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Jacob Sullum (Dec 30, 2001)
It's doubtful that gin, rum, vodka, whiskey or tequila will replace champagne as the preferred beverage of the new year, no matter how many commercials for distilled spirits... more
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Jacob Sullum (Dec 21, 2001)
Los Angeles City Councilwoman Jan Perry offers several rationales for her ban on smoking in city parks. People leave cigarette butts in sandboxes, she says, and smoking... more
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Jacob Sullum (Dec 18, 2001)
Last May, a Kentucky physician reported that a former patient, a paraplegic with severe chronic pain, had killed himself. The man's new doctor, alarmed by official warnings... more
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Jacob Sullum (Dec 11, 2001)
For criticizing President Bush's order authorizing military tribunals, I've been called "nuts," "high," "hateful," a "crybaby," and, perhaps worst of all, "left-wing." But... more
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Jacob Sullum (Dec 04, 2001)
The ubiquity of the World Wide Web is the main reason parents worry about it: Curious kids can peruse pornography from any location where they have unfettered online access.... more
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Jacob Sullum (Nov 27, 2001)
The activists and politicians who support laws banishing smoking from private offices, bars and restaurants have never shown much concern for property rights. Until... more
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Jacob Sullum (Nov 20, 2001)
Of all the reasons the Bush administration has offered for its plan to try suspected terrorists before military tribunals, the most important one seems to be this: If they... more
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Jacob Sullum (Nov 13, 2001)
The sociologist Charles Moskos has been pushing the idea of "national service" for many years. Although his proposals generally have involved bribing young people to do... more
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Jacob Sullum (Nov 06, 2001)
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld acknowledged the other day that U.S. forces may never locate Osama bin Laden. Just in case, though, the Bush administration is pondering... more
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Jacob Sullum (Oct 30, 2001)
It turns out that hand cream I bought at The Body Shop a few years ago was a controlled substance. But it's not anymore. Probably.
This is the upshot of two rules recently... more
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Jacob Sullum (Oct 23, 2001)
In 1996, legal scholar Dan Polsby wrote an essay for Reason magazine in which he suggested what might happen if the Second Amendment ever achieved "the status of normal... more
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Jacob Sullum (Oct 16, 2001)
I first downloaded Pretty Good Privacy a couple of years ago, at the request of an interview subject. He was nervous about discussing his drug use through unprotected... more
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Jacob Sullum (Oct 09, 2001)
Shortly after the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, House Speaker Dennis Hastert announced that he had put together a special advisory panel: the Speaker's Task... more
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Jacob Sullum (Oct 02, 2001)
"Freedom itself was attacked this morning," President Bush declared on Sept. 11. Many have echoed him in the weeks since then, arguing that the terrorists behind the attacks... more
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Jacob Sullum (Sep 14, 2001)
In his first speech on September 11, President Bush called the attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center "cowardly acts." By that evening, however, he was calling... more
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Jacob Sullum (Sep 11, 2001)
Despite what pot smokers say, it's not true that marijuana never killed anybody. It killed Grover Crosslin and Rolland Rohm.
Crosslin and Rohm were shot to death during a... more
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Jacob Sullum (Sep 04, 2001)
You've probably seen the Staples commercial in which a father prances through the store to the strains of "The Most Wonderful Time of the Year," joyfully tossing school... more
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Jacob Sullum (Aug 28, 2001)
Ariva, a pellet flavored with mint and eucalyptus, looks like a Tic Tac, but it's not a candy. Its main ingredient is compressed tobacco. Star Scientific, the Virginia-based... more
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Jacob Sullum (Aug 21, 2001)
The cover shows a woman in a white biohazard suit standing in front of a staircase, her face obscured by a respirator mask. "Lurking, Choking, Toxic Mold," it says, with... more
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Jacob Sullum (Aug 14, 2001)
The TEC-DC9 is said to be a gun that only a criminal could love. With its black finish, barrel shroud and 32-round magazine, the semiautomatic pistol has a menacing,... more
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Jacob Sullum (Aug 07, 2001)
In the 1978 movie "The Boys from Brazil," Nazi doctor Josef Mengele produces a bunch of baby Hitlers and places them with families scattered around the world. To maximize... more
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Jacob Sullum (Aug 01, 2001)
In his 1996 State of the Union address, President Clinton urged Congress "to pass the requirement for a V-chip in TV sets, so that parents can screen out programs they... more
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Jacob Sullum (Jul 24, 2001)
The New York Times has discovered basic economics. Sort of. In a front-page story the other day, the paper noted that gasoline and natural gas prices have dropped... more
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Jacob Sullum (Jul 17, 2001)
They say stem cell research will produce medical marvels. They say it could allow scientists to create replacements for defective organs and tissue, leading to cures for a... more
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Jacob Sullum (Jul 10, 2001)
I want to buy a bottle of Scotch, but the state of Virginia is making it difficult. In New York City, where my family lived until a few weeks ago, there were several nearby... more
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Jacob Sullum (Jul 04, 2001)
New York recently became the first state to prohibit people from using hand-held mobile phones while driving. "This is going to save lives, I'm sure," said New York Assembly... more
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Jacob Sullum (Jun 26, 2001)
Nine years ago, Danny Lee Kyllo was busted for growing pot after police used a thermal imager to detect heat emanating from high-intensity lights inside his house. This month... more
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Jacob Sullum (Jun 19, 2001)
It used to be said that Social Security was the "third rail" of American politics: If you touched it, you were dead. Nowadays it's more like the first and second rails: You... more
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Jacob Sullum (Jun 12, 2001)
Richard Boeken, a 56-year-old securities broker from Topanga, Calif., is dying of lung cancer. But that's not why a Los Angeles jury decided Philip Morris should pay him $3... more
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Jacob Sullum (Jun 05, 2001)
Surely something is wrong when the highest court in the land starts arguing about sports. It would be hard to take the Supreme Court seriously if it issued an opinion on the... more
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Jacob Sullum (May 30, 2001)
Polygamists complain that Tom Green is giving them a bad name. The Utah telemarketer, who has five wives and 29 children, was recently convicted of bigamy in a high-profile... more
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Jacob Sullum (May 22, 2001)
The first time I filled a prescription for Claritin, I did a double take when I saw the price: about $70 for 30 tablets. Neither the doctor nor the pharmacist, both of whom... more
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Jacob Sullum (May 15, 2001)
Last fall, when a Cook County judge dismissed Chicago's lawsuit against gun manufacturers, Mayor Richard Daley condemned "the suburban gun dealer who supplies Chicago street... more
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Jacob Sullum (May 08, 2001)
In 1988, when he was the police chief of Snohomish, Wash., Patrick Murphy came to the aid of a bus driver who was being assaulted by a passenger. The man smashed Murphy on... more
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Jacob Sullum (May 01, 2001)
How many Peruvians does it take to kill a baby? About four, apparently, if they have a fighter jet and the help of a U.S. surveillance plane.
If you think that's a sick... more
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Jacob Sullum (Apr 24, 2001)
As if there weren't enough conflict in Israel already, the government is poised to ban smoking from almost all places open to the public. Regulations scheduled to take effect... more
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Jacob Sullum (Apr 17, 2001)
When we move from the Bronx to Northern Virginia this summer, we'll miss New York's creative diversity. Especially the beggars.
These practitioners of the city's defining... more
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Jacob Sullum (Apr 10, 2001)
With spring in the air, my thoughts naturally turn to helmets. I don't think I knew anyone who wore a bicycle helmet when I was growing up. My older brother gave me one when... more
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Jacob Sullum (Apr 03, 2001)
The federal government argues that allowing sick people to obtain marijuana for medicinal use will make the drug laws impossible to enforce. Seeking to shut down the Oakland... more
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Jacob Sullum (Mar 27, 2001)
Physicians like to think they operate outside the grubby commercial world where the customer is always right. That is why a medical examination, ostensibly a service that... more
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Jacob Sullum (Mar 20, 2001)
The other day I flew from Indianapolis to New York City. The plane left when it was supposed to leave, and it arrived when it was supposed to arrive.
Sadly, this sort of... more
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Jacob Sullum (Mar 13, 2001)
With Hillary Clinton's husband and brothers doing their best to distract attention from her performance in Washington, most people probably didn't notice that she recently... more
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Jacob Sullum (Mar 06, 2001)
Looking at his land in Westerly, R.I., Anthony Palazzolo sees prime oceanside real estate. The state's Coastal Resources Management Council sees a wildlife... more
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Jacob Sullum (Feb 27, 2001)
Before I get into the constitutional issues raised by police surveillance using infrared cameras, I'll answer the question that's on everyone's mind: Can they tell when... more
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Jacob Sullum (Feb 20, 2001)
James V. DeLong, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, likens online music swappers to "hordes of barbarians loot(ing) civilization." He credits the 9th... more
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Jacob Sullum (Feb 13, 2001)
In 1936, Joseph Hertz, chief rabbi of the British Empire, published an annotated translation of the Pentateuch that is still used by many synagogues. Hertz was an outspoken... more
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Jacob Sullum (Feb 06, 2001)
Almost all of our furniture comes from Ikea. We like the fact that most of the store's merchandise is inexpensive without looking cheap. We like Ikea's wide aisles, the... more
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Jacob Sullum (Jan 30, 2001)
The early '00s are beginning to look a lot like the early '90s. Once again we've got an inarticulate president with no discernible ideology, who wants to be known for his... more
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Jacob Sullum (Jan 23, 2001)
A few years ago, I was researching the issue of whether tobacco advertising makes people smoke when I came across a paper with an unintentionally revealing subtitle: "The... more
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Jacob Sullum (Jan 16, 2001)
In a 1942 decision upholding a New York City ban on handbills, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously declared that "the Constitution imposes no ... restraint on government as... more
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Jacob Sullum (Jan 09, 2001)
New York Times columnist Paul Krugman calls it "a warning about the dangers of placing blind faith in markets." Los Angeles Times commentator Robert Scheer says it's yet... more
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Jacob Sullum (Jan 02, 2001)
"No patient should ever wish for death because of his physician's reluctance to use adequate amounts of potent narcotics." So said the psychiatrist Jerome Jaffe, later... more