Departments

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2 From Lincoln to LBJ to Frank Underwood

Metaphors for the Obama presidency have gone from heroic to homicidal. Matt Welch

6 Contributors

7 Letters and Reaction

The sultan of sewers; you can never drive…

8 Citings Underage pot smokers; the state vs. MMA; brew free or die; prison privacy rulings; taxi licensing; D.C. carry ban killed; why capitalism?…

60 Reason TV: The New Presidential Propaganda

Imagery of the chief executive is more tightly controlled and carefully considered than ever. Todd Krainin

Columns

14 Must Conservatives Be Cop Lovers? Rand Paul challenges fellow Republicans to rethink their reflexive support of law enforcement. Jacob Sullum

16 Government Failure Is Baked In Welcome to a world of bird flu, corrupt contractors, and glitchy websites. Veronique de Rugy

18 Let's Play God!

Gene drives could be a powerful new tool to manage wild ecosystems. Ronald Bailey

78 The Surprising Power of Subtitles

From Jesus on a bed sheet in Tagalog to Rasputin rapping in Ukrainian. Greg Beato

Features

20 Smartphones vs. Taxi Drivers Regulators and entrenched interests scramble to cope with the e-hailing revolution. Brian Doherty

30 Colorado's Shadow Tourist Boom

Visitors can openly buy marijuana, but they still have to consume it on the sly. Jacob Sullum

32 The Lingering Black Market

Illegal pot dealers still undersell licensed marijuana merchants in Colorado, but their advantage may be fading. Jacob Sullum

36 My Marijuana Overdose

Edibles are tricky, but consumers are not as helpless as Maureen Dowd implies. Jacob Sullum

44 Video's Gutenberg Moment

How the VX1000 camera revolutionized news, documentaries, and porn. Jim Epstein

52 The Rise and Fall of Aereo

The Supreme Court squashes one possible future of television. Damon Root

Culture & Reviews

62 The New Face of Television

How murder, treachery, and mayhem made TV a 'vast wasteland' no more. Peter Suderman

Briefly Noted

64 Jesse Walker on Jeffrey Rogers Hummel's Emancipating Slaves, Enslaving Free Men

66 William Neff on the video game Destiny

68 Katherine Mangu-Ward on the U.S. Botanic Garden exhibit "Amber Waves of Grain"

70 Brian Doherty on Amanda Petrusich's Do Not Sell At Any Price

72 Ed Krayewski on the TV show Banshee

69 Naomi Klein Changes Nothing The laws of nature do not mandate a progressive paradise. Ronald Bailey

This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate, by Naomi Klein

73 High Frequency, Fat Target

Michael Lewis misses the competitive benefits of computerized Wall Street trading. Holly Bell

Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt, by Michael Lewis

76 Avant-GIFs

Turning online animations into high art. Jesse Walker

80 Artifact: Who Armed Ferguson's Warrior Cops?

How federal programs funnel military gear directly into America's cities and towns. Katherine Mangu-Ward

Cover Photo: Netflix