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Cheers for Indiana Treasurer’s halt to Chrysler Bankruptcy
The Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals and Indiana state Treasurer Richard Mourdock stand up against the Obama administration’s nationalization scheme.
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Can EPA ban gasoline? Can Obama enact Kyoto II without Senate ratification?
A recent report by New York University school of Law’s Institute for Policy Integrity suggests as much. See my commentary on Masterresource.Org.
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NYT: “Buy American” angers allies, loses jobs
The New York Times opined today that the so-called stimulus bill’s “Buy American” provisions are having some unintended consequences –…
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Feinstein Withdraws Support for EFCA (for now)
California Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein is withdrawing her support for the so-called Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), organized labor’s top legislative priority, reports a…
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Union Keeps Special Privileges Through Taxpayer Bailout of General Motors
The federal government is spending more than $50 billion to bail out General Motors, with no end in sight. But the UAW union…
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Teamsters’ Pension Fund Panic
The Teamsters union is threatening a strike that could cripple the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. Reports AP: The Teamsters union is threatening a strike it says…
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Obama Justice Department Protects Racist, Anti-Semitic Hate Group and Anti-White Voting Rights Violators
Members of the New Black Panther Party, one of whom was an Obama campaign poll watcher and local democratic official, used nightsticks and racial…
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Stupid Border Tricks
Beginning today, American and Canadian citizens will now be required to carry new forms of government identification in order to cross the shared border. Former…
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Obama Panders to the UAW: $30 Billion More for Wasteful Auto Bailout
The federal government is giving another $30 billion in taxpayer money to General Motors to allow it to operate without having to cut…
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Bankruptcy judge should put breaks on “Government Motors”
President Obama and his auto task force should respect the role of the bankruptcy court and recognize that its role is not to rubber stamp…
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Campaign Should Highlight Value of BPA
According to the Washington Post, packaging industry representatives are looking for ways to fight off regulations of a substance used in packaging called Bisphenol…
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How to Stop Another GM: Abolish Pensions
GM, of course, declared bankruptcy today. A number of things—bad management, poor products and screwy labor relations—hurt the company. But in the…
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Corporate Welfare on a Vast Scale: Obama’s Cap-and-Trade Scam Threatens Economy
One of Obama’s own advisers admits that the cap-and-trade energy-rationing scheme backed by the “Obama Administration and Congressional Democrats” would “have a trivially small…
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Stimulus Package Shrinks Economy, Destroys Private Sector Jobs
Most of the $800 billion stimulus package has yet to be spent, but it’s already harming the economy, both by triggering trade wars that have…
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Wasteful Obama Auto Bailouts Disturb Even Liberal Washington Post
Even the liberal Washington Post, which endorsed Obama and has not backed a Republican for president since 1952, is getting fed up with the…
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Against Freedom, Against Art, Against Reality
The crusade against film depictions of tobacco smoking is once again gaining momentum. The American Medical Association Alliance, in coalition with several other well-funded special…
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The AFL-CIO’s “Creative Accounting”
The AFL-CIO has obscured its poor financial condition through “creative accounting,” says Machinists union President Tom Buffenbarger, reports Associated Press. Tom Buffenbarger, president of…
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Obama Justice Department Winks at Racist Voter Intimidation
Black Panthers in Philadelphia used nightsticks and racial epithets to drive white voters away from a polling place. “Career lawyers pursued the case for…
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Anti-GMO Zealots vs. Starving Zimbabweans
In Zimbabwe, the most food aid-dependent country in the world, officials and self-styled “consumer activists” have begun raiding shops suspected of selling genetically-modified food,…
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The Cost of Cybersecurity in Context
During his remarks, President Obama noted that "cyber crime has cost Americans more than $8 billion." He continued, "My presidency has so far cost Americans…
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Does the ethanol mandate increase CO2 emissions?
That may seem counter-intuitive, because burning ethanol merely puts back into the air the carbon dioxide (CO2) that corn crops recently pulled out of it, whereas burning gasoline…
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More Bailouts at Taxpayer Expense
Mortgage lenders are getting even bigger taxpayer subsidies to write off mortgage loans for potentially delinquent borrowers, reports today’s Washington Examiner. “President Barack Obama…
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Laffer Curve No Laughing Matter
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Sotomayor NOT first Hispanic Justice — Cardozo was
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Compare and Contrast
Bjorn Lomborg, November 2007: …although it may seem almost comically straightforward, one of the best temperature-reducing approaches is very simple: paint things white. Cities…
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LibertyWeek 44: Is Sotomayor the New Souter?
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Lamb Roast: Mankind’s Doom
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A Bleak Regulatory Future for the Tech Sector
May so far has been full of omens for the future of technology regulation. On Monday the 11th, the Obama administration announced that it would…
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Divorce Courts Harass Our Troops and Small Businesses
Memorial Day is an opportunity to thank our troops, and open our eyes to the disgraceful way they are treated by divorce courts. The bias…
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Profiles in Hypocrisy: Gov. Arnold Pushes Violent Game Ban
California legislators, along with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, are still trying to ban the sale of violent video games to minors. Now, they’re taking their…
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Waxman-Markey: Coercion for its own sake
Most media coverage of H.R. 2454, the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (ACES), focuses on the bill’s cap-and-trade program and the free rationing…
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Obama CAFE kills
President Obama unveiled Tuesday a plan to sharply increase federal gas mileage rules for vehicles sold in the United States, eventually bringing the requirement up…
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Chrysler Confronts Grim Future, Despite Billions in Taxpayer Subsidies
The federal government poured billions of dollars into Chrysler, which then went bankrupt and merged with Fiat. But Chrysler may never revive, thanks to absurdly…
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NBCC/CRA study estimates Waxman-Markey would reduce employment by 2.3 million jobs in 2015
The National Black Chamber of Commerce (NBCC) today released a study by Charles River Associates (CRA) on the economic impacts of H.R. 2454, the American…
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Fulfilling Prophecies
CBO estimated today that unemployment will top out at around 10.5% before it recovers. Congress is doing its part to make CBO’s dire prophecy a…
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Class Warfare Against the Financially Responsible
Earlier, the Obama Administration pushed through $250 billion in mortgage bailouts, to bail out even some high-income borrowers with normal mortgage payments, and…
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Retirees, Taxpayers Ripped Off to Subsidize UAW
Obama accused critics of his decision to give control of Chrysler to the United Auto Workers Union of being “speculators.” But it turns out…
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Ivan Osorio on the United Auto Workers and the Recession
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California here we come?
As McClintock writes, “Congress is well under way toward imposing the same policies on the rest of the nation. California is just a little further…
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Happy 203rd Birthday, John Stuart Mill
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Insightful commentary by Keith Hennessey on Obama’s fuel economy rules
In this insightful, informative post, Keith Hennessey, formerly the senior economic advisor to President G.W. Bush, cautions that Obama's new fuel economy rules could destroy 50,000…
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EWaste Recycling Bans: Wasting Opportunity
Computer giant Dell Inc. has announced that it will stop sending computers for recycling to developing nations. Green groups have been fighting to stop…
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John Berlau Debates Corporate Insurance Policies
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Wasteful Stimulus Package Fails Even In Short Term
1.2 million Americans have lost their jobs since the $800 billion stimulus package was signed into law. The Congressional Budget Office predicted it would…
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Organic Food Waste … of Your Money
There is a great piece in Today’s Financial Times authored by Michael S. Kapinker, which is related to an issue raised in my…
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New fuel economy rules will make cars more costly, less safe, trigger regulatory cascade
At some point today, the EPA and the Department of Transportation (DOT) will propose a first-ever joint regulation to establish first-ever greenhouse gas (GHG)…
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Who determines good and bad gambling?
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Sam Kazman Debates Obama’s Car Mileage Regulations
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Myron Ebell on Car Mileage Regulations
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Calling All Liberty-Loving Writers
Our good friend and CEI alumna Kendra Okonski is looking for writers and journalists to enter the distinguished and lucrative Bastiat Prize Competition, presented…
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Victory for Capitalism in World’s Largest Democracy
India’s Congress Party was responsible for many mistakes when it turned India into a corrupt socialist state in the 1960s and 70s, but it changed…
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Wasteful Cleanup
What is more dangerous: Radioactive waste from a former government nuclear weapons facility or a rotting wood floor? Apparently, it’s the floor. One is hard…
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LibertyWeek 43: A House in Gross Disorder
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Waxman-Markey: What’s new, what’s old?
Today, Reps. Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Ed Markey (D-MA) released a new 932-page version of their cap-and-trade bill and a summary explaining how emission…
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Government Bullies Retirees, Banks, Rips Off Taxpayers
The Obama Administration is now seeking to give the United Auto Workers Union a big chunk of General Motors, at the expense of taxpayers…
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Save the Economy, Save the Environment
Whole Foods profit has fallen 32 percent, reflecting changes in consumer demand during economic hard times. It appears that organic food becomes a luxury…
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Stimulus Ignites Job-Killing Trade War With Canada
The $800 billion stimulus package pushed through by Obama has ignited a trade war with Canada, reports the Washington Post. In response to vague…
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Is Facebook Violating Federal Wiretapping Laws?
Facebook has been at the center of a controversy involving its moderation policies and The Pirate Bay, a popular Bittorrent tracker that was…
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Digital economy increases emissions: Mark Mills gets last laugh
Back in 1999 and 2000, a fierce debate raged as to whether digital networks and devices increase or decrease electricity consumption and emissions. Does the…
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“Bush holdover” is career civil servant hired during Clinton
Team Obama was embarrassed earlier this week when a leaked interagency memorandum acknowledged that EPA’s proposed finding that greenouse gases endanger public health and welfare could…
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Stupid and Evil Soda Tax
Nanny statists are, apparently, equal opportunity hacks. Activists on the left and their legislative team players are not only going after the bottled water…
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Adviser Admits Obama’s Tax Increases May Kill Economic Recovery
Harvard economist Martin Feldstein, warns that “the barrage of tax increases proposed in President Barack Obama’s budget could . . . kill any chance of…
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Law Professors Urge Supreme Court to Review Challenge to Powerful Agency, in Free Enterprise Fund v. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board
Tomorrow, the Supreme Court will weigh whether to decide what a federal judge called the “the most important separation-of-powers case regarding the President’s appointment…
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Ryan Radia on Intel and Antitrust
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Chris Horner on Green Propaganda in the Classroom
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Al Gore 1984
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Massive Tax Increase and Marriage Penalty from Obama
Obama's proposed tax increases create a massive financial penalty for married couples, by subjecting them to much higher income taxes than if they had chosen…
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Fred L. Smith, Jr. on Credit Cards
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Suitable for framing: Barton op-ed on Waxman-Markey
Energy and Commerce Ranking Member Joe Barton (R-TX) hits a home run in this oped, which says everything you need to know about the Waxman-Markey cap-and-tax…
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Annual biofuel subsidies will hit $60 billion in 2022 — Earth Track
Doug Koplow of Earth Track, assisted by researchers with Friends of the Earth, has produced a new study, A Boon to Bad Biofuels, on the…
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LibertyWeek 42: Hugo Chávez, Robber Baron
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How long will Sen. Barrasso’s “hold” on Regina McCarthy hold?
Maybe forever! On April 30, Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) placed a hold on the nomination of Regina McCarthy as Assistant Administrator of the EPA Office of Air and…
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Chemical Blacklist Growing
Apparently, not only are state lawmakers in Minnesota as noted earlier today blindly banning useful consumer products. International bureaucrats are working on misguided bans…
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Lincoln Remains Opposed to EFCA
The possibility of parts of the so-called Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), specifically EFCA’s binding arbitration provision, coming back into the political arena has focused…
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BPA Ban: Minnesota First in a Line of Fools
Usually California’s cast of political characters leads the way in the passage of stupid and counterproductive consumer product regulations. Yet last week, legislative clowns in…
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Deficit Skyrockets to $1.8 Trillion
The White House predicts the budget deficit will top $1.8 trillion, four times 2008’s record. Obama has sought to blame the deficit on Bush.
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Klaus vs. the Eurocrats
In The American Spectator, former CEI Bastiat Scholar Doug Bandow (now at the Cato Institute) describes how “[o]nly the Irish people and Czech President…
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Taxing Away American Jobs
Obama’s plan to raise taxes on the foreign operations of U.S. businesses may destroy management and professional jobs in the U.S., will put American business…
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Purpose of Hate-Crimes Bill Is To Promote Double Jeopardy and Shred Civil Liberties
On April 29, the House voted 249-to-175 to pass the federal hate crimes bill, which the bill’s supporters explicitly want to use to prosecute…
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Citizen Showing Gadsden flag ‘Stopped and Detained’ by Louisiana Police
Louisiana police stopped and detained a U.S. citizen for displaying the Gadsden "Don't Tread on Me" flag on his car. This lead G. Gordon Liddy…
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“Gangster government gave Chrysler to the UAW”
So reads the Washington Examiner’s editorial today about how Obama effectively gave ownership of Chrysler to the United Auto Workers Union (which spent…
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Obama Breaks Yet Another Promise
Obama promised to end the military’s ban on gays, but his Administration has not done so. In fact, it recently kicked out a West Point…
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The Road to Serfdom
On Hayek’s brithday, the following brief speech from internet megastar Daniel Hannan MEP should remind us that there are all too many paths leading to…
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George McGovern on Binding Arbitration
With Democrats just shy of the 60 votes they need to end a filibuster, the fate of the so-called Employee Free Choice Act remains in…
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New York State Jumps on Anti-Bottled Water Wagon
New York Gov. David A. Paterson has jumped on anti-bottled water bandwagon by issuing an executive order halting state-agency purchases of bottled water—claiming…
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Another Postage Hike on Monday
Postage rates will go up on Monday. Thanks to the forever stamp, most of us won’t have to bother with those infernal 2-cent stamps this…
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Cockroaches Win
If New York regulators get their way, the only other option will be for people to hire an exterminator. So basically, if your income is…
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Eco-sailors rescued by oil tanker
“An expedition team which set sail from Plymouth [England] on a 5,000-mile carbon-emission free trip to Greenland have been rescued by an oil tanker,”…
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So, Mr. Waxman, how much global warming will your bill avert?
MAGICC reveals that an 83% reduction in U.S. emissions “will only produce a global temperature ’savings’ during the next 50 years of about 0.05ºC.”…
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Destabilizing Afghanistan: the Quagmire Expands
The anti-American Taliban extremists are resurgent not only in Afghanistan, where they once sheltered Osama Bin Laden, but also in neighboring Pakistan (which has nuclear…
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LibertyWeek 41: SCOTUS Scurry
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Chris Horner on the White House Energy Summit
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A funny take on people’s resistance to new technology
"Meet Bronze!" "Bronze is Your Friend!" "Bronze is Brilliant; User-Friendly; and Multi-Purpose!" "Stone is Dead, Prepare for the Age of Bronze!"…
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Cato on Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission
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Flex-fuel mandates: throwing bad regulation after bad
Rent-seeking–the whoring after market-rigging rules and subsidies–is a true addiction, an appetite that grows with feeding. For the ethanol lobby, it’s not enough that government props up…
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David, Goliath and Chevron
How is little Ecuador going to collect from big Chevron? In 2007, investigative reporter Greg Palast posed the question to Ecuador’s president Rafael Correa regarding…
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RIP Jack Kemp
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Bed Bugs Bite
Don’t let the bed bugs bite was always a frightening thought when I was a kid. But today, it’s even scarier since bed bugs are…
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Bye Bye, Justice Souter
Liberal Supreme Court Justice David Souter is retiring. On social issues, this makes little difference: whoever replaces him will satisfy liberal litmus tests,…
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Congress to Tackle College Football
Having solved all of America's other problems, Congress is turning its attention to how college football's national championship is decided.