March 2012

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Editor's Note

• Catching Up With Independents

  Matt Welch

  The voters who keep fleeing the two major parties are giving libertarianism a try.

Contributors

• Contributors

Letters

• The Simpletons

Citings

• Cash Out

  Lucy Steigerwald

  Illegal tender

• Spared Change

  Brian Doherty

  Contributions vs. influence

• Bumper Cop

  Jacob Sullum

  Warrantless GPS tracking

• After Napster

  Seth McKelvey

  More piracy, better music?

• White Teeth

  Tate Watkins

  Free markets in dentistry

• Yacht for Teacher

  Katherine Mangu-Ward

  Public school salary bump

• Unhappy Birthday, TSA

  Mike Riggs

  Bureaucracy turns 10

• Marketing Medicaid

  Peter Suderman

  Health care costs

• Hot Meals

  Ronald Bailey

  Feeding a warming world

• Grocers vs. Government

  Mike Riggs

  State liquor monopoly overturned

• Penalty Shots

  Jacob Sullum

  Harsh federal sentences

• Right to Fight

  Damon W. Root

  First Amendment punch-out

• Pizza: Vegetable?

  Katherine Mangu-Ward

  School lunch rules

• Housing Bailout Redux

  Peter Suderman

Soundbites

• Contract Cities in California

  Matt Welch

Years Ago

• 25 years ago in reason

Brickbats

• Brickbats

  Charles Oliver

Quotes

• Quotes

Lists

• Repairing Higher Ed

Columns

• Kicking the Can on Climate Change

  Ronald Bailey

  Surprise! Nations agree to keep talking about emission reductions for another year.

• Indefinite Detention

  Jacob Sullum

  Does the president have the power to imprison anyone he says is a terrorist?

• Aliens vs. Bureaucrats

  Greg Beato

  Our costly, record-breaking system for dealing with illegal immigrants

• The Invincible Military-Industrial Complex

  Veronique de Rugy

  Leon Panetta’s dream is Eisenhower’s nightmare.

Features

• Unblocking the Box

  Robert Poole

  Congestion relief may be coming soon to a city near you

• Fixing America’s Freeways

  Robert Poole

  The private sector is reinventing our expressways, one lane at a time.

• Warren Buffett: Baptist and Bootlegger

  Peter Schweizer

  How America’s favorite billionaire plays politics to make money

• Consultant in Chief

  Peter Suderman

  Instead of planning to cut government, Mitt Romney is repackaging the same old Republicanism.

• Toll-road FAQs

  Robert Poole

  Responses to common arguments against toll lanes

Culture & Reviews

• Washington’s Lousy Real Estate Portfolio

  Tim Cavanaugh

  Federal housing bureaucracies are failing. They need to fail faster.

• Tears of the Son

  Lucy Steigerwald

  Sincere sorrow at the death of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il.

• How to Save a Tree House From a Zoning Board

  Joshua Swain & Katherine Mangu-Ward

  Iraq and Afghanistan veterans and their sons take on local bureaucracy.

• Bioconservatives vs. Bioprogressives

  Ronald Bailey

  Opposition to the technologies that make life longer, healthier, and happier creates strange bedfellows.

• Keynes vs. Hayek, Oversimplified

  Brian Doherty

  Missing the point on the economic battle of the century

• Triumph of the Willpower

  Katherine Mangu-Ward

  New York Times science writer John Tierney on what marshmallow-eating kids can teach us about political sex scandals, the financial crisis, replacing God with technology, and clearing out our inboxes

Briefly Noted

• The Allure of Anarchy

  Lucy Steigerwald

• All the Poop That’s News

  Jacob Sullum

• First-Person Shooter

  Tate Watkins

• Inventing America’s Past

  Katherine Mangu-Ward

• Reading Is Fundamental (for Some)

  Brian Doherty