Does it take substantial governmental intervention to encourage the growth of renewable energy? It certainly takes some, as renewables remain more expensive than conventional energy sources, but how much? Last Sunday, the New York Times contrasted the efforts of California and Texas. Both states have renewable energy mandates, but energy development is heavily regulated in […]
Author Archive | Jonathan H. Adler
Read the Health Care Bill
It’s just over 1,500 pages. Have fun!
A Stolen Election in New York?
Election officials in Troy, New York have identified over three-dozen phony or fraudulent absentee ballots from the September 15 primary election, which may have been enough to swing the result. While I support voter ID requirements, this is further evidence that absentee ballots are a far more serious vulnerability in our election systems.
Keystone Congress
This is your government at work, as reported in The Hill. Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.) locked Republicans out of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee room to keep them from meeting when Democrats aren’t present. Towns’ action came after repeated public ridicule from the leading Republican on the committee, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), over […]
The World’s Youngest Suspected Terrorist
Here she is. She may look harmless, but that just shows how devious and dangerous our enemies are.
A Step Toward Sanity on Medical Marijuana
The AP reports that the Justice Department will issue a memo formally establishing a new policy regarding the federal prosecution of marijuana possession and sale in states that have decriminalized medical marijuana. The Obama administration will not seek to arrest medical marijuana users and suppliers as long as they conform to state laws, under new […]
“Bloggers Mugged by Regulators Become Economic Libertarians”
Gordon Crovitz on the FTC’s new guidelines on endorsements and testimonials and the blogosphere’s reaction. The guidelines require people to disclose online if they have what the FTC vaguely defines as “material connections” with the sellers of a product or service. This could include getting free samples on which they base comments or reviews. Bloggers […]
Sunday Song Lyric
If recent news reports are accurate, Oasis is no longer. Gallagher brothers Noel and Liam have parted ways. While they never quite lived up to their own hype, I liked them quite a bit. Their first three albums were particularly good. Now that they are heading off into the sunset, it seems appropriate to pick […]
SuperFreakonomic War of Words Over Warming
Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner’s SuperFreakonomics, the sequel to their wildly successful book Freakonomics, won’t be released until October 20, and yet it’s already managed to spark a war of words among environmental and economic bloggers. Levitt and Dubner sum up some of the controversy (and explains their side of things) here and here.
Wolfers v. Ehrenreich
Barbara Ehrenreich critiqued the recent research by Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers documenting an apparent decline in self-reported happiness among women, and Wolfers is not happy. One of the things I’ve learned from Levitt is that you need a thick skin if you are going to write about controversial topics. And since Betsey Stevenson and […]
Where Are Obama’s Judicial Nominees?
The Washington Post reports that liberal activists are upset that President Obama has yet to place his stamp on the federal courts. The Administration has been very slow to make judicial nominations and has not spent much political capital to get its nominees confirmed. As of last week, President Obama had only made 26 nominations […]
Does Limbaugh Have a Libel Suit Against CNN?
CNN (among other news outlets) attributed racially inflammatory quotes to Rush Limbaugh that the talk radio host never said. These quotes fanned the flames of opposition to his participation in a bid to purchase the St. Louis Rams, and Limbaugh was subsequently dropped from the group of prospective owners. CNN’s Rick Sanchez has apologized and, […]
Divided Sixth Circuit Dismisses No Child Left Behind Suit
In January 2008, a divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit reversed a district court’s dismissal of a school district challenge to portions of the No Child Left Behind Act in School District of the City of Pontiac v. Spellings. Today, an equally divided en banc court affirmed the judgment […]
Is Justice Sotomayor Concerned about the Cost of Class-Actions?
Yesterday, with little fanfare, Justice Kennedy filed an statement respecting the denial of the petition for a write of certiorari in DTD Enterprises v. Wells. It reads: This case began with a contract action brought by DTD Enterprises, Inc. (hereinafter petitioner), a commercial dating-referral service, against respondent, one of peti-tioner’s customers. The suit alleged that […]
Do the New FTC Regs Cover Blog Comments?
More from Walter Olson on the potential scope of the FTC’s new regulations governing bloggers and other social media users. It’s been much asserted of late that it’s no particular burden to disclose when mentioning a newly published book or quoting from a newsworthy speech that the publisher sent you a review copy or the […]