Libertarianism is, obviously, an idea whose time has come. Or maybe you don't like that term. There are plenty of others. My preference is old-fashioned. I like the term "liberal" -- or maybe "radical liberal" -- to distinguish my own intellectual commitments from the generation that naively believed that government ...read more

"I've got better things to do than broadcast a message to the world about my lunch." An uncountable number of people have said this or something similar to me about Twitter. I've stopped responding. It's the same kind of faux snobbery that causes people to look down on Facebook, YouTube, Angry ...read more

How would you like to drive from New York to Los Angeles with just one stop for gas? It seems incredible and wonderful, but it can happen. In late 2010, the Volkswagen Passat BlueMotion set a new world record for the "longest distance traveled by a standard production passenger car ...read more

I was just down at the "feed and seed" buying two baby chicks to replace my female duck that was carried off by a bird of prey, leaving one lonely male duck behind. No one told me that ducks don't like chicks. The rest of the story is, well, let's ...read more

Over the weekend, we were treated to a preposterous display of hectoring of allegations that Wal-Mart Mexico (prepare yourself for a shock) paid bribes to public officials for the legal right to do business in that country. You see, to do serious business in America requires vast campaign contributions to several ...read more

When I was a kid, lawn mowers worked. You pushed them and they cut grass. The grass went into the bag. Then you emptied the bag. The results were great. There was no grass to rake. It all went into the bag, because that's what lawn mowers did. Then the feds ...read more

Life is hard enough on its own. Government makes it harder. I think back to the old Soviet days, which to me typify what it means for a society to be entirely under state control. The government put out a magazine called Soviet Life, and it was filled with pictures of ...read more

Today's papers are filled with the news that the government is taking on the e-book market. That can't be good news. Given the long history of anti-trust, they will make a big mess of what is a wonderful emerging market with a new technology. And get this: The federal bureaucrat who ...read more

There’s so much bad news about health care these days. Maybe it’s time for some good news. One sector, technology, is advancing at a pace never seen before. Customers have a range of services to choose from, and price competition is very intense. The doctor sees you whether you have insurance ...read more

Would You Like a Beer With That Haircut? What if we had the following economic system? This system would shower the globe with free goods day and night, asking nothing and giving nearly everything. Most of what it generated would be free goods, and every living person would have access. Anyone who amassed ...read more