Contributors
Andrew P. Napolitano wrote his sixth book, It Is Dangerous to Be Right When the Government Is Wrong: The Case for Personal Freedom (Thomas Nelson), because the U.S. government gives "everyone concerned about liberty so much to worry about." In an essay adapted from the book on page 24, he describes restrictions on movement such as intrusive airport security, DUI checkpoints, and immigration laws. Napolitano, 61, is a former New Jersey Superior Court judge who hosts Freedom Watch on Fox Business Network. He wants reason readers to know that Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is no relation, although "I want her to come on my show."
In "Modern-Day Prohibition" (page 60), Jeff Stier reviews The Art of Suppression (Little Dice), Christopher Snowdon's new book about America's "noble experiment" and its modern-day successors. A senior fellow at the National Center for Public Policy Research, where he mostly focuses on health regulations, Stier, 40, is frustrated by folks such as documentarian Ken Burns (interviewed on page 52) who refuse to equate drug and alcohol prohibition. Stier thinks public health organizations often engage in a milder form of prohibitionism because they "just use health as an excuse to control people's lives." During college, Stier "rehabbed" from an internship in the office of Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) with a more rewarding job at the Heritage Foundation and soon after realized he preferred "freedom over government in all policy areas."
Seth McKelvey, 22, is reason's fall 2011 Burton C. Gray Memorial Intern. A graduate of the University of Georgia with a degree in English and journalism, McKelvey recently lived in London, where he worked at a climbing wall and wrote a novel that is "full of rock 'n' roll, drugs, violence, and some crazy supernatural stuff." McKelvey is a new libertarian, "having only come to my senses in the past four years"—for which he credits Ron Paul's 2008 presidential campaign. He digs blogging for reason so much that he doesn't mind when he has to "make coffee and wash the occasional load of dishes."
