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Jacob Sullum (Dec 27, 2006)
At midnight on New Year's Eve, a vast number of government documents that are secret now will be secret no more. The automatic declassification, which applies to all material... more
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Jacob Sullum (Dec 20, 2006)
When I was working for my hometown newspaper right after college, my editor assigned me to write eight Hanukkah stories, one for each day of the festival. One article... more
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Jacob Sullum (Dec 13, 2006)
Remember the girl who received a five-day suspension for bringing Tylenol to school? If that punishment seems excessive, how about a 25-year prison sentence for having... more
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Jacob Sullum (Dec 06, 2006)
During the 2002 Billboard Music Awards, Cher had a message for critics who are always predicting the imminent demise of her career: "F--- 'em." While it may have offended... more
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Jacob Sullum (Nov 29, 2006)
A Jersey City ordinance that takes effect on Dec. 11 bars sex offenders from living within 2,500 feet of a school, day-care center, park, playground, sports facility,... more
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Jacob Sullum (Nov 22, 2006)
In 1994 Milton Friedman wrote a letter to Policy Review to complain that the magazine, then published by the Heritage Foundation, had inaccurately described his mentor and... more
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Jacob Sullum (Nov 15, 2006)
A Gallup poll conducted last January, in addition to asking respondents to identify themselves as "Pro-Life" or "Pro-Choice," offered a third option: "Don't Know What the... more
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Jacob Sullum (Nov 08, 2006)
Horses are nice. Killing them for food is mean. This is the gist of the argument for the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act.
It was enough to convince the House of... more
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Jacob Sullum (Nov 01, 2006)
The Nov. 6 National Review includes a brief article by American Enterprise Institute scholar Kevin Hassett titled "Where Clinton Beats W." The editors easily could have... more
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Jacob Sullum (Oct 25, 2006)
On Oct. 20, one week after President Bush signed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, the Australian company Betcorp announced the sale of its online casino and... more
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Jacob Sullum (Oct 18, 2006)
Nevada is known for gambling, 24-hour liquor sales and legal prostitution. Yet the main group opposing Question 7, an initiative on the state's ballot next month that would... more
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Jacob Sullum (Oct 11, 2006)
With Republicans squabbling over whom to blame for the congressional page scandal, it's easy to forget that we've already identified the real culprit. I'm referring, of... more
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Jacob Sullum (Oct 04, 2006)
Under the Military Commissions Act recently approved by Congress, there are two ways the government can imprison a suspected terrorist for the rest of his life. It can try... more
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Jacob Sullum (Sep 27, 2006)
Maher Arar, a 36-year-old Canadian telecommunications engineer, is afraid of flying. He is worried not that the plane will crash, but that it will land in the United States.... more
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Jacob Sullum (Sep 20, 2006)
On Nov. 13, 2001, President Bush issued an executive order authorizing the trial of suspected terrorists by newfangled military tribunals. Citing the "extraordinary... more
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Jacob Sullum (Sep 13, 2006)
After years of hard work by drug warriors in Afghanistan, the country no longer produces 87 percent of the world's illicit opium. Now it produces 92 percent, according to the... more
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Jacob Sullum (Sep 06, 2006)
As of Friday, when the 60-day blackout period for "electioneering communications" by nonprofit interest groups begins, political speech will enjoy less protection than dirty... more
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Jacob Sullum (Aug 30, 2006)
Three years ago, federal prosecutors likened McLean, Va., pain doctor William Hurwitz to "a street-corner crack dealer." But it turned out there were a few... more
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Jacob Sullum (Aug 23, 2006)
Two months ago a Justice Department lawyer assured U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor that the National Security Agency's warrantless surveillance of international... more
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Jacob Sullum (Aug 09, 2006)
"I doubt Americans want the government to decide when life is worth preserving and when life can be destroyed," says Sen. Sam Brownback. That's why the Kansas Republican... more
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Jacob Sullum (Aug 02, 2006)
After winning the Tour de France, Floyd Landis was hailed as an American hero who epitomized all that is good and glorious about cycling. A few days later, when it was... more
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Jacob Sullum (Jul 26, 2006)
Although they supposedly speak English in England, they have different names for certain things. When they say "lift," they mean "elevator." "Lorry" is their word for... more
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Jacob Sullum (Jul 19, 2006)
The "findings" that precede Arlen Specter's National Security Surveillance Act are full of tough-sounding rhetoric about the limits of executive power, including former... more
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Jacob Sullum (Jul 12, 2006)
Bob Goodlatte says online gambling is illegal, and he wants to ban it. He sees no contradiction between these two positions.
The Virginia Republican is co-author of a bill... more
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Jacob Sullum (Jul 05, 2006)
According to Surgeon General Richard Carmona, secondhand smoke is so dangerous that you'd be better off if you stopped going to smoky bars and started smoking instead. "Even... more
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Jacob Sullum (Jun 28, 2006)
A police officer pulls you over at a checkpoint and asks, "Have you been drinking?" Assuming he wants to know whether you have consumed alcohol in the last few hours, such... more
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Jacob Sullum (Jun 21, 2006)
The day after Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger crashed his motorcycle, while he was still recovering from surgery to repair his fractured face, The... more
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Jacob Sullum (Jun 14, 2006)
Supporters and opponents of the death penalty should be united in dismay at the bizarre debate about whether lethal injection as currently practiced in the United States is a... more
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Jacob Sullum (Jun 07, 2006)
The overwhelming support on Capitol Hill for legislation that will dramatically increase the fines for broadcasting "indecent" programming suggests there's broad... more
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Jacob Sullum (May 31, 2006)
When I lived in Manhattan, I often witnessed canine altercations in which one dog would start barking and lunging, the other would respond in kind, and the two owners would... more
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Jacob Sullum (May 24, 2006)
The Justice Department, which was complicit in the National Security Agency's circumvention of the statutory limits on surveillance of e-mail and phone calls, has not shown... more
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Jacob Sullum (May 17, 2006)
When I shop at the Giant, because the bar code on my Bonus Card is no longer readable, I instead use an "alternate ID:" my phone number. When I call my cable... more
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Jacob Sullum (May 10, 2006)
Now that Chelsea is all grown up and living on her own, Bill and Hillary Clinton have turned their attention to raising other people's children. The senator is determined to... more
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Jacob Sullum (Apr 19, 2006)
The day after I visited my niece in Tel Aviv, a young man named Sami Hamad blew himself up at a restaurant there. I had no particular reason to think my niece was anywhere... more
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Jacob Sullum (Apr 05, 2006)
Critics of the lobbying reform bill recently passed by the Senate say it doesn't adequately address earmarks, those highly specific appropriations legislators slip into... more
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Jacob Sullum (Mar 29, 2006)
Colorado Treasurer Mark Hillman calls the deal under which the top cigarette manufacturers pay the states billions of dollars a year "a protection racket." In... more
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Jacob Sullum (Mar 22, 2006)
A year ago Hillary Clinton said the electronic entertainment kids enjoy is "a kind of contagion," a "silent epidemic" threatening "long-term public... more
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Jacob Sullum (Feb 22, 2006)
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales says Congress approved the National Security Agency's warrantless domestic wiretaps when it authorized a military response to the Sept. 11... more
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Jacob Sullum (Feb 15, 2006)
Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson wants to dispel "inaccuracies and stereotypes" about the use of eminent domain for economic development, a practice the U.S.... more
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Jacob Sullum (Jan 25, 2006)
"Look!" exclaims my 3-year-old daughter, pointing excitedly at a box of cookies in the supermarket. "It's Dora! And Boots!" I nod and smile. "Yes, it... more
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Jacob Sullum (Jan 18, 2006)
Carl and Joy Gamble, retirees who had lived in the same house in Norwood, a Cincinnati suburb, for more than three decades, did not realize their neighborhood was... more
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Jacob Sullum (Jan 11, 2006)
The Democrats say they're worried Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito is "a judicial activist." At first glance, that suggestion seems about as plausible as New York... more
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Jacob Sullum (Jan 04, 2006)
"We will get through it," a pharmacist told The New York Times as the new Medicare prescription drug benefit kicked in, "but at the moment, it's an awful... more