In an appendix titled “What You Can Do” found in their latest book — This Moment on Earth — Senator John Kerry and wife Theresa Heinz Kerry call on their readers to make sacrifices that will reduce mankind’s “environmental footprint.”  Like Al Gore, however, they take a pass.  After all, the rich can afford to buy what amounts to indulgences: “Those of us in politics, traveling at times in motorcades, flying on private planes on occasion, you name it…now buy carbon offsets…

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Yakov Smirnoff’s short lived fame died off with the Soviet Union. Little did he know, his unique style of comedy could have lived on indefinitely by mocking the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). In a real-life example of Mises’ theory of interventionism, where the effects of one bad regulation is the catalyst for more bad regulation, the FCC is advocating additional price controls for dedicated line services. Of course, dedicated line services are only supplied by FCC backed Baby Bells, which…

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John Berthoud died — suddenly and unexpectedly. Our span is always too short but John’s was far shorter than all of us had hoped. John was a blend of movement leader, creative advocate of economic liberty, and friend.

Under his leadership, NTU had become one of the consistent and effective allies of the movement and his death weakens us all. But he was also a friend and wonderful adocate to all seeking allies in the multiple battles that must be fought…

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A lobbying firm has been paid hundreds of thousands of dollars, including $160,000 in the first half of 2007, to lobby for the FDA tobacco regulation bill, by Altria (Philip Morris), the nation’s largest tobacco company.

The bill supposedly seeks to protect the public health, but a news story notes that the true motivation behind the FDA tobacco regulation bill may be a big company’s desire to kill off its smaller competitors. “Altria, the largest U.S. tobacco company, is better positioned to…

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The Wall Street Journal has an editorial today on the SCHIP health-care bill, which would expand health care coverage for children, and even some childless adults, in households making up to $82,600 per year. The phony accounting by the bill’s sponsors makes it sound like it can be funded with an increase in federal cigarette taxes, but in fact, those increased taxes won’t be sufficient to pay for the program’s increased costs.

(If you can’t access the editorial, a few of its…

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The United States Patent and Trademark Office, after finally having done something right for a change, recently reversed a

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Ex-CIA Director James Woolsey is a proponent of ethanol because he believes it can help make the United States more energy independent. Never mind that the ethanol mandate that the Senate passed last summer would have decreased oil imports by only 7%, at a cost to the taxpayer of $74/barrel “saved.”

And for the purpose of this conversation, I will make only passing mention of fact that global demand for ethanol has the potential to destabilize developing countries. Suffice to say, there is…

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The Washington Post carries a story about a minor dust-up between Naral Pro-Choice America and Verizon. Naral wanted to use Verizon’s mobile network to distribute a series of pro-choice text messages and Verizon said no to the group’s request before reversing itself. Personally, I think that Verizon was awfully silly to deny any group the use of its network: more users equal more money. (And, of course, given how controversial abortion is, I can’t imagine that any large private company does…

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Google’s bid to purchase the Internet advertising firm DoubleClick was scrutinized today in hearings by Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill), Chairman of the Congressional Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection and by Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wi), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy, and Consumer Rights. Rush & Kohl have been critical of the proposed $3.1 billion acquisition which is still subject to FTC approval.

Part of what makes this deal complicated is the somewhat sketchy history of DoubleClick itself. Its ill fated…

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Minor abuses at the FCC, such as the one mentioned in my last post, warrant at least investigating how the FCC assesses fines, if not looking for ways to reform the FCC’s governance of broadcasting. But when we look at the incredible distortion created by the central planning of broadcast spectrum the case of dramatic and rapid reform becomes very clear.

More specifically, the FCC is now placing caveats on the 700Mhz auction–perverting the one reform, auctions, that have worked to…

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The Senate Democratic leadership has added Ted Kennedy’s controversial hate-crimes bill to a defense authorization bill, in an effort to make it politically impossible for Bush to veto the hate-crimes bill.

I have previously explained how the hate-crimes bill erodes constitutional protections against double jeopardy and principles of federalism. (The double jeopardy issue is discussed here, here, and here, while the federalism issue is discussed here and here).

Justice Department attorneys have argued that portions of the bill exceed Congress’s regulatory powers under the…

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Robert Novak has an interesting column in the Washington Post on the backroom politicking behind the SCHIP health-care bill that has passed Congress, but faces a Bush veto. He notes that although the program was originally designed to help poor kids, the bill would expand federal subsidies to give taxpayer-paid coverage to some adults and households earning up to $82,000 a year.

Analysts have said that the $1 a pack cigarette tax mandated by the bill would be insufficient to pay for…

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Seems as though the FCC can’t get enough fining done within the bounds of its legal fining regime and is now fining arbitrary 3rd parties related to broadcasts. According to Yahoo! News:

The Federal Communications Commission is proposing a $4,000 fine against Comcast Corp. for airing a pitch for a sleep aid without telling viewers that the spot was financed by the maker of the product.

The story goes on to point out that:

The fine, while small, is significant for another reason: It…

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GlobalWarming.org was relaunched two weeks ago by CEI and has enjoyed hundreds of thousands of views since.  I want to thank those who have linked to our new site and who have helped get the word out about this great new source for climate change information.  I’d especially like to thank Robert Bluey of the Heritage Foundation for giving my colleague Iain Murray and me the opportunity to speak to bloggers at Heritage about the new site.  Keep linking to the site…

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Playspan dubs itself “The Game Industry’s First Publisher-Sponsored In-Game Commerce Network.” What does that mean? To put it more simply, welcome to Wall Street for World of War Craft.

In the pre-web world, what I like to call “The Before Time,” people’s puny brains used to be limited to thinking of products as physical objects or services to be performed in the physical world. No more! Commerce now extends into the virtual world and is no longer limited to our crude meatspace.

In…

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The Wall Street Journal’s OpinionJournal aptly describes the cynical posturing of Lee Bollinger, Columbia University’s president, who first invited the oppressive Iranian despot Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to speak at Columbia, then criticized him only after Columbia was widely ridiculed for the invitation.

Commentators pointed out that his “free speech” rationale for inviting Ahmadinejad was specious and hypocritical, since Bollinger has turned a blind eye to campus harassment of conservative speakers, has supported campus speech restrictions and speech codes, and has been silent about…

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A startling Reuters article today was titled “Gorbachev warns Russians against rise of Stalinism.”

As reported, the former Soviet president made his remarks at a conference held 70 years after the beginning of Stalin’s Great Terror:

“We should remember those who suffered, because this is a lesson for all of us.”

“We must squeeze Stalinism out of ourselves, not in single drops but by the glass or bucket,” Gorbachev added. “There are those saying Stalin’s rule was the Golden Age, while (Nikita) Khrushchev’s thaw…

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CEI analysts appeared twice today on CNBC (so far), enlightening the financially astute and debating their fellow guests.

First up, Editorial Director Ivan Osorio takes on the role of unions in the contemporary labor market and the General Motors/UAW strike.

Next we have Senior Fellow Eli Lehrer on why we shouldn’t fear investment from foreign “sovereign” capital funds.

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Trade—voluntary exchange—is the essence of economic activity. Trade leads to specialization, which increases productivity. As trade expands so does the arena of economic competition, which spurs innovation. Greater trade also means more economic cooperation across distances, which makes societies less vulnerable to local crop failures and other shortages. Thanks to trade, a tiny island nation like Japan, with virtually no natural resources, can be a major economic power.

A long-standing worry of free-market advocates is that global warming will become a…

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The District of Columbia is currently defending Washington, D.C.’s gun ban before the Supreme Court in District of Columbia v. Heller. It argues that the Second Amendment merely protects state and local governments’ collective right to arm a militia against federal interference, not an individual right to bear arms.

But it turns out that the District of Columbia’s own “constitution” contains a provision in its Bill of Rights identical to the Second Amendment in its language, providing that “A well regulated militia…

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