Jacob Sullum from Creators Syndicate

Entitlement Mentality for 12/25/2007

Tue, 25 Dec 2007 00:00:00 -0800

If you forgot to get a Christmas present for Charlie Rangel, don't worry. The congressman picked one out for himself, and he's sending you the bill: $2 million for a shiny new Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service at City College.

The New York Democrat's Monument to Me was one of about 9,000 earmarks in the omnibus spending bill Congress approved before going on vacation. Most repr ...

Updated: Tue Dec 25, 2007

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The Buck Keeps Moving for 01/02/2008

Wed, 02 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Critics of OxyContin manufacturer Purdue Pharma blame it for promoting abuse of the painkiller by encouraging family doctors to prescribe it. "As a result of the expanded access," said a recent New York Times story, summarizing the rap against the company, "OxyContin wound up in the high schools and street corners of rural America, where curious teenagers crushed the pill, defeat ...

Updated: Wed Jan 02, 2008

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The Thin Man Goes to Washington for 01/09/2008

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0800

In his inaugural New York Times column, William Kristol suggests Mike Huckabee may be the right Republican presidential candidate to beat "a liberal Democrat" who will "want to increase the scope of the nanny state." This is like counting on Godzilla to save us from King Kong.

Losing more than 100 pounds in less than a year is the former Arkansas governor's main claim ...

Updated: Wed Jan 09, 2008

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Paul's Apology: Say it Ain't So, Dr. No. for 01/16/2008

Wed, 16 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Ron Paul is not just a rare politician. The Texas Republican's combination of principle and plainspokenness, which has helped his presidential campaign break fund-raising records while attracting a strikingly diverse and enthusiastic crowd of supporters, makes him unique in recent U.S. history.

Since 1997, as during his terms in the 1970s and '80s, Paul has been the only member of Congre ...

Updated: Wed Jan 16, 2008

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Hillary Clinton's Quest for Economic Justice for 01/23/2008

Wed, 23 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0800

During this week's Democratic presidential debate, Hillary Clinton said that putting together the right kind of stimulus package is "a part of economic justice." The remark reflected a major campaign theme for the New York senator, who has declared she would pursue "a new vision of economic fairness" as president.

That slogan should set off alarm bells for anyone who ...

Updated: Wed Jan 23, 2008

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Bush Spent His Credibility for 01/30/2008

Wed, 30 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0800

In his 2007 State of the Union speech, right at the moment when the Democrats took over Congress, President Bush came out of the closet as a fiscal conservative. The laughter was still echoing on Monday night, when he ascended the podium for his last State of the Union speech.

Bush nevertheless braved ridicule by reiterating his newfound commitment to pork-free balanced budgets. Even if ...

Updated: Wed Jan 30, 2008

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The Whys of Spies for 02/06/2008

Wed, 06 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Last August, panicked at the prospect of an imminent terrorist attack that could be averted only by granting the executive branch new surveillance powers, Congress passed the Protect America Act. With the law scheduled to expire this month, the Bush administration is trying to scare Congress into making the powers permanent.

The alleged crisis is an artificial one created by a president ...

Updated: Wed Feb 06, 2008

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Mandatory Niceness for 02/13/2008

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Last month, when an officer of the Alberta Human Rights and Citizenship Commission interrogated him about his decision to reprint the notorious Muhammad cartoons that originally appeared in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, Ezra Levant did not try to ingratiate himself. Levant, former publisher of the news magazine the Western Standard, called the commission "a sick joke," compare ...

Updated: Wed Feb 13, 2008

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The Blurry Edges of Obama's Memory for 02/20/2008

Wed, 20 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0800

By now, you probably have heard the rumors about Barack Obama and drugs. A recent New York Times report suggests the leading candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination misled the public about his history of drug use — by making it seem more impressive than it really was.

This is a welcome twist on the usual story of politicians' youthful experimentation with illegal intox ...

Updated: Wed Feb 20, 2008

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Isn't Self-Defense Common Sense? for 02/27/2008

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Under the Second Amendment, Barack Obama says, "There is an individual right to bear arms, but it is subject to common-sense regulation, just like most of our rights are subject to common-sense regulation." The leading candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination thus seems to be on the same wavelength as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which in ...

Updated: Wed Feb 27, 2008

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Americans: Stars in Bars for 03/05/2008

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0800

For Americans tired of hearing how we lag behind other developed nations in teaching children math, science and reading, a new report highlights an area where the United States is indisputably a world leader. According to the Pew Center on the States, the United States has a higher incarceration rate than any other country. In your face, Finland!

I exaggerate the response to the report s ...

Updated: Wed Mar 05, 2008

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Safety in Defenselessness for 03/12/2008

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700

In a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed piece, Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe urged the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold the District of Columbia's gun restrictions, the subject of a case the court will hear next Tuesday. Conceding that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual right to possess firearms, Tribe said that right does not rule out a decision to ban handguns while allowing " ...

Updated: Wed Mar 12, 2008

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Nonsense of Indecency for 03/19/2008

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700

In most of the places where this column appears, the four-letter words it contains will not be spelled out. Instead, they will be rendered as initial letters followed by dashes.

That custom is an example of self-restraint by newspapers and Web sites that do not want to offend their readers. It is not the result of government censorship, which would violate the First Amendment.

Yet ...

Updated: Wed Mar 19, 2008

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Pork Three Ways for 03/26/2008

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700

On Friday [March 21], a House Appropriations Committee website was so overwhelmed by legislators' wish lists that it crashed, forcing the committee to extend the deadline for earmark requests until Monday. Most members of Congress seem to think the problem with earmarks is like the problem with the committee's server: not any particular person's demands, just all of them together.

On the ...

Updated: Wed Mar 26, 2008

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The School Crotch Inspector for 04/02/2008

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

There are two kinds of people in the world: the kind who think it's perfectly reasonable to strip search a 13-year-old girl suspected of bringing ibuprofen to school, and the kind who think those people should be kept as far away from children as possible. The first group includes officials at Safford Middle School in Safford, Ariz., who in 2003 forced eighth-grader Savana Redding to prove she ...

Updated: Wed Apr 02, 2008

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FDA-Approved Cancer Sticks for 04/09/2008

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Last week the House Energy and Commerce Committee overwhelmingly approved legislation that would authorize the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to regulate tobacco products. Since the FDA is usually portrayed as a benevolent (if occasionally sleepy) watchdog, you might assume the bill is all about consumer protection. But it's actually aimed at consumer prevention , which is not quite ...

Updated: Wed Apr 09, 2008

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I Don't Want Yoo to Show Them the Way for 04/16/2008

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

According to John Yoo, the president's powers under the Constitution are so broad that the Constitution itself cannot restrain them. In a recently declassified 2003 memo, the former Justice Department official asserted that Congress, despite its Article I powers to "make rules concerning captures on land and water" and "for the government and regulation of the land and naval forc ...

Updated: Wed Apr 16, 2008

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Think of It As a Lifectomy for 04/23/2008

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

In his recent Supreme Court opinion upholding Kentucky's execution method, Chief Justice John Roberts says the state's lethal injection procedure passes constitutional muster because it does not pose "a substantial risk of serious harm." You might think serious harm would be hard to avoid with a procedure that's designed to take someone's life.

Roberts, of course, is not talkin ...

Updated: Wed Apr 23, 2008

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Latter-Day Taint for 04/30/2008

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

I'm not quite as old-fashioned as the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS), which hews to the early-marriage customs of the 19th century and the polygamous practices of biblical times. But I'm old-fashioned enough to believe the government needs a good reason to pull a crying, clinging child away from her mother and hand her over to the care of strangers.

The ...

Updated: Wed Apr 30, 2008

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To Catch a Leaf for 05/07/2008

Wed, 07 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

In 2001, shortly before Michael Bloomberg became a candidate for mayor of New York, an interviewer asked him if he'd ever smoked marijuana. "You bet I did," he said, "and I enjoyed it."

Yet as mayor, Bloomberg has presided over what a recent report from the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) calls a "marijuana arrest crusade," seeking to punish pot smoke ...

Updated: Wed May 07, 2008

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