafraid to challenge entrenched ideas, including those of her own Democrat Party and its constituents. In describing “My Break With the Democrats,”…

The tragic case of the tainted medication produced by New England Compounding Center, which resulted in at least twenty-five deaths and hundreds sickened, highlights a little-recognized danger inherent in government regulation. As David Brown reported: “[Purchasing pharmaceuticals from compounding pharmacies is] like buying your electricity from a different supplier. It…