Jacob Sullum from Creators Syndicate

The Right to a Guilty Verdict for 07/15/2009

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

In a speech he gave a couple of months ago, President Obama said he was determined to guarantee "meaningful due process rights" for terrorism suspects. But it turns out he is committed to due process only when it achieves the result he wants.

Last week, the Defense Department's top lawyer declared that the president has the authority to detain people accused of belonging to or ...

Updated: Wed Jul 15, 2009

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Paying a Premium for Insurance for 07/22/2009

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

This week President Obama promised "the reforms we seek" will bring greater "inefficiencies to our health care system." It was a slip of the tongue, but the Obama-inspired health care bill moving through the House of Representatives suggests the president accidentally told the truth. The bill, approved last week by two House committees, would spend much more than necessary t ...

Updated: Wed Jul 22, 2009

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Liberty and Lippiness for 07/29/2009

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

A few minutes into the police encounter that ended with his arrest for disorderly conduct, Henry Louis Gates Jr. reportedly exclaimed, "This is what happens to black men in America!" It would be more accurate to say this is what can happen to anyone who makes the mistake of annoying a cop.

Whether or not race played a role in the incident, Cambridge police Sgt. James Crowley cl ...

Updated: Wed Jul 29, 2009

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Fat Load for 08/05/2009

Wed, 05 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Lately, President Obama has begun calling his plan to reinvent America's health care system "insurance reform." Yet the version of the plan moving through the Senate also includes restaurant menu reform (a mandate requiring the conspicuous posting of calorie counts) as well as grocery reform, transportation reform and recreation reform (money to build farmers markets, bike paths, side ...

Updated: Wed Aug 05, 2009

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A Hard Pill to Swallow for 08/12/2009

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Last week, Christina Romer, chairwoman of the White House Counsel of Economic Advisers, suggested that we think of the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act as an extremely expensive course of antibiotics. "Suppose you go to your doctor for a strep throat," Romer said in a speech to the Economic Club of Washington, "and he or she prescribes an antibiotic."

...

Updated: Wed Aug 12, 2009

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Astroturf and Sunlight for 08/19/2009

Wed, 19 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Two years ago, the Senate rejected an attempt to regulate "astroturf," professional political agitation aimed at stimulating (or simulating) grassroots activity. Recently, that measure's supporters have been saying, "I told you so," citing the debate over who is behind boisterous criticism of President Obama's health care agenda at congressional town hall meetings.

Bu ...

Updated: Wed Aug 19, 2009

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Grays of Making Them Talk for 08/26/2009

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

In a 2004 report that was made public on Monday, the CIA's inspector general noted that "a number of agency officers of various grade levels who are involved with detention and interrogation activities are concerned that they may at some future date be vulnerable to legal action." Depending on your view of the Bush administration's "enhanced interrogation techniques," this s ...

Updated: Wed Aug 26, 2009

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Unfair, Unbalanced, but Free for 09/02/2009

Wed, 02 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

"When the government of the United States of America claims the authority to ban books because of their political speech," says Citizens United, " something has gone terribly wrong." A majority of the U.S. Supreme Court seems to agree.

Next week, for the second time, the court will hear oral arguments in Citizens United v. FEC, a case that poses the question of whethe ...

Updated: Wed Sep 02, 2009

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Drug Control Becomes Speech Control for 09/09/2009

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

When the government accuses a doctor of running a "pill mill," prosecutors portray every aspect of his practice in a sinister light. Prescribing painkillers becomes drug trafficking, applying for insurance reimbursement becomes fraud, making bank deposits becomes money laundering and working with people at the office becomes conspiracy.

When Siobhan Reynolds thinks a doctor has ...

Updated: Wed Sep 09, 2009

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The Consumer Is Not the Customer for 09/16/2009

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The other day, I was trying to figure out why the paycheck deduction for my health insurance was higher than I had expected. When I called my insurer to ask what the total premium was, the customer service representative said it was none of my business.

Three-fifths of Americans, the share with employer-provided health insurance, are in the same situation: Since someone else buys insuran ...

Updated: Wed Sep 16, 2009

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Does Cost of Uncompensated Care Justify Forcing People to Buy Insurance? for 09/23/2009

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

At a July press conference, President Obama claimed "the average American family is paying thousands of dollars in hidden costs" because uncompensated health care for the uninsured drives up the price of medical coverage. In an interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos on Sunday, by contrast, he said uncompensated care costs the average family $900.

According to a 2008 report ...

Updated: Wed Sep 23, 2009

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Criminal Records for 09/30/2009

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Does "Conan the Barbarian" have serious artistic value? That's one of the intriguing questions raised by a case the U.S. Supreme Court will hear next Tuesday.

Because "Conan" includes footage of horses tripped by wires, it is arguably covered by a federal ban on depictions of animal cruelty.

If so, Amazon is committing a felony by selling it, unless it could co ...

Updated: Wed Sep 30, 2009

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From Guns to Butter for 10/07/2009

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

In the 1856 case Dred Scott v. Sandford, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the idea that Africans and their descendants in the United States could be "entitled to the privileges and immunities of citizens." To emphasize how absurd that notion was, Chief Justice Roger Taney noted that, among other things, those "privileges and immunities" would allow members of "the unhapp ...

Updated: Wed Oct 07, 2009

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Bigot Bonus for 10/14/2009

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which President Obama plans to sign soon, is named after two men who were murdered in 1998. Shepard, a gay college student, was beaten to death in Wyoming. Byrd, a black hitchhiker, was dragged to death behind a pickup truck in Texas. Bigotry seemed to play a role in both crimes.

Here is something else Matthew Shepard and ...

Updated: Wed Oct 14, 2009

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Myocardial Infractions for 10/21/2009

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Six years ago, when I asked an epidemiologist about a report that a smoking ban in Helena, Mont., had cut heart attacks by 40 percent within six months, he thought the idea was so ridiculous that no one would take it seriously. He was wrong.

Since then, 10 other studies have attributed substantial short-term reductions in heart attacks to smoking bans, and last week an Institute of Medic ...

Updated: Wed Oct 21, 2009

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Medical Marijuana Muddle for 10/22/2009

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

During his presidential campaign, Barack Obama repeatedly promised to stop federal interference with state laws that allow the medical use of marijuana. On Monday, the Justice Department seemed to deliver on that promise with a memo telling U.S. attorneys to avoid prosecuting people who use or provide medical marijuana in compliance with state law.

The new policy sounds a lot better than ...

Updated: Thu Oct 22, 2009

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Mandatory Savings? for 10/28/2009

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

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Obama's Hidden Fees for 11/04/2009

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

President Obama's promise to raise taxes only on the wealthy was easy to make and easy to break. He broke it barely two weeks after taking office, and he will break it again if Congress passes the health care legislation he wants. But Obama has come up with a strategy to avoid the fate of George H.W. Bush: Although he will raise your taxes, he will never admit he is raising your taxes.

C ...

Updated: Wed Nov 04, 2009

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The Folly of Unilateral Disarmament for 11/11/2009

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

When Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan started shooting up the Soldier Readiness Processing Center at Fort Hood, Pfc. Marquest Smith dove under a desk. The Associated Press reports that "he lay low for several minutes, waiting for the shooter to run out of ammunition and wishing he, too, had a gun."

Neither Smith nor the other victims of Hasan's assault had guns because soldiers on milita ...

Updated: Wed Nov 11, 2009

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Menu Mandate's Missing Math for 11/18/2009

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

The most conspicuous effect you will see from President Obama's health care overhaul won't be at your doctor's office or the hospital. It will be at your local Burger King.

That's assuming the Senate goes along with a provision, already approved by the House, that requires restaurant chains with 20 or more locations to display calorie counts on their menus. Although supporters claim suc ...

Updated: Wed Nov 18, 2009

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