Marriage Savings

Mar 2, 2015 with 0 Comments

We’ve all seen lawmakers yammer on and on about how they want to “streamline” government, or “save the taxpayers money.” But they rarely show us much for all the talk. Paul Woolverton, writing this weekend in the Fayetteville Observer, noted one such lapse after the North Carolina Senate voted to

The Problem of No Problem

Feb 27, 2015 with 0 Comments

A scientist has a problem: no problem. Sounds like a Zen riddle, but it’s really about the riddle of victimhood-worship. Emily Yoffe writes an advice column called Dear Prudence. A female reader reported a problem pertaining to workplace bias against women. Although she works in a “very masculine scientific field .

Why the Tiny Domicile

Feb 23, 2015 with 2 Comments

he “tiny house” movement has gained momentum. More and more people — especially young people and childless people — see the virtue of very small houses. They are cheaper, can be made energy-efficient, have an almost necessarily smaller “environmental footprint,” and are mobile. And I can see the attraction. For

Five Senators for Death

Mar 11, 2014 with 7 Comments

“Beware: Second-hand stupidity kills.” That’s just one of the killer lines from Greg Gutfeld’s rant against the five Democratic senators who introduced a bill to ban marketing e-cigarettes to teenagers. (It’s from The Five’s e-cig segment I linked to on Saturday.) Gutfeld called the e-cig “the greatest medical device since

Big Soda Ban Still Fizzles

Aug 5, 2013 with 3 Comments

One of the Nanny State’s ninniest nannies is New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, eager to save New Yorkers from big cups of sugary drinks. Big Soda supposedly makes you tubby. Bloomberg feels that it is the government’s job to prevent such tubbiness. (No word yet on bans of big

Forced Visits

Jul 19, 2013 with 7 Comments

When I’m ancient and stuck in a nursing home, I’d like my children to visit me. But would I want them to visit only because they’re being forced to? So they resent every minute subtracted from something they’d rather be doing? No. While I don’t want that kind of world,

A Big Gulp for Bloomberg

Mar 12, 2013 with 3 Comments

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s much-talked-about prohibition of large-size sugary drinks, like Coke and Pepsi, set to have gone into effect today, has been over-ruled. At least temporarily. New York Supreme Court Judge Milton Tingling put the kibosh on the law, on Monday, enjoining and restraining the city “from

Throw the Bums’ Meat Out?

Mar 1, 2013 with 5 Comments

“Beggars can’t be choosers.” “Never look a gift horse in the mouth.” These two maxims of generations past sought to curb ingratitude, a sense of entitlement, or even cultivated taste amongst those dependent on the kindness of others — thus preventing the poor from making the best the enemy of

A Big Gulp of Tyranny

Feb 28, 2013 with 6 Comments

Little things mean a lot. One, they add up. Two, they often express something big, like love between a married couple — or a bully’s determination to control your every move. In the case of New York City’s impending ban on Big Soda, the something big is Big Brother’s claim

Rationing Pain Relief

Jan 25, 2013 with 4 Comments

If you doubt that ever-expanding government control over medicine hurts people, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is eager to disabuse you. How else to explain his new requirement that city-controlled emergency rooms restrict supplies of painkillers in the name of the war on drugs? The idea is that if emergency

Food Freedom

Oct 1, 2012 with 7 Comments

In most areas of this country, selling raw milk is against the law, which puts folks like Alvin Schlangen into the black market. Schlangen, an organic egg producer when he isn’t being arrested for crimes against homogenization, recently stood trial in Hennepin County District Court, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on three

Townhall: Nannies with badges and guns

Jun 10, 2012 with 0 Comments

The enemies of freedom usually pretend to be engaging in their outrageous and over-bearing coercion “for the people’s sake.” Don’t believe them. See Sunday’s column at Townhall — and then come back here for links and hints on further reading. The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair — free from Project Gutenberg Dracula, by