Legal Pot, Presidential Kill Lists, Fiscal Cliffs, Self-Directed Evolution: Support Reason, Your Guide to a Complicated World

We're in the final two days of Reason's annual webathon, where we're asking 800 readers to support our work through donations to the nonprofit Reason Foundation that publishes this website, Reason magazine, and Reason TV. Give $100 and you'll get a T-shirt, a subscription and a shout-out on Twitter. Give $250 and you'l get all that plus a second subscription and a Reason bag. Give $5,000 and you get a ton more (including lunch in D.C. with Matt Welch and me, or a Reason editor of your choosing). The full giving levels are here. If $100 or more is too much of a reach, please give what you can. All donations are tax-deductible to the fullest extent of the law.

Over the past week, Matt Welch and I have outlined reasons to support Reason (go here for a list).

Here's another:

Across all our platforms, Reason is an indispensable guide to a complicated world. Think about it: We live in a world where recreational pot is legal in two states, where the president (a former constitutional law prof, no less) feels comfortable about compiling and acting on a extrajudicial "kill list" that includes U.S. citizens, where the federal government hasn't passed a budget in years and is desperately trying to welsh on a tiny 2011 debt deal, and where human beings are ever more in charge of their own bodies.

By refusing to carry the bags of either Democrats or Republicans, Reason's hands are free to consistently and systematically make the case for limited government (in the boardroom and the bedroom) and individual autonomy across all aspects of human activity. We fiercely guard our political and ideological independence not because we want to remain above the fray of politics, culture, and ideas but because that's the best way to engage politics, culture, and ideas. Other "think magazines" (such as The Nation, National Review, The Weekly Standard, The New Republic) are in the tank for one party or another, something which becomes clear as they enter into quadrennial nose-holding periods during every national election. At Reason, we explain clearly where we're coming from, but we don't give a pass to, say, small-government Republicans who want to spend like drunken sailors on defense or civil-libertarian liberals who turn their heads and cough when the Democrats start repressing dissent.

It's a weird, wild world out there, with freedom and liberty advancing on some fronts and top-down control expanding on others. Where else but Reason - in the pages of our print edition, on the pages of this website, in the images of our videos - are you going to be able to learn about Why The Government is Not a Super-Parent; The Wall Calender vs. The State; and a Unified Field Theory of Fantasy Football, "Eat Pray Love," and Burning Man? All in a single moment?

Your support helps up publish 11 issues of Reason mag, produce 500+ videos, and generate thousands of online articles and post every single year. In 2012, we fought for health care freedom, free speech, the deregulation of business and lifestyle, and much more. 2013 is shaping up as another pivotal year in which Congress will try to spend too much, food nannies will try to restrict your diet, war will be conducted with no regard to the Constitution or the long-term effects of intervention, and various clampdowns on everything from language to toys to free movement will be tried.

Reason will help you navigate this fog of misinformation by getting mapping the terrain, by sticking up for "Free Minds and Free Markets," giving aid and comfort via sharp humor and commentary, and never backing down from principle. And working to recruit new troops to the fight for freedom.

We're proud to be the leading source of libertarian news, views, and opinion; to be a recognized source of original ideas for policymakers, business leaders, and other influentials; and to act as a virtual community for current and future generations of folks interested in limited government and maximum individual freedom.

Your donations are a vital resource for us, so if you like this site and what we do, please consider making a donation today. Because your gift is tax-deductible, it represents dollars that the government won't get - and we can guarantee that we'll use it to keep fighting the good fight.