Back in August, a documentary by Reason TV alumn Dan Hayes premiered to 28,442 people at Miller Park, breaking the world record for the largest movie screening. The film, "Honor Flight," was an outgrowth of an earlier Reason TV video Hayes produced for Veterans Day 2009.
Here is the orginal text from the November 11, 2009 video:
On Saturday November 7, 2009 Reason.tv's Dan Hayes caught up with the Stars and Stripes Honor Flight from Wisconsin. Honor Flight is an organization that provides World War II vets and terminally ill patients from other conflicts free travel to Washington, D.C. to tour memorials.
Hayes talks with veterans who recognize that this is not only their first visit to the World War II monument, but may well be their last trip away from home. "Every day is a bonus," is the motto of Honor Flight and it's a sentiment that rings true for the men who fought and those of us who continue to benefit from their service and sacrifice.
For more information about Honor Flight: http://www.starsandstripeshonorflight.org/SSHF/Welcome.html
Thanks to Joe Dean, Jane Dean, Mark Grams, Liane Baranek, The Gebauers, Cindy and Dave Haupt, Nancy and Steve Hayes, and all the guardians and the vets we spoke with Saturday.
Shot and edited by Dan Hayes. www.twitter.com/dan_hayes
The post Reason TV Replay: Honor Flight Brings World War II Vets to See Their Memorial appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>Here is the text from the original Mar 3, 2010 video:
Freddy's in Brooklyn is a happening place that has been named one of the city's best bars by the Village Voice, Esquire, and The New York Times.
Unfortunately, Freddy's—and the surrounding neighborhood—is smack-dab in the footprint of the Atlantic Yards project, a multi-million-dollar, 22-acre development that is intended to create "an urban utopia" in the language of developer Bruce Ratner, and a new, publicly subsidized home to Ratner's Nets, who currently play NBA basketball (if you can call it that) in New Jersey.
But don't mistake Atlantic Yards as one more instance of the market-driven transformations for which New York is rightly famous. It's actually the latest case of eminent domain abuse, where private property is seized by the state on dubious grounds and then immediately handed over to private interests for private gain.
In this case, the Empire State Development Corporation has designated the thriving area as blighted to facilitate the taking of privately owned houses and businesses without having to pay full market value.
Ratner, whose partners in the venture include rapper Jay Z and the Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, stands to pocket hundreds of millions of dollars on the deal, all thanks to the brute force of the state.
This week, a Brooklyn Supreme Court ruling tossed out the eminent domain objections of residents and property owners who had held out for six years and Ratner plans to break ground on the site on March 11, if not before.
The workers and patrons of Freddy's, however, are not going gentle into that good night. They've pledged to engage in civil disobedience and chain themselves to the bar when the bulldozers and wrecking balls come for their favorite haunt. A state sentator has even declared that she'll lay down in front of the demolition machinery.
The awful 2005 Supreme Court decision in Kelo vs. City of New London, which held that governments can seize property to increase potential tax revenues, may have paved the way for Atlantic Yards, but Freddy's is the next last stand in an ongoing battle against eminent domain abuse.
Produced by Dan Hayes, who conceived, shot, and edited the video; Damon Root, who researched the legal issues and did logistics; and Nick Gillespie, who co-wrote the piece and hosts.
Approximately 5 minutes.
The post Reason TV Replay: Billionaires vs. Brooklyn's Best Bar: Eminent Domain Abuse & The Atlantic Yards Project appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>The trial of the Russian feminist punk rock band Pussy Riot does not seem to be going well for the Kremlin. As we learned during an interview with Cuban frontman Gorki Águila, punk musicians don't take well to authoritative regimes.
Here is the original text from the October 13, 2009 video:
Gorki Águila is blunt in his assessment of Fidel Castro's half century of revolution: "Communism is a failure. A total failure. Please, leftists of the world-improve your capitalism! Don't choose communism!" Águila, a Havana resident, wears homemade anti-government t-shirts, frequently denounces the Castro brothers as geriatric tyrants, and heads up perhaps Cuba's only explicitly political punk band, Porno Para Ricardo. And because of his stubborn belief in free speech, he is routinely arrested on charges of "social dangerousness." Tired of his anti-regime music, Cuban authorities made the rare decision to grantt Águila a visa to travel abroad, perhaps hoping that he wouldn't return
In September, Reason.tv's Michael C. Moynihan caught up with Águila on the Washington, D.C. leg of his American promotional tour to talk about his music, the origins of Porno Para Ricardo, and how long it takes to get Led Zeppelin records in a totalitarian society.
For downloadable versions please visit www.reason.tv.
Approximately 7 minutes. Shot by Meredith Bragg. Edited by Dan Hayes.
The post Cuban Punk Rocker Gorki Aguila on Music, Life and Getting Led Zeppelin Records in Cuba appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>From radio and film to newspapers and publishing, the Nazi regime controlled every aspect of German culture from 1933-1945. Through Josef Goebbels' Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, the German state tightly controlled political messaging, promoting deification of the leader—the Führerprinzip—and the demonization of the ubiquitous and duplicitious "racial enemy."
A new exhibit at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., examines "how the Nazi Party used modern techniques as well as new technologies and carefully crafted messages to sway millions with its vision for a new Germany." Reason.tv's Michael C. Moynihan visited with museum historian and curator Steve Luckert to discuss the role and effectiveness of propaganda in the rise of fascism and what lessons can be drawn from the Nazi experiment in mass manipulation.
Approximately 6 minutes.
Produced by Jim Epstein and Michael C. Moynihan. Shot by Dan Hayes and Jim Epstein, with help from Joshua Swain.
To visit the exhibit website click here.
Go to Reason.tv for downloadable versions of this and all our videos, and subscribe to Reason.tv's YouTube channel to receive automatic notification when new content is posted.
The post Reason.tv: The Power of Nazi Propaganda appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>Reason.tv reports from the "One Nation Working Together" rally for "Jobs, Justice, and Education" on Saturday, October 2 in Washington, D.C. The event was organized by the NAACP, the AFL-CIO, the American Federation of Teachers, the Service Employees International Union, and other progressive outfits.
Reason's Nick Gillespie talked with Rep. Charles Rangel, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, the AFT's Randi Weingarten, MSNBC's Ed Schultz, comedian-activist Dick Gregory, Electronic Frontier Foundation co-founder Mitch Kapor, and other luminaries (including somebody who looked a helluva lot like Neil Young).
Click to learn what they had to say about the economy, the Tea Party, President Obama's tenure, whether the stimulus worked, race relations, and whether the United States is better off than it was in the 1960s.
Approx. 5 minutes. Shot and edited by Jim Epstein, with help from Josh Swain.
Reason.tv attended the 'One Nation Working Together Rally' on the National Mall on October 2, 2010. The crowd, representing a broad cross section of political left, included groups like the United Auto Workers, United Steel Workers, Service Employees International Union, the NAACP, anti-war activists, the American Federation of Teachers, the International Socialist Organization, and many liberal and progressive groups.
Priority issues for attendees were jobs, the cost of higher education and the economy. Though the crowd was evenly divided about President Obama's first two years in office, it seemed as though everyone agreed that it's time to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Interviews by June Arunga and Kmele Foster. Shot and edited by Dan Hayes.
The post Reason.tv: What We Saw At And Who We Talked With at the One Nation Rally in DC: Rangel, Jackson, Sharpton, the AFT, AFL-CIO, & More… appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>For decades the nation has endlessly debated how to solve the problem of illegal immigration. One side calls for aggressive enforcement of existing laws. The other side calls for "comprehensive immigration reform." But while the debate rages, millions of American children are left with the real possibility that their undocumented parents will be detected and deported.
For the past year, a Mercury News reporter and photojournalist followed a San Mateo family on their emotional journey through the U.S. immigration system. Both parents came here as illegal immigrants, but all six of their children are American citizens.
To watch this video go here.
The post Torn Apart—A Documentary about Deportation appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>Tonia Edwards and Bill Main are lawbreakers. Nearly every day, they teach a group of people how to ride Segways, and then take them around Washington, D.C., to talk about local sights and attractions. Their business is located near the National Archives, so one of the things they tell their costumers is where the Bill of Rights is located. For this, the city government could throw Tonia and Bill in prison for three months. In Washington, D.C., it is illegal for anyone to give a tour of the city for compensation without first obtaining a special license-quite literally, a license to describe.
The post License to Describe: Defeating Washington D.C.'s Tour Guide Licensing Scheme appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>The post NJ Gov. Christie Dismantles Teachers Union Argument appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>CEI Labor Policy Counsel Vincent Vernuccio interviews non-union union picketers.
The post Unions Hire Non-Union Protesters? appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>Like this vid? Click http://apps.facebook.com/bankruptinga… to try our Spending #FAIL Map that has more on these projects and many others.
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Joke-telling robots, expensive walking tunnels, Blackberries for smokers, and training American prostitutes to drink responsibly. What do these things have in common? They're all questionable government spending projects in a time when our economy is struggling and people can't get jobs….or, maybe we just made them up.
Put yourself to the test. See if you can outwit the Rebel Economist before she stumps you. So what is it: REAL or FAKE?
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Want to learn more about the projects featured in the video, the waste in your state and hundreds more examples? (Even better: want to do something about it?) Try our Spending #FAIL Map, which allows you to choose the spending projects of your (dis)liking, share the facts with others on Facebook, and call and tweet your member of Congress: http://apps.facebook.com/bankruptinga…
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Want more of the Rebel Economist? Check out her channel here: http://www.youtube.com/user/rebelecon…
The post Which Government Projects are Real and Which are Fake? appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>The passage of health care legislation was viewed by many as a crushing defeat to the tea party movement.
Was it? We surveyed Tea Party leaders from across the country, asking them about momentum, political affiliation, and barriers to entry. We published those results in a study called "The Next Wave". The results, we found, were different than what we heard on the streets. Or, in this case, the beach.
::
SAM's deep dive into the Next Wave of activists finds that:
*Tea Party momentum is building: 74.5 percent of Next Wavers said the movement is "gaining active supporters" and 66 percent indicated that the movement is "more enthusiastic."
*There was a nearly 30-point drop among Tea Party activists in their affiliation with the Republican brand.
There is a decrease in Republican sources of entrants to the Tea Parties and an increase in independents: 20 percent of Next Wavers were independents prior to the Tea Parties (compared with 12.6 percent of Early Adopters that were independents) and 74 percent of Next Wavers were Republicans prior, compared to 81 percent of Early Adopters.
*The longer a Tea Party activist is in the movement, the more likely they are to be optimistic about the political landscape
*Of those who were inspired by an individual to join the Tea Party movement, 63.6 percent-the largest number-cited a friend as being instrumental in their involvement." Only 37.5 percent of Early Adopters were recruited by friends. Rather, media personalities brought the highest number into the movement.
*89.3 percent of Tea Party activists have been active in introducing new people into the movement.
*Both Early Adopters and Next Wave activists were new to politics; 40.5 percent of Early Adopters and 43.6 percent of Next Wave activists said they were uninvolved/rarely involved with politics prior to their Tea Party involvement.
Be sure to check the full study at: http://www.activistinsightsreport.com
The post SAM asks Chicago: What is the state of the Tea Party Movement? appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>The post Story of Cosmetics, The Critique appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>The post Matt Lesko Jumps into Libertarian Candidate's Campaign Ad appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>A few snapshots of the prosperity brought upon by free-markets across the globe!
The post Bridges of Peace appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>Courts and legislatures across the country are deciding whether students and professors can carry guns on campus–but your university might be preventing you from being part of the debate.
Since more than 30 people were murdered at Virginia Tech, debate has raged over guns on campus. Yet, on far too many campuses, FIRE sees censorship instead of real discussions about the merits of permitting students and professors to be armed. These are the stories of students who joined the battle of ideas in order to debate issues of personal safety–and ended up fighting to maintain their First Amendment rights.
The post Empty Holsters: A Video by FIRE appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>This is a Fair Use Critique of RSA animate—radical sociologist David Harvey, where he asks if it is time to look beyond capitalism towards a new social order that would allow us to live within a system that really could be responsible, just, and humane!?
Harvey supposedly gave a lecture at the RSA (www.theRSA.org).
His entire argument can be debunked simply by looking at the Census data regarding income.
The original video can be found here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOP2V_…
Citations:
President's Economic Data:
http://www.gpoaccess.gov/eop/2010/201…
Census Data:
http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/income…
http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/income…
Thomas Sowell Wisdom:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0MaY3…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2Nuy_…
The post Crisis of Capitalism, The Critique appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>The post I Want Your Money—Trailer appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>Brought to you by the International Centre for Science in Drug Policy—where science, not ideology, drives illicit drug policy.
www.icsdp.org.
The post Did You Know: War on Drugs Edition appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>Reason.tv caught up with immigrants to learn why they moved to a country that defines itself as a multicultural melting pot. Citizenship: The Pursuit of Happiness was produced and edited by Dan Hayes. Thanks to Rob Raffety for the inspiration!
Approximately 5.15 minutes.
Scroll down for downloadable iPod, HD, and audio versions of this and all our videos, and subscribe to Reason.tv's YouTube channel to receive automatic notification when new material goes live.
The post Citizenship: The Pursuit of Happiness appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>In the merely five years since that infamous ruling, the vast majority of state legislatures, many state supreme courts and the public itself have acted to limit Kelo, which took away the homes of seven New London, Conn., families for private development and sparked a nationwide backlash against eminent domain for private gain.
The post Kelo: Five Years Later appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>The Heartland Institute is a think tank devoted to discovering, developing, and promoting free-market solutions to social and economic problems.
The post How Effective Are Gun Bans? appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>The post There Are too Many Bureaucrats and They Are Paid too Much appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>To quote the words of the House Majority Leader, "The most basic responsibility of governing—enacting a budget."
So what has Congress been so busy doing that they can't find the time to pass a budget? Watch the 2:10-minute video and find out….
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Want to stay informed and take action with others? Sign up at http://www.bankruptingamerica.org
The post Yo Congress—Where's the Budget? appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>HAT TIP: Katie Hooks.
The post Born Free MIA Video—Paramilitary Police Tactics and More! appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>The post Deficits, Debts and Unfunded Liabilities: The Consequences of Excessive Government Spending appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>Thousands of Greeks have violently rioted against their government because the game is up. For years, the Greek government made spending promises to its people that it could never keep (much like a Bernie Madoff-style Ponzi scheme).
When taxes couldn't cover the cost of spending, the Greek government took out loans. Loans quickly turned to a debt so large it's 115% the size of Greece's economy.
Unfortunately, the U.S. is doing the exact same thing. Watch the video to find out more and, if you approve of the video's message, please pass it along to others.
It's too late for Greece. But it's not too late for us. We can still cut spending and save our economy from crisis.
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Want to stay informed and take action with others? Sign up at http://www.bankruptingamerica.org
The post The Greecing of America, Simplified appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>The post Waiting for Superman—A Documentary about School Choice appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>Yet that is the law in Lake Elmo, Minn. On December 1, 2009, the Lake Elmo City Council declared that it would begin enforcing a law that forbids farmers from selling products from their own land unless they were grown inside city limits. The citys politicians argue that they are protecting Lake Elmos rural character. In fact, they are destroying that character by making it impossible for their farmers to earn an honest living and making it more likely that family farms will fail.
The post Freeing Small Farms: Minnesota Farms Fight Protectionism appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>Hat Tip—Elizabeth Terrell
The post How to Motivate People—Skip the Bonus and Give Them a Real Project! appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>The post EPA Contest Entry: How to Kill Jobs and Harm the Economy appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>The post Suspicious Cinco de Mayo Behavior Re: Illegal Immigrants appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>The post A Day in the Life of Regulatory Reform appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>The post American's for Prosperity EPA VIdeo Contest Entry appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>The Monoxitube helps you become aware of the carbon monoxide produced when you drive. The Monoxitube is a 25-foot tube that attaches to the exhaust pipe of a car and the other end slides through the driver-side window, sending the carbon monoxide fumes from the tailpipe to the driver's seat. Every time you press on the gas, or idle, you'll be the first to know how much carbon monoxide you'e producing. You'll learn what bicyclists and pedestrians experience every day as you drive by. Buy the Monoxitube today and face your exhaust.
Visit www.monoxitube.com.
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FAKE PRODUCT. DO NOT INHALE CARBON MONOXIDE.
The Monoxitube idea draws attention to the toxic exhaust of gas-powered cars. If people had to bear the total cost of their vehicles, which includes pollution, they would be more likely to seek out transportation alternatives that don't harm others. They would drive (and idle) less and try other ways to get where they need to go: carpooling, taking the bus, walking, telecommuting, and more.
I'm not advocating limiting freedom of movement. To the contrary, in my ideal life of living in a walkable neighborhood–where driving is unnecessary–walking provides more freedom than driving since it's free, doesn't require parking, and you don't have to make a turn signal when you want to go left (no tickets for pedestrians!).
Through the Monoxitube idea, I'm advocating freedom of movement based on polite interaction with other humans, and common courtesy involves not leaving a cloud of carbon monoxide as one passes by another's home. It is my hope that people will read about the Monoxitube and try low-emission transport options and seek out and support walkable neighborhoods where you don't have to leave the neighborhood to breathe fresh air.
The idea was inspired by Murray Rothbard's short history of air and noise pollution. Soon after the invention of the internal combustion engine, people sued engine operators for producing harmful exhaust and irritating noise. For example, farmers sued nearby factory owners. These lawsuits showed a person would logically object to breathing the pollutants generated by another person.
Though it's now customary to endure breathing carbon monoxide car exhaust-in that people don't sue drivers for idling by sidewalk cafes-this doesn't make the pollution acceptable. People used to tolerate breathing second-hand cigarette smoke, and second-hand car exhaust is far worse.
In the cases cited above, the courts ruled the benefits of industrial output superseded the harm caused by air and noise pollution. Rothbard explained that engine operators then had no incentive to create non-toxic and quiet machines because they could offload the "cost" of their machines on to others. Rothbard suggests the solution would be "for the courts to return to their function of defending person and property rights against invasion, and therefore to enjoin anyone from injecting pollutants into the air."
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CREDITS
Producer: Dave Doctor
Actor (Spokesperson): Beth "elizabethany" Ploger (www.loveelizabethany.com)
Actor (Driver): Anonymous
The post Monoxitube—Face Your Exhaust appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>The post Lost: An Economic Crisis appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>The post Six Reasons Why the Capital Gains Tax Should Be Abolished appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>See Reason.tv's commentary on the GM repayment here.
The post Paul Ryan Disputes GM Repayment Claims appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>The Tea Party movement may endure, but its endurance will be a testament to its ability to understand that cutting government means having a long-term focus. John Samples, author of The Struggle to Limit Government and Director of the Cato Institute's Center for Representative Government, offers an assessment of what Tea Partiers should do if they want to sustain an effort to cut government.
Video produced by Caleb O. Brown and Austin Bragg.
The post Advice to Tea Partiers appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>From Rachel Carson in the 1960s to contemporary critics, DDT has been the object of what Roberts, a professor of tropical public health at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, calls "scare campaigns" that link DDT to "theoretical harms to wildlife and human life that simply don't exist."
Dubbed "the excellent powder" by Winston Churchill for its life-saving qualities, DDT has the potential to transform the developing world from a malarial hell into something else again. Yet as Tren, the winner of the 2009 Julian L. Simon Award, warns, under current international conventions, global DDT production is scheduled to be halted in 2017, thereby consigning much of the world to less-effective and more-expensive alternatives that will consign millions of poor people to living hell.
Reason.tv's Nick Gillespie sat down with Tren and Roberts, who are part of Africa Fighting Malaria, to talk about how DDT got such a bad rap and what can be done to set the record straight.
Approximately 9.15 minutes. Shot by Meredith Bragg and Dan Hayes; edited by Hayes and Josh Swain.
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The post Demonizing DDT appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>Is the public right? Is Washington bankrupting America? Some facts from the video:
Spending per household has risen over 40 percent in the last 10 years and is set to do so again in the next 10 pushing debt (and interest on the debt) to unprecedented levels. But that's just a result of PAST spending…
Our government owes $106 trillion in FUTURE spending commitments—that cannot be paid for.
We can solve it, but politicians will have to make tough choices. Increasing taxes can't do the trick ($106 trillion is equivalent to taking all of the taxable income from every American nine times over), nor is it fair to saddle taxpayers with a problem created by government irresponsibility.
We need real spending reform. Merely returning to the spending per household levels of the 1990s would balance the budget in three years.
The post Is Washington Bankrupting America? appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>The post The Onerous Compliance Cost of the Internal Revenue Code appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>The post Iranian Journalist Akbar Ganji Receives 2010 Milton Friedman Prize appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>The post Judge Napolitano on Justice Steven's Retirement appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>If police suspect that you committed a crime, they can arrest you and put you on trial. At that trial, prosecutors must prove you are guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
But if police suspect your car was involved in a crime, they can take it, sell it and, in most places, pocket the proceeds to pad their budgets. They need not prove you committed any crime-or even arrest you-to take your property away.
Welcome to the upside-down world of civil asset forfeiture.
With civil forfeiture, your property is guilty until you prove it innocent to get it back.
And because most state and federal laws allow police and prosecutors to pocket the proceeds, they have a big incentive to pursue profits, not justice.
How big? In 1986, the Justice Departments forfeiture fund took in 94 million dollars. Now it has more than a billion. State and local agencies receive forfeiture funds, too-but we dont know how much because most states dont publicly report on forfeiture.
No surprise-abuse is rampant. One New York police department spent forfeiture funds on food, gifts and entertainment. In Georgia, forfeiture funds paid for football tickets for a DAs office. In Louisiana, cops used funds to pay for ski trips to Aspen. And a DA in Texas used forfeiture dollars to buy TV ads for his re-election campaign.
Meanwhile, citizens are seeing cash, cars and other property taken away for the flimsiest of reasons. Carrying too much cash? Police can accuse you of selling drugs or laundering money and seize it, no conviction or even arrest required.
An Institute for Justice study grades state laws on how well they protect people from wrongful forfeitures. Only three states receive a B or better. The rest range from mediocre to awful-and so does federal law.
Worse, a federal legal loophole allows police and prosecutors to bypass state protections and keep pocketing forfeiture money. IJs research shows that the easier and more profitable these laws make forfeiture, the more it is used and abused.
Its time to end civil forfeiture. People shouldnt have their property taken away without being convicted of a crime. And law enforcement shouldnt be policing for profit
Learn more at http://www.ij.org/PolicingForProfit
The post Policing for Profit appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>The post The Flat Tax: How it Works and Why it is Good for America appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>The post Boehner Goes Off Before Healthcare Vote appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>The post School House Rock Parody—How a Bill REALLY Becomes a Law appeared first on Reason.com.
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