The United States v. John Stagliano

Posted on August 20, 2008

In April, the government indicted pornographer John Stagliano in a federal court in Washington, D.C. on multiple charges of obscenity for producing and distributing two fetish movies, Milk Nymphos and Storm Squirters 2: Target Practice, and a trailer for another porn collection. All appeared on his company's adult-only website, evilangel.com.

If convicted and sentenced to maximum jail time on each charge, Stagliano, one of the most popular, innovative, and award-winning XXX-rated movie kings in history, effectively faces a lifetime sentence. His next court date is scheduled for November, shortly after Election Day.

In April, reason.tv's Nick Gillespie talked with Stagliano in a candid, wide-ranging 20-minute conversation about the government's case against him and his defense strategy, the role that porn plays in the average viewer's life, how he came to his libertarian beliefs, how contracting HIV was the best thing that ever happened to him, his record of innovation in the adult-film world, and much, much more.

To read a partial transcript of the interview, go here.

To watch the video of this interview, go here.

Norm Stamper: Former Seattle top cop on the need for drug legalization

Posted on August 15, 2008

Norm Stamper is a cop who saw it all during his 34 years on active duty. As police of Seattle from 1994 through 2000, he was in charge during violent World Trade Organization protests in the Emerald City.

Stamper, who holds a Ph.D. in leadership and human behavior from United States International University, has emerged as one of the most thoughtful and outspoken critics of the war on drugs, which he believes causes untold misery, undermines effective law enforcement, and doesn't begin to pass any sort of cost-benefit analysis. As important, the libertarian Stamper believes that the drug war-and other wars on the behaviors on consenting adults-does great violence to the idea that we own our bodies.

Stamper is the author of the Breaking Rank: A Top Cop's Exposé of the Dark Side of American Policing (2005) and now works with Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), a nonprofit created by former cops to "reduce the multitude of unintended harmful consequences resulting from fighting the war on drugs and to lessen the incidence of death, disease, crime, and addiction by ultimately ending drug prohibition."

ETHANOL - Silly Senator, Corn is for Food!

Posted on August 13, 2008

Ethanol advocates claim that the biofuel is a cheap, renewable energy source that reduces pollution and our dependence on foreign oil. It sounds too good to be true—and it is.

Ethanol, especially the corn-based variety, is bad for taxpayers, bad for consumers, bad for the environment, and horrible for the world's poor. In fact, even environmentalists are critical of ethanol subsidies these days. The ethanol craze has distorted markets and increased the price of food worldwide. The only people who still support ethanol subsidies are the ethanol producers—and politicians from both sides of the aisle. Together, they make sure the subsidies keep coming.

In a recent interview about the current food crisis, Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) said, "If part of our problem is that the Chinese are going to eat meat and you've got to have corn and soybeans to feed the Chinese their meat, then why isn't it just as legitimate for the Chinese to go back and eat rice as it is for us to change our policy on corn to ethanol?"

Let them eat rice? So that American taxpayers can continue to pay people to turn corn into fuel?

Silly senator, corn is for food.

This seven-and-a-half-minute video explores the case against ethanol subsidies. Hosted by reason's Nick Gillespie and featuring Science Correspondent Ronald Bailey, it was produced by Paul Feine and PF Bentley.

Earmarks - The Alien Menace

Posted on August 6, 2008

Taxpayers are shelling out over $17 billion for more than 11,000 Congressional earmarks in FY 2008. One such project is a $1.6 million earmark in this year’s defense spending bill. The money is going to the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI), a program that searches for evidence of life elsewhere in the universe.

That alien pork project is just one example of how elected officials use earmarks to funnel federal tax dollars back to powerful interests in their districts. While politicians and a few of their most well-connected constituents benefit from earmarks, the costs fall on individual taxpayers. Since 1991, Americans have paid over $271 billion for pork projects.

In this new Reason.tv video, Senator Tom Coburn (R-Okla) - who is known as the Senate's "Dr. No" for his aggressive opposition to earmarks - explains how taxpayers are being fleeced by Washington's insatiable appetite for pork.

Johan Norberg - Swedish Myths and Realities

Posted on August 6, 2008

Johan Norberg, author of In Defense of Global Capitalism, sits down with reason.tv's Michael C. Moynihan to sort out the myths of the Sweden's welfare state, health services, tax rates, and its status as the "most successful society the world has ever known."

Jason L. Riley on Immigration: LET THEM IN ALREADY!

Posted on August 6, 2008

The title of Jason L. Riley's new book helps explain why it has proven so controversial: Let Them In: The Case for Open Borders.

Let Them In is as exhaustively researched as it is eminently readable. Riley, a member of The Wall Street Journal's editorial board runs through the six biggest anti-immigration arguments at play in today's heated political world—and finds them wanting.

Riley sat down earlier this summer with reason.tv's Nick Gillespie to discuss the leading myths about the causes and effects of immigration.

Press Conference on Dr. Steven Hayne

Posted on August 5, 2008

Waiting for the Jury - Charlie Lynch Trial Update

Posted on August 5, 2008

The fate of Charlie Lynch, the medical marijuana dispensary owner facing federal prosecution, now rests with the jury.

Silencing Owen - Charlie Lynch Trial Update

Posted on August 5, 2008

Chemotherapy treatments and an amputated leg left 17-year-old Owen Beck in constant pain and nausea. Nothing gave him relief until he tried the medical marijuana his parents purchased for him at Charlie Lynch’s dispensary in Morro Bay, California.

After armed federal agents raided his dispensary in 2007, Lynch now finds himself in the midst of a trial that could land him in prison for the rest of his life. On Tuesday Owen Beck was called to the stand to speak on Lynch’s behalf—and then promptly silenced.

In this video update, reason.tv continues its coverage of the saga first told in the documentary short, Raiding California: Medical Marijuana and Minors.

To learn why Owen's testimony was cut short, read Seth Goldin's courtroom dispatch.

Marijuana Policy Project Benefit

Posted on July 30, 2008

The Marijuana Policy Project held its annual fundraiser benefit at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles, California on June 12. MPP head Rob Kampia and model Adrianne Curry hosted a gala full of stars who attended to voice their support for marijuana policy reform.

Take Us Out of the Ball Game: Are sports subsidies worth it?

Posted on July 28, 2008

It's a great time to be a sports fan: The NBA playoffs are shaping up, the NHL playoffs are underway, and the baseball season is young enough that followers of every team can still dream about making it to the World Series.

But as Major League Baseball's Washington Nationals—a team that surely is not going to the October Classic any time soon—eases into its brand-spanking-new-and-massively-expensive stadium, reason.tv asks the question: Are publicly financed stadiums and other sports subsidies really worth the cost to taxpayers?

McCain's Big Cash Prize

Posted on July 28, 2008

Paying $4 for a gallon of gas is a drag, but what may be worse is listening to White House wannabes who promise to rescue us from our misery.

Take Senator McCain’s recent proposal to offer a $300 million cash prize to the inventor of a car battery that can out-green 100-mpg plug-in hybrids. Is McCain’s money pile really necessary to spur our nation’s geniuses to get it together and invent an ultra-efficient car? reason.tv’s Ted Balaker thinks not.

Mark Bauerlein - Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?

Posted on July 23, 2008

Author Mark Bauerlein answers questions from the home version of Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? Download a podcast of a more extensive interview of Bauerlein at www.reason.com/podcast.

Mark Bauerlein - Why Young Americans Are the Dumbest Generation

Posted on July 23, 2008

In his provocative new book The Dumbest Generation, Mark Bauerlein argues that "the digital age stupefies young Americans and jeopardizes our future" by turning out hyper-networked kids who can track each other's every move with ease but are largely ignorant of history, economics, culture, and other subjects he believes are prerequisites for meaningful civic participation.

Bauerlein, an English professor at Emory University who has written for reason, notes that a 2003 Foundation for Individual Rights survey found that only one out of 50 college students could name the first right mentioned in the First Amendment. Between 1982 and 2002, the National Endowment for the Arts estimates that the share of 18-to-24-year-olds who reported reading a single poem, play, novel, or short story outside of school or work dropped from 60 percent to 43 percent. "I tell students in class all the time, 'You guys are lazy and ignorant,'" says Bauerlein. "Don't tell me how busy you are. You watch two hours and 41 minutes of TV a day."

Bauerlein is a self-described "educational conservative," but his politics do not fit easily into existing categories. "I believe in a core knowledge, a core tradition, that everyone should learn," he explains. "Socially, I'm pretty liberal and libertarian; I think the drug war is one of the most absurd and costly government programs ever created."

Bauerlein talked with reason.tv's Nick Gillespie in June.

From Capt. Kirk to Brother Jed

Posted on July 11, 2008

reason.tv's Ted Balaker chats with director Roger Nygard about filmmaking, fan culture, religion, and why people get so angry when their beliefs get challenged.

Nygard has directed episodes of TV shows such as The Office and The Bernie Mack Show. He also helmed the celebrated documentary Trekkies and has just finished some serious globetrotting in which he posed existential questions-why are we here? is there an afterlife? shat is the soul?-to Christians, Jews, atheists, Muslims, druids, Baba lovers, Hindu gurus, Confucianists, Taoists, Native Americans, and satanists.

Their answers will be included in his new documentary, The Nature of Existence, which promises to explain all the mysteries of the universe in 90 minutes.

Hear Nygard explain why Star Trek is still such a major cultural phenomenon, why you shouldn't shoo a snake off your roof, and what it's like to go on a road trip with a confrontational evangelist.