December 2009

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Editor's Note

• Are Tea Parties Racist?

  Matt Welch

  Sifting through the anti-Obama-hysteria hysteria

Contributors

• Contributors

Letters

• Letters

Citings

• Plastic Politics

  Katherine Mangu-Ward

  Toy safety follies

• State Crafts

  Nick Gillespie

  Art for politics’ sake

• No Joint Custody

  Jacob Sullum

  Argentine drug laws

• Stop and Frisk

  Katherine Mangu-Ward

  NYC civil liberties

• Jericho Bile

  Radley Balko

  Police gone wild

• Self Insured

  Peter Suderman

  Health care accounting

• Discount Genomes

  Ronald Bailey

  Personalized medicine

• Steal This Law!

  Katherine Mangu-Ward

  Judicial transparency

• The Gay Gap

  Ryan H. Sager

  Support for same-sex marriage

• Consumers Reported

  Peter Suderman

  Snitching to Uncle Sam

• Put a Cork in It

  Damon W. Root

  Wining children?

Soundbites

• Creating Your Own Economy

  Matt Welch

  Tyler Cowen on Create Your Own Economy: The Path to Prosperity in a Disordered World

Years Ago

• 35 Years ago in reason

  December 1974

Brickbats

• Brickbats December 2009

  Charles Oliver

Quotes

• Quotes

• Quotes

Lists

• Innocent Man Walking

Columns

• The Long Wait for FDA-Approved Cancer Sticks

  Jacob Sullum

• Is Government Action Worse Than Global Warming?

  Ronald Bailey

  Why policy nihilism may be the only rational response to climate change

• The Consumer Is Not the Customer

  Jacob Sullum

  Both parties promise to preserve one of the central problems of the health care system

• How to Get Ahead in Law

  Radley Balko

  Bernard Baran served 22 years on dubious child molestation charges, but the prosecutor who convicted him was promoted to judge.

• Where’s That Inflation?

  Veronique de Rugy

  The monetary base has ballooned, yet inflation remains far off. Or does it?

• Glenn Beck's Experimental Melodrama

  Greg Beato

  The Fox News star terrifies America with his realistic news theater.

Features

• Salvia and Salivation

  Jacob Sullum

  Is this trip worth a warm mouthful of spit?

• The Salvia Ban Wagon

  Jacob Sullum

  How does terrible drug policy get made? The mad rush to criminalize a psychedelic herb provides a textbook case.

• Bernanke’s Philosopher

  Penn Bullock

  The Fed chairman is portrayed as a follower of John Maynard Keynes, but his real inspiration is Milton Friedman.

Interviews

• Globalization With a Human Face

  Shikha Dalmia

  Jagdish Bhagwati on the trouble with protectionism, how to deal with climate change, and why NAFTA was bad for free trade.

Culture & Reviews

• Reading People’s Faces

  Katherine Mangu-Ward

  Tattoos, dueling scars, and other rational acquisitions

• Ready for Her Close-Up

  Nick Gillespie

  Re-examining Ayn Rand’s place in American intellectual and cultural life

• Unacknowledged Legislators Impeached

  Tim Cavanaugh

  Why isn’t the United States doing more for its poets laureate?

• Will Everyone Please Stop Freaking Out Over Ayn Rand?!?

  Peter Bagge

• She’s Back!

  Brian Doherty

  Ayn Rand is bigger than ever. But are her new fans radical enough for capitalism?

Briefly Noted

• Private Eye, Private Enterprise

  Radley Balko

• A Tattooed Nation

  Nick Gillespie

• Cash for Creativity

  Katherine Mangu-Ward

• The Ungay Games

  Peter Suderman

• Orgies for the Masses

  Jacob Sullum

Artifact

• Miniature Monsters Attack America

  Jeff Winkler