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Cutting Corners and Nickel-and-Diming Customers
In macroeconomics, the “circular flow of income” refers to the continuous flow of money between producers and consumers in the economy. Producers provide goods and…
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FTC declares mergers to be union-busting
In a classic case of regulatory creep, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has recently asserted jurisdiction over labor unions and collective bargaining. The agency is…
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This week in ridiculous regulations: Baby formula waivers and phonorecords
The 2023 Federal Register became the second-largest ever, dating back to 1936. A new CEI study makes the case for reforming administrative law…
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200 More Obamacare Waivers Granted
204 more waivers of Obamacare’s onerous mandates have been issued over the past month, bringing the total to at least 1,372. As…
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Regulation of the Day 176: Cooking a Burger
In North Carolina, it is illegal to cook a burger to an internal temperature under 155 degrees.
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Feds Say “Prepare for a Zombie Apocalypse!”
Who says bureaucrats don’t have a sense of humor? The Wall Street Journal‘s Health Blog points to a…
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USDA’s War on Potatoes
The Wall Street Journal reports today that the U.S. Department of Agriculture is proposing to “eliminate the ‘white potato’ — defined…
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There is No More Fat to Trim from Government Budgets, Part 3
The USDA is spending $2 million to take pictures of what San Antonio school children eat for lunch.
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Hormones in Milk: They Do a Body Good
Today's Washington Post Food section contains a number of articles following up on the Post's "The Future…
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Clinic for Porn Actors Closes, AIDS Group Rejoices
After years of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation trashing them in the media, the Adult Industry Medical Foundation (aka AIM) has closed its doors for good,…
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Biofuels Policy — Death and Disease Follow
The inestimable Indur Goklany has an important new report on biofuels and developing countries. “Could Biofuel Policies Increase Death and Disease in Developing Countries?”…
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Los Angeles (City) Won’t Refuse Permits for Condomless Porn
After years of fighting and failed attempts to force Los Angeles County to require condom-usage on adult film sets, AIDS activists were finally successfully…
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TTB Should Allow, Not Mandate Nutritional Labels
Last month I penned an article for BigGovernment.com in which I asserted that some large alcohol producers were in favor of the nutritional label…
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The War on Scent Continues
Nevada's legislature is considering restricting or banning pesticides, potpourri, air fresheners, candles, and pretty much anything with a scent in public places.
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Regulation of the Day 167: Wearing Perfume
Portland, Oregon is banning city government employees from wearing perfume or cologne at work.
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Human Achievement of the Day: Print-on Skin
Imagine being able to simply spray new skin onto wounds, scars, or burns as if they never happened? We may be one step closer…
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Human Achievement of the Day: Mosquito-Zapping Lasers
It’s hard to deny that lasers are cool, but a lasers that can blast mosquitoes out of the sky, protecting us from the malaria spreading…
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Compensate Donors for Giving Their Organs
My letter to the editor in today’s Washington Post: The Feb. 24 front-page article “New kidney transplant rules would favor younger patients” reported…
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$240 Billion Tobacco Deal Challenged in Supreme Court in S&M Brands v. Caldwell
Back in 1998, the states settled their lawsuits against the big tobacco companies in a deal called the tobacco Master Settlement Agreement -- the biggest…
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Lessons from Four Loko: Don’t Be Too Good
That lawmakers are still wringing their hands about the alcoholic (formerly caffeinated) drink, Four Loko, reveals that their fears have nothing to do with…
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Remembering Jack Calfee
The sad news of Jack Calfee’s death came out of the blue yesterday morning. I first met Jack about two decades…
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The GOP and the Health Insurance Mandate
With the health insurance individual purchase mandate looking more vulnerable than ever, Democrats are trying desperately to get some mileage out…
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Obamacare Struck Down by Florida Judge; Properly Applies Severability Principles to Invalidate Whole Law
A judge in Florida just declared the health care law known as “Obamacare” unconstitutional, ruling it void in its entirety. Judge Vinson rightly…
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EPA to Re-Brand Mortality Risk Reduction
A recent paper published by the EPA provides up to date governmental thoughts on attempts to put a value on a statistical life (VSL)…
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Autism Doctor a Fraud, But Hardly Alone
“A deliberate fraud.” That’s what the British Medical Journal, one of the world’s most prestigious periodicals, has written of the study…
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Junk Scientist’s Autism Research “An Elaborate Fraud,” Reports British Medical Journal
Yesterday the British Medical Journal found that Andrew Wakefield, who authored “studies” linking autism with measles, mumps, and rubella vaccines, had committed “an elaborate…
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Potato Diet Improves Man’s Health; Obama Administration Bans Potatoes from WIC Program
Chris Voigt lost 21 pounds and improved his health by living on a potato-only diet for 60 days. Potatoes are more nutritious…
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Food Safety Modernization Act Passes; Unconstitutional Provision Supposedly Removed
The Food Safety Modernization Act was passed again by Congress on Sunday, apparently without a provision that earlier drew criticism for violating the Constitution by having a…
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Nanny-Statist CSPI Sues to Ban Happy Meals at McDonald’s
An ill-informed left-wing group, the Center for Science in the Public Interest, is suing McDonald’s in California to ban toys from Happy…
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V.A. Judge Rules Against Obama’s Health Care Law
A Virginia federal judge has declared federal health care legislation unconstitutional. In response to the decision, which was handed down earlier today, CEI General…
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New Fast Food Restaurants Banned in South Los Angeles
New fast-food restaurants are now banned in South Los Angeles. Say goodbye to many entry-level jobs in that poor urban area. The cockamamie idea behind this ban is…
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Energy Drink Ban? What’s Next?
Lynne Nowick, a legislator in Suffolk County, New York, wants to ban energy drinks for anyone under the age of 19 years old. Why?…
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Court Rejects Obesity Class-Action Against McDonald’s
A New York court has refused to certify a class-action lawsuit against McDonald’s by people claiming it made them obese. As Ted Frank notes,…
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Senate Leaders Violate Constitution in Pushing Through Costly Food Safety Modernization Act
The House and Senate passed different versions of the Food Safety Modernization Act, which would ratchet up costly regulations of farms and food processing. (Greg…
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It’s World AIDS Day; Is it the “Forgotten Epidemic”?
World AIDS Day has rolled around again, amid charges by C. Everett Koop that “HIV is no longer on the public’s radar screen, and…
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CEI Podcast — November 30, 2010: Food Safety, Washington-Style
CEI Senior Fellow Greg Conko looks at the major provisions of the food safety bill that the Senate is voting on today.
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Federal Government Subsidizes Obesity and Wealthy Urbanites
In the Washington Examiner, David Freddoso explains how the federal Department of Health and Human Services spent $766,000 of your tax dollars to help…
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Obesity Letters Assume Parents Can’t See Their Children
A school district in Arizona is implementing a controversial program that has the world talking: they will be weighing students and sending notes home…
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Why You Should CARE About the Ban on Four Loko
Late yesterday evening, the maker of Four Loko announced it was removing caffeine from the popular alcohol beverage. This came following media-driven hysteria, state…
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Four Loko Crackdown: FDA Set to Ban Caffeinated-Alcohol Drinks
It looks as though the FDA is now set to ban the small but growing market for so-called alcohol-energy drinks, such as Four Loko and…
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Be Thankful for BPA-Lined Canned Goods this Thanksgiving
Well-meaning environmentalist Mindy Pennybacker, author of Do One Green Thing: Saving the Earth Through Simple, Everyday Choices, offers some sagely foolish advice…
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Product Bans Are More Dangerous than Four Loko
How many people follow up a heavy night of drinking with some coffee? How many restaurants serve coffee and desert right after dinners where diners…
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Feminist Porn Director Supports Freedom of Individual Choice
Porn actress, director, and self-described “kinky feminist,” Madison Young, spoke out in an interview with Salon.com about her feelings in the condom debate that…
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Ignorant Food Snobbery: Judge Orders McDonald’s to Pay Obese Employee $17,500
From The New York Times: A Brazilian court ruled this week that McDonald’s must pay a former franchise manager $17,500 because he gained 65…
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An Alcohol-Caffeine Ban Won’t Work
The genie is out of the bottle. Mixing energy drinks and distilled spirits has become a popular trend in the U.S., particularly, among college age…
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Sen. Grassley’s Selective Crusade Against Conflicts of Interest
Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Ia.) has been on a tear lately, badgering the Food and Drug Administration about whether it's doing enough to crack down on…
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Supreme Court Case May Wipe Out Vaccine Industry
Back when Congress knew how to pass good legislation, in this case in the mid-1980s, it took most cases involving vaccine liability out of the…
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Medical Trial and Error
The Atlantic has an interesting profile of medical researcher John Ioannidis, who famously concluded in a groundbreaking 2005 study that the scientific conclusions of most…
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Restricting What People Eat, Based on the Ignorance of Food Snobs
There are increasing calls for the government to restrict salty food and fast-food restaurants, and tax fast food, to curb obesity. This is especially true…
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Top Scientist Calls “Scam” Geron Human ESC Experiment
To much celebration and media play, the first human trial of embryonic stem cells has begun. With a grand total so far of one…
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McDonald’s 6-Month-Old Burger is a Triumph, Not a Terror
To prove a friend wrong, New York artist Sally Davies left a happy meal out on her counter for six months. Yesterday, several media…
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If You Like Your Health Plan, You May Lose It Anyway
Another major employer, 3M, has decided to “eventually stop offering its health insurance plan to retirees, citing the federal health overhaul as a factor.”…
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Obamacare May Force McDonald’s to Drop Health Coverage for Employees
Michelle Malkin points out that “McDonald’s has notified the feds that it may be forced to drop health insurance for some 30,000 workers due…
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Science Credibility Flu Away – At Least in Europe
Throughout the phony flu pandemic I warned that health officials would lose credibility because basically everything they were telling us was false and, unlike…
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22,000 Lose Their Health Insurance Due to Obamacare
Approximately 22,000 senior citizens just lost their health plan with Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, which dropped its Medicare Advantage Program due to “cuts in…
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Regulation of the Day 151: Water Heaters
The EPA recommends setting your water heater to 20 degrees Fahrenheit. But OSHA recommends setting it to 140 degrees Fahrenheit. Why the difference?…
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America: Land of the Free?
Prior to arriving in America I imagined this country as being the land of the free. But somehow, it turned out this was a wrongly…
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Insurers Drop Children’s Health Insurance Due to Obamacare
Insurers have stopped writing children-only health insurance policies due to mandates in Obamacare that ignored basic principles of economics. So if…
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Insurance Regulators Approve Increases Based on Obamacare
In Connecticut, insurance rate regulators have approved hikes in insurance premiums of up to 20 percent, agreeing with insurers that…
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San Francisco’s Mayor Opposed to Alcohol Tax
It isn’t often that we get to praise politicians, but cheers to San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom who vowed to veto plans for an…
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Antibiotics and Meat DO Mix
Whether you’re talking about human or animal use, banning beneficial uses today can have negative impacts on human and animal health just as surely as…
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Regulation of the Day 146: Airplane Child Seats
The NTSB wants to throw away 50 lives to save an estimated 1 or 2 lives.
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Obama Justice Department Uses Americans with Disabilities Act to Harm the Disabled, Risk Lives, and Undermine Safety
“Amazon.com . . . tried to sell a talking Kindle reader, but” the Justice Department “said it couldn’t because the button to make the…
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Missouri Voters Overwhelmingly Reject ObamaCare’s Individual Mandate in Referendum
“Missouri voters on Tuesday overwhelmingly rejected a federal mandate to purchase health insurance, rebuking President Barack Obama’s administration and giving Republicans their first political…
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Judge Lets Virginia Challenge ObamaCare’s Individual Mandate, Refusing to Dismiss Lawsuit
A federal judge in Virginia has allowed the state’s lawsuit challenging the federal individual health care mandate to proceed: “A judge on Monday…
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A tort reform advocate’s dream, my article in Forbes.com
It’s a tort reform advocate’s dream–meaning a defendant’s worst nightmare. As I write in my Forbes.com article, “California Trial Lawyers Find A Geezer Goldmine,”…
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Cell Phones Don’t Cause Cancer
Over at the Daily Caller, I debunk the fear that long-term cell phone use can cause brain tumors.
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In Defense of Urban Beekeeping
Beekeeping is an ancient human practice, with some anthropological evidence suggesting that primitive forms of honey bee domestication go back more than 4,000 years. Apiarists…
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“Cell Phone Fear in San Francisco,” my article in Forbes.com
The king is dead. More accurately, Larry King is hanging up his suspenders after 25 years on TV interviewing essentially everybody who was anybody. His…
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Obama Administration Blocks Clean-Up of Oil Spill by Louisiana and Foreign Allies By Imposing Red Tape
The Obama Administration recently used red tape to force Louisiana to stop using 16 barges that were cleaning up the Gulf…
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Obama Uses Oil Spill to Push Failed Energy Policies
In his speech last night, President Obama used the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico to push his failed energy policies, such…
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Cell Phone Cancer Scare Refuses to Die
Some people are scared that cell phones cause brain tumors. There are enough of these bedwetters that San Francisco just passed a new law requiring…
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My article: “Purveying Pig Flu Panic at the Post”
“Panic is what we want,” Washington Post columnist Anne Applebaum wrote last May of swine flu. “Panic is good,” she said, also labeling the disease…
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Obama Blocked Clean Up of BP Oil Spill by Friendly Countries; International Assistance Blocked by Regulations Obama Had The Authority To Waive
Crucial offers to help clean up BP’s oil spill “have come from Belgian, Dutch, and Norwegian firms that . . . possess some of the…
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Regulation of the Day 140: Plastic
“Plastics are the future,” a pushy relative told a young Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate. Was he giving career advice -- or a warning?…
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BP Supported Obama Stimulus Package, Global Warming Bill, and Corporate Welfare; BP Bankrolled Obama Campaign
Columnist Tim Carney notes that BP, responsible for the massive oil spill, is “a close friend of big government whenever it serves the company’s…
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Obama Uses BP Oil Spill to Push Corporate-Welfare-Filled Global Warming Bill That BP Once Lobbied For
Talk about chutzpah. President Obama, the biggest recipient of campaign cash from BP, is using BP’s oil spill to push for a global…
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Today’s the Day
Today is National Donut Day. Ordinarily, this would be just another cute calendar event. But nowadays we’re bombarded by government proposals…
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BP: A “Serial Environmental Criminal” With Close Ties To The Obama Administration
BP, which is responsible for the terrible oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, has a safety record infinitely worse than other oil companies, which…
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“No More Crying ’Spanish Flu’,” my article in Forbes
What’s that? Your throat feels sore? You’re sniffling and sneezing? Bit achy? IT’S THE RETURN OF THE SPANISH FLU! Okay, that’s satire–but not by much.
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ObamaCare Deeply Unpopular: Democratic Congressman Who Voted for Health Care Bill Loses Primary Election
ObamaCare is so unpopular in West Virginia that veteran Democratic Congressman Alan Mollohan lost reelection in yesterday’s Democratic primary to a state senator who…
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The NEW reason for fomenting pig flu panic – “Use up those vaccines!”
According to Reuters, the U.S. has 71 million unused H1N1 swine flu vaccine doses. And damned if it isn’t determined to use up every…
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FDA Salt Statement Leaves a “Mistaken Impression”
Some 80 years ago this month, Mahatma Gandhi led tens of thousands on a 240-mile march in protest against a British salt tax, inciting millions…
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ObamaCare Vastly Expands IRS Red Tape and Power, Raises Medical and Insurance Costs, Taxes, and Deficits, and Harms Very Sick People
“Billions of more documents” will be have to be filled out by small businesses for the IRS so that a “spendthrift Congress can shake…
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ObamaCare Will Raise Insurance Premiums and Health Care Costs, Perhaps Bankrupt Hospitals, Federal Officials Admit
“Economic experts from President Obama’s own Health and Human Services Department have released a devastating report noting that Obamacare ‘will increase national health care…
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Earth Day Agriculture and Sustainable Intensification
What’s the most sustainable way to grow the food we eat? The answer environmentalists give is always "local and organic." But, increasingly, the answer from…
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Hate mail from an M.D. regarding my AOL News piece, “Did WHO Knowingly Hype Swine Flu?”
Dear Mr. Fumento: Well, if you wish to destroy the credibility of the WHO, publishing a few more articles like the most recent one…
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D.C. area poll shows, once again, OTHER Americans are crummy drivers
Why are people killed in Toyotas? Because a huge number of Americans are killed by motor vehicles of all types and Toyota has been the…
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CDC dumping swine flu vaccine – after media dumped the truth
What do you get from a phony flu scare? Among other things, lots of worthless vaccine. “Despite months of dire warnings and millions in taxpayer…
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Regulatory Problem, Regulatory Solution?
A dying patient in the UK's NHS made the news after nurses refused to bring him a glass of water, despite his repeated begging. Had…
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Barack Obama and Liberal “Good” vs. Freedom
There's a great op-ed by Shelby Steele in today's Wall Street Journal, called "Barack the Good". In it, Steele argues that "today's liberalism is focused…
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Gene Patents Ruled Invalid
In a pretty remarkable move, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York yesterday held that genes can not be patented…
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Millions of Seniors to be Dumped from Health Plans Due to New Health Care Law
Two million seniors are expected to be dumped onto Medicare from company prescription medication plans, thanks to a poorly-vetted provision of…
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Attorney Generals Challenge ObamaCare; New Health Care Law Increases State Budget Deficits, Imposes Marriage Penalties
Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli and a dozen other attorneys general have filed lawsuits challenging the new health care law signed…
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Health Care- Fix middle-class “medicine cabinet tax” in reconciliation
“They won’t be so opposed to it once they see what’s in it.” That’s the rationalization House leaders have given skittish Democrats to get them…
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Health Care Crisis About to Get a Whole Lot Worse
In just a few hours, the House of Representatives will vote on the $940 billion Senate health care bill, followed by a reconciliation package of…
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New Taxes on Investors in Obamacare, and Massive Marriage Penalties, Too
The new tax on investors in the health care bill has been increased from 2.9 percent to 3.8 percent, but only a few media…
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Health Care Bill Would Vastly Expand IRS Power; CBO Ordered to Base Cost Estimate on False Assumptions
“House health care bill dangerously expands IRS power,” say a tax law professor and GOP leaders. The Washington Examiner says that “16,500 more…
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Governors Criticize Health Care Bill for Increasing Unemployment and State Budget Deficits; Tax Increases and Medicare Cuts in Bill Rise
Governors are now criticizing the health care bill backed by the Obama administration, saying it will cause health care costs and state deficits to…
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Remember the “cancer cluster” that made Erin Brockovich famous? (And rich?)
Erin Brockovich became “America’s Sweetheart” because “she brought a corporation to its knees.” As the story goes, the energy company PG&E was storing chromium 6,…
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Even Associated Press Says “Beware” of Obama’s Health Care Overhaul; Retired Judge Calls Health Care Tactic Unconstitutional
Even the Associated Press admits that President Obama is not telling the truth about his health care plan and how it would affect health…
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ObamaCare’s Enormous Cost Is Hidden by Dishonest Gimmicks, Says New York Times Columnist Who Supported Obama in 2008
New York Times columnist David Brooks, like other columnists at that staunchly liberal newspaper, supported Obama in the 2008 election. But even he can…
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$3,000,000,000,000 in Tax Increases in President Obama’s Budget
The president’s proposed budget raises taxes by three trillion dollars over the next ten years, notes Washington fiscal analyst…