Neuroscientist nukes popular misconceptions. Growing familiarity with marijuana has been accompanied
by growing
support for legalization because people discovered through
personal experience that the government was lying to them about the
drug’s hazards. But it is easier to demonize less popular drugs
such as crack cocaine and ... MORE
Obama-light could represent GOP in 2016. President Barack Obama has called Republican Gov. Chris Christie to congratulate him on his re-election in New Jersey. Christie won a second term on Tuesday, defeating Democrat Barbara Buono by more than 20 percentage points. Obama and Christie have developed an unusually close ... MORE
by Jacob Sullum. After Carol Anne Bond discovered that her husband had
impregnated her best friend, the Pennsylvania microbiologist took
revenge by spreading toxic chemicals on her ex-friend's car door,
mailbox, and door knob. The poisonous prank was mostly ineffectual,
inflicting nothing worse than a minor thumb burn. Bond's ... MORE
In praise of creative destruction. Capitalism, said economist Joseph
Schumpeter seven decades ago, is a process of creative destruction. New
inventions, new processes, new methods of organization lead to the
creation of new profitable and efficient businesses and to the
destruction of old ones unable to ... MORE
More freedom please. The market is fine for some things, people will say, but other activities are too important to be left to the market. Or too complicated. Or too fundamental to our democracy. I say: Privatize everything. To some of you, that will sound callous -- but failure to privatize services, keeping them in government hands instead, ... MORE
Cops claim to have acted within the law. A New Mexico man stopped for rolling through a stop sign earlier this year was subjected to a nightmarish 14-hour anal cavity search after police became suspicious that he was hiding drugs. David Eckert says he was subjected to three enemas, two rectal searches, two x-rays and even a colonoscopy - all in ... MORE
by Bill Frezza. Imagine you are a small town grocer whose business is not large enough for an armored car service, so you regularly deposit the day’s cash receipts in a local bank. You’re only insured for thefts up to $10,000, so you make sure to never have more on the premises. One day, without warning, the government swoops in and confiscates ... MORE