10 years ago
March 2014
“In December, when the New York City Council voted to ban the use of e-cigarettes in public places such as bars and restaurants, supporters of the ban admitted that there was no evidence that vapor from battery-powered devices posed a threat to bystanders. But they feared that e-cigarettes would cause confusion because they look too much like the real thing. Councilman James Gennaro, one of the proponents of the ban, warned that children might confuse e-cigarettes with conventional ones, concluding that smoking must be cool again. , and go straight to the habit of consuming a pack a day that would put their health at risk and shorten their lives.”
Jacob Sullum
“Smoked”
15 years ago
March 2009
“For conservatives and activists who have tied their lives, reputations and fortunes to the Republican Party, it is a time of reevaluation, retrenchment and recrimination. Just six years ago, their team controlled the executive branch, both houses of Congress and majority of gubernatorial seats. The party has since collapsed steeply, saddled with an unpopular war, a deadly hurricane, and a deepening recession. Republicans have lost control of the White House and Capitol Hill, and now hold only 22 governors. What is especially galling to true believers is that the candidate who knocked them off their perch, Barack Obama, is a man they have labeled the most socialist, culturally liberal, and downright anti-American enemy they have faced since by George McGovern.”
Brian Doherty
“The hollow defeat of conservatism”
“Before the financial crisis, total taxpayer exposure through lending programs – the cost if each borrower defaulted – was about $500 billion, taking interest into account. With additional collateral now amounting to more than half of GDP, taxpayers’ exposure has grown exponentially while their ability to repay loans has, if anything, shrunk.Such a risk would seem to require rigorous oversight of how these loans turn out, both in terms of default rates and social goods. Yet until now the federal government has refused to systematically measure the performance of its 40 existing loan programs. Why? Perhaps because the data shows that most of them never deliver the promised social and economic value.”
Veronique de Rugy
“Dissatisfaction Guaranteed”
35 years ago
March 1989
“The only beneficiaries of any agricultural subsidy are domestic farmers. Domestic consumers lose. Foreign consumers lose. Foreign producers lose. Taxpayers everywhere lose. The environment loses. Debt-ridden third world countries lose. Food self-sufficiency ” is the only reason for agricultural subsidies. And in the United States there are 2.5 million farmers and $30 billion a year in subsidies; In the [European Community]12 million farmers and about the same amount of subsidies.”
Marty Zupan
“The Farm Barrier”
40 years ago
March 1984
“It is not only the United States, in trying to prevent a nuclear confrontation with the Soviets, that has an interest in Israel’s self-defense capability. Israel itself, of course, has a strong interest in the matter. In the second half of this century Israel has been involved in more wars than any other country and currently appears to be headed for the next one. As always happens when a liberal democratic country goes to war, the cost to Israel has been high and little has been accomplished in this way. of preventing future conflicts. “
Sam Cohen
“Wall against war”
“Using the police power as a rationale, courts often sanction regulations that impose enormous financial losses on property owners and reduce their control over their own properties. As long as these regulations are clothed in the appropriate language of police power, if a legislature proclaims that they have been enacted to promote “public health, safety, morals or general welfare”: the courts will normally consider them “reasonable” and will examine neither the motives of the legislators, nor the necessity of such measures, nor the zoning boards, planning commissions, city councils, and state legislatures are allowed to trample on the property rights of landowners, provided only that fraud, deception, or transparent favoritism is not glaringly obvious.—rights considered of intrinsic and pre-eminent importance by our Founding Fathers—suffering accordingly.”
Elena Paolo
“Take Freedom”