The elevated freeway that collapsed during the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake in Oakland had long been known to be non-seismically-sound. Engineering students at nearby University of California, Berkeley were directed to the structure as a case-study in negative harmonics, and we who drove on it regularly were well familiar with the almost seasickening wavy...
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Emails released last week between representatives of major pharmaceutical companies (“big Pharma”) and top Obama administration officials, including White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, reveal insider-dealing sufficient to kill any remaining Hope that Obamacare was designed to deliver on the promises of its official name: there is no Patient Protection or Affordable Care...
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I suppose it shouldn’t be surprising that non-profits are finding the War on Terror a convenient excuse to increase their funding from government. Nor surprising that our friends in Washington have been happy to oblige in adding dependents to the gravy train. In news that could have been taken straight from the pages of...
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This story reports that two TSA employees were arrested for taking bribes to allow large narcotic shipments pass through the Los Angeles airport. I put up a post about a similar story last year, so I’ll raise similar questions again. There is no rule against carrying drugs on airplanes, and carrying them did not...
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TSA agents in Wichita, KS, reached a new low in their terror campaign against the flying public: subjecting a 4-year girl and her family to a brutal confrontation, including threats to shut down the entire airport and cancel all flights due to the little girl’s being—in their words—a “high security threat.” The Daily Mail...
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Economic policy issues often divide on “pro-business” and “pro-government” arguments, with the pro-government side arguing that we need big government to correct the failures of the market, regulate business activity, and stand up to crony capitalism. The problem with this pro-government view is that crony capitalism inevitably comes with big government. In a democracy...
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We are delighted to announce the publication of the Spring 2012 issue of the Independent Institute’s peer-reviewed journal, The Independent Review. This issue’s articles and book reviews deal with the following questions: What does evidence from hunter-gatherer societies suggest about whether human beings are better adapted for individualism or collectivism? Read the article. What...
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The response to the January 27th article in the Wall Street Journal by sixteen leading scientists, “No Need to Panic About Global Warming,” has been nothing short of explosive both at the Journal and to my blogging on the matter, “Leading Scientists Debunk Climate Alarmism.” However, the response from the mega-funded alarmist establishment (see...
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The headline of this Washington Post article summarizes the story pretty well: “Some legislators send millions to groups connected to their relatives.” Relatives in the story are legislators’ spouses and children. I recently blogged about the insider trading by members of Congress that would send ordinary citizens to jail. That story was uncovered in...
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In Ayn Rand’s novel, Atlas Shrugged, published in 1957, businesses push government to pass law after law that aids weaker businesses by penalizing successful ones. There’s the “Anti-Dog-Eat-Dog Rule” to prevent destructive competition among firms in an industry, and the “Equalization of Opportunity Bill” that limits the number of businesses one person can own....
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