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Privatization in VA: Not as easy as ABC
As I wrote back in November at the Objective Standard’s blog (my colleague Ivan Osorio also wrote about the topic here), Virginia’s new…
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Act Now! Support a Bold National Elevator Plan
Last week I received Public Knowledge’s press release and letter urging support of a “Bold National Broadband Plan.” I admire PK a great deal on…
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Regulation of the Day 114: Unlicensed Fruit Candy
Department of Health inspectors seized, slashed open and poured bleach over thousands of dollars of local peaches, pears, raspberry and plum purees owned by pastry…
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Miss him yet?
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Government should spend nanodollars on nanotechnology.
At least that’s how my former colleague Tom Miller, now at the American Enterprise Institute, used to put it. Still another government/business funded report,…
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Toyota Recalls Put into Context by Edmunds.com
Edmunds.com, the premier online resource for automotive information, has obtained and reviewed the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) complaint database. A key finding:…
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Moveon.Org’s Disinformation Smear Campaign
Moveon.Org is running a series of TV ads accusing Senators Blanche Lincoln (D-AR), Ben Nelson (D-NB), and Mary Landrieu (D-LA) of “working to roll…
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Will Obama Recess-Appoint Becker?
With the nomination of former SEIU associate general counsel Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) most likely dead in the Senate, the…
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The Audi Super Bowl Ad’s Very Fitting Music
I fully agree with Marlo’s take on the Audi “Green Police” Super Bowl ad. It well parodies environmental zealots’ authoritarian instincts, while at the…
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Driving the Bus all the Way to the Bank
Investment bankers and lawyers, move aside. If you want a truly high-powered salary, try driving a bus. Last year, the Madison, Wisconsin’s highest paid city…
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The Economics of Charging for Airline Amenities
As of May 1, American Airlines will charge $8 to customers who want to use a blanket and pillow. Why don't they just include the…
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The Department of Pre-Regulation
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Audi Super Bowl Ad: Working Both Sides of Street? (Updated Feb. 10, 2010)
(Revised Feb. 10, 2010. My conclusion was rushed, because I wanted to leave the office before the snowstorm suspended bus service from D.C.-area metro stops. Revisions…
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Ronald Coase — a recent video
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Regulation of the Day 113: Throwing Snowballs
Two students at James Madison University in Virginia were charged with felonies for throwing snowballs at a snowplow and an unmarked police car.
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Constructive criticism on my wind farms blog
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CA Judges Standing Firm on Condoms in Porn
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Today is “Safer Internet Day”
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Sen. Shelby Lifts Holds
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Social Security, Health Care, and Partisan Hackery
Megan McArdle points out a delicious piece of partisan hackery. Go read her whole post. It's great.
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Federal Government Shuts Down Due to Snow
There is great wisdom in Mark Twain’s famous adage: “No man's life, liberty, or property are safe while the congress is in session.”…
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A disease cluster scare implodes; a new one is born
Yesterday I wrote that a scare over a scleroderma cluster in South Boston had been resolved when the state department of health found no…
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“Monopoly” in a media saturated world
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Regulation of the Day 112: Importing Pork Rinds
The federal government is loosening its restrictions on importing pork rinds from Brazil.
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The Objections to Wind Farms
Despite massive subsidies, wind power still only provides about two percent of U.S. energy. Part of the problem is inherent. It takes a lot of…
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Another “man-made” disease cluster solved
What man-made pollutants were causing the mysterious cluster of scleroderma in South Boston? Scleroderma is a rare, incurable, sometimes fatal illness that hardens muscles and…
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American Spectator’s Tom Bethel writes about my views on Wikipedia
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No More Education. Please.
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Regulation of the Day 111: Buying Wine in New York
It is illegal for grocery stores to sell wine in the state of New York. Only liquor stores are allowed to sell the stuff.
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“Health Care Freedom” Bills Pass Virginia Senate
The Virginia State Senate passed “health care freedom” bills giving citizens the right not to be forced to buy health insurance. This sets…
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Do Corporations Have Free Speech Rights? The Supreme Court’s Ruling in Citizens United v. FEC
In the Citizens United case, the Supreme Court recently struck down restrictions on…
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Sen. Richard Shelby, Thief
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Yes, WHO faked a pandemic and is now lying about it, my Forbes article
The World Health Organization has suddenly gone from crying “The sky is falling!” like a cackling Chicken Little to squealing like a stuck pig. The…
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Worries about the direction of the Tea Party movement
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Obama adminstration enlarges ethanol industry trough
I’ve been writing about the ethanol scam since before you were born – well, if you were born after 1987 at least. I need…
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Flu Report Feb. 5 – What Swine Flu ISN’T Doing
Here’s an amazing fact. Traditionally flu season peaks in mid-February. Essentially now. Yet in mid-October CDC labs reported 11,908 positive flu samples. This past week…
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Regulation of the Day 110: Watching the Super Bowl
Hosting a Super Bowl party this Sunday? You might be interested to know that it is technically illegal to watch the Super Bowl on a…
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Activist Cash: Who Wants $20,000?
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Toyota’s Troubles
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“Killer Cans And Toxic Baby Bottles,” my piece in Investor’s Business Daily
Should we worry about a common chemical almost all of us carry in our bodies that activists claim causes a list of diseases longer…
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Regulation of the Day 109: Unplanned Castles
In 2002, Robert Fidler built his family a house that resembles a castle. It is his dream home. Authorities want to require him to demolish…
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Regulation of the Day 108: Murals in Front of Houses
A Los Angeles couple recently paid an artist to paint a mural on the wall in front of their house. The city is threatening the…
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NASA can learn from NASA
Why are the Earth and Mars data being treated so differently? Maybe because there is no predetermined outcome that must be obtained by the data…
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Government Unions up, Private Sector Unions down but not out
The Wall Street Journal explains the significance of the crucial shift in union membership that reached a tipping point last week: More union members…
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Virginia Legislators Kill Bills to Mandate Child Support for Adult College Students
Virginia legislators recently killed bills to extend child support to adult college students. The bills would have required a non-custodial parent to make payments to…
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Who dat claiming they own “Who dat”?
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Fact and Fiction at the IPCC
Dr. Rajendra Pachauri is chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). And he has just released a brand new book. No,…
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Obama Targets Kyl’s (Nanny State) Obstructionism
In his 2010 State of the Union address, President Obama blasted colleagues for placing holds on political appointees and other obstructive tactics: Neither party should…
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This Is How Terrorists Win
Fear is a terrorist's only effective weapon. There are so few of them, and their attacks are so rare, that fear is all they have.
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Congratulations Sam Dealey
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No, two stimulus plans are enough!
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Return to moon program scrapped. Good.
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LibertyWeek 79: Where Are the Jobs?
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Why Supreme Court Justice May Have Been So Annoyed at the President’s State of the Union Address
At the president’s recent State of the Union address, he misleadingly attacked the Supreme Court for supposedly “…
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The Nation Confirms Craig Becker’s Radicalism
Former Service Employees International Union (SEIU) associate general counsel Craig Becker, who has been nominated to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) by President Obama,…
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Fighting for Freedom of Music in Cuba
At Freemuse.org, Kristina Funkeson reviews the documentary film Cuba Rebelion!, which chronicles the underground music scene that has been thriving in Cuba in recent…
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The High Cost of Project Labor Agreements
At Biggovernment.com, Mandy/Liberty Chick provides a comprehensive overview of project labor agreements (PLAs), which impose onerous conditions on contractors who wish to bid on government…
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School Choice: Mankind’s Doom
A new study opposes school choice on the grounds that it would contribute to global warming.
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An alternative to laws against texting while driving?
You can put on makeup while driving, fiddle with your GPS and iPod or reach back to pinch your annoying kid in the back seat,…
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Does positive thinking lead to positive outcomes?
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John Stossel salutes my swine flu work
[Herewith his blog for Fox Business, titled “Swine Flu Hysteria.” I agree with him about the pharmaceutical companies. As I’ve written elsewhere, in…
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Why scientific arguments don’t go very far anymore
Do vaccines cause autism? Here’s your answer. Jenny McCarthy, by virtue of being a former Playboy Playmate who claims her son had autism but that…
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Flu Update Jan. 29: What Swine Flu ISN’t Doing
Deaths down, hospitalizations down, infections reported to CDC-surveillance labs down. Again the usual disclaimer that this probably represents a time lag in reporting and…
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Grab Your #SoTU Pom-Poms
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The Money behind an Anti-Tea Party Hatchet Job
My colleague Lee Doren uncovers the money behind an online hatchet job on the tea party protests: I just came across a new website…
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Brit M.D. who tied MMR vaccine to autism acted “dishonestly and irresponsibly”
The doctor who first suggested a link between MMR vaccinations and autism – and subsequently made rates of measles and other diseases skyrocket – acted…
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Regulation of the Day 107: Blowing Your Nose While Driving
It's a good idea to be in control of your car when you're driving. This good idea is also law in most places. But sometimes…
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Lou Dobbs Believes Own B.S.
For years Lou Dobbs made a living trying to convince Americans that illegal immigrants and their supporters were waging a war on the…
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“Here’s a way of paying for things that’s not going to cost you anything.”
Public employee unions, as I’ve noted previously, make up a permanent lobby for bigger government. Now they have a major victory. Oregonians who went…
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Maryland Legislators Seek to Jack Up Child Support Levels, Based on Bogus Inflation Rationale
A bill, SB 252, was just introduced in Maryland to increase child support obligations for households at most income levels–a massive…
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WHO swine flu chief caught twice lying about pre-fab pandemic
Even before the World Health Organization declared its phony pandemic last summer, its designated fibber-in-chief has been Keiji Fukuda. Yet I’ve never been able to…
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Cold, bitter winter is “proof” of global warming
“Winter offered as proof of warming” declares a headline in the print edition of the Washington Post, although perhaps the irony of that later struck…
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State of the Union Live-Blog
Welcome to CEI's live-blog of the 2010 State of the Union address.
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Flu expert slams WHO pandemic panic-mongering in German magazine interview
I missed this interview when it came out in the German magazine Der Spiegel in July, but it’s still relevant. Unfortunately, even though the…
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SEIU and the Shareholder Resolution Weapon
At Biggovernment.com, blogger Mandy/Liberty Chick has a good, concise account of the rise of shareholder resolutions as a favorite tool of organized labor. By…
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Regulation of the Day 106: Clotheslines
Some homeowners' associations ban clotheslines. For people who would like to use clotheslines and aren't allowed to, this presents a problem. Now regulators want to…
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My Two Cents on AmazonGate
Climategate, Himalayagate, Pachaurigate, and now NOAAgate — it’s hard to keep up with all the relevations and allegations buzzing around some of the biggest…
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SEIU Suffers a Major Loss in California
The powerful Service Employees International Union (SEIU) has taken a major hit from a rival union, the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW), which is…
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“The Hole in the EPA’s Ozone Claims,” my piece in Forbes Online
To the EPA, “safe” is a constantly moving target—and that’s the way it likes it. Always something new to regulate, always a new hobgoblin from…
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More Union Members now Work for Governments than for Businesses
For the first time in U.S. history, the majority of the country’s union members work for government, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports. For…
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SOTU: Irish Entrepreneurs Put Politics to Productive Use
The Washington Examiner’s David Freddoso reports that Paddy Power, Ireland’s largest bookmaker, is taking bets on President Obama’s State of the Union speech…
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Regulation of the Day 105: Not Driving Your Car
John Delacey of St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada, received a court summons for keeping a car in his driveway and not driving it.
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Better than Nothing or another Feint?
Seeking to recast himself as a fiscal conservative, Obama is projected to propose a freeze on discretionary spending – NPR, NEA, “green” jobs, “disaster” relief,…
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Environmentalist confessions
A question to Slate‘s “Green Lantern” environmental adviser: Instead of glasses, I wear contact lenses. This means throwing out scraps of plastic (as well…
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WHO squealing like a pig over charges it fabricated the flu “pandemic”
The WHO has suddenly gone from a cackling Chicken Little crying “The Sky is Falling!” to squealing like a stuck pig, in response to charges…
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Murkowski Resolution on Endangerment: Separating the Reality from the Spin
Last Thursday, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, introduced a resolution of disapproval, under the Congressional…
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LibertyWeek 78: Obama’s 23% Approval Rating
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Regulation of the Day 104: Haggis
Haggis is the national dish of Scotland. It has also been banned in the United States since 1989. Fortunately, the ban may soon be reversed.
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Insured Buildings in Haiti Still Standing
One could consider it ironic that the buildings in Haiti most likely to receive insurance money are those that experienced the least amount of damage.
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More dirt in the IPCC melting Himalayas scandal
In an update to my blog on the alleged melting of the glaciers atop the Himalayas (and imminent extinction of the yeti), the scientist…
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Flu Watch Jan. 24, 2010 – Swine flu appears to be sweeping aside seasonal flu
Reported infections, deaths, hospitalizations all down. Again, though, when adjusted for the time lag they were probably the same as last week. The only…
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The bright side of flood insurance
Some Michigan residents are boiling mad that their mortgage lenders are forcing them to purchase flood insurance. The notifications were sent out to residents…
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Give Insurers some Credit!
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Regulation of the Day 103: When Products Are on Sale
Two states have regulations for when stores can say their products are on sale.
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Grading Obama’s First Year
CEI released a comprehensive report card this week on the Obama administration's first year in office. My contribution is below; read the full report card…
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Darn! No more “Blessed be the snipers . . .”
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Will Cass Sunstein stick up for small business, or bless EPA’s legal hair splitting?
Today, Reps. Lamar Smith (R-TX), Sam Graves (R-MO), Trent Franks (R-AZ), and Lynn Westmoreland (R-GA) sent a letter to Office of Information and Regulatory…
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IPCC: “Our bad! Global warming not about to melt Himalayas.
“The glaciers in the Himalayas are receding faster than in any other part of the world and, if the present rate continues, a large number…
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A Good Day for Freedom of Speech
Advocating speech restrictions is a fancy way of saying, "my arguments are too weak to withstand criticism." Get better arguments, then!…
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“Big, bad banks” — a “faux-populist” response
Uh-oh. It was speculation yesterday, but reality today – President Obama and the Democrats have the banking industry in their sights with their trigger…