What 'Excess Deaths' Do and Don't Tell Us About COVID-19
While official death tolls clearly underestimate the epidemic's impact, total mortality numbers can be misleading.
Culture
Coronavirus Closures Make It Hard for Truckers To Get a Meal, Yet Some States Still Refuse To Let Food Trucks Operate at Rest Stops
The federal government has given states permission to open up highway rest stops to food truck service. Many are deciding to keep their protectionist bans in place.
De Blasio Threatens To Arrest Hasidic Jews for Congregating To Mourn the Death of a Rabbi
On the same day Brooklyn’s Hasidic Jews came out for a funeral, hundreds were gathering elsewhere in New York City to watch a military flyover.
Netflix's Extraction Is a Tolerable Substitute for a Real Summer Action Movie
It’s the Zoom happy hour of blockbusters.
Desperate Mayors React to Coronavirus: A Timeline
When social distancing means no gatherings larger than a reelection donor dinner.
The Executive Order on Meat Processing Doesn't Compel Companies With Sick Workers to Stay Open
Plus: Justin Amash seeking L.P. nomination, pandemic hasn't halted FDA war on vaping, and more
Alaskan School District Gets Rid of The Great Gatsby, 4 Other 'Controversial' Books
The Mat-Su School Board evidently doesn't understand the purpose of a school.
A Virus Makes the Supreme Court More Transparent
Unprecedented live audio streaming of oral arguments could signal more openness.
FDA Backs Away From Absurd 'Skim Milk' Legal Fight
Dairy industry-endorsed regulations required skim milk to be labeled as “imitation” if it hadn’t been enriched with added vitamins.
20 Years After Its Release, The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask Is Eerily Relevant
Link's adventure in a doomed world of masks and sorrows will resonate with gamers currently under coronavirus lockdown.
When It Comes to Covering Trump, The New York Times Has Abandoned Any Distinction Between Reporting and Opinion
Readers may be better served by a newspaper that is open about its reporters' opinions. But then it can hardly object when Trump publicly describes them as political opponents.
COVID-19 Highlights the Harms of Bad Food Regulations and the Benefits of Lifting Them
People need to eat. Governments shouldn't make that harder than it has to be.
People Stuck at Home Are Making and Watching Porn. Everybody Panic!
Anti-porn crusaders get their panties in a twist about a uptick in porn consumption during COVID-19.
It's Not Fake News: Trump Did Actually Suggest That Injecting Bleach Could Be a Cure for COVID-19
The president added that the procedure is something "you're going to have to use medical doctors with."
Secondhand
Adam Minter's book reminds us that a lot of "value is created when less affluent people are given the opportunity to parse the goods of the wasteful affluent."
The Attorney General Defends Civil Liberties Against Overreaching COVID-19 Control Measures
While denying Donald Trump's dictatorial impulses, William Barr notes that public health emergencies do not give governments unlimited powers.
Shake Shack Received a $10 Million Small Business Loan. They're Giving It Back.
The company says it will return the money after it was announced that the Paycheck Protection Program ran out of funding.
Federal Regulations Are Making the Grocery Store Supply Crunch Worse
The FDA has relaxed some labeling laws in order to allow restaurants to sell groceries, but it could do more.
COVID-19 Is Coming for Your Burgers
Plus: sensitive cellphone data swept up in coronavirus containment efforts, and more...
Curb Your Enthusiasm
The focus on seemingly minor everyday questions of propriety makes the show's 10th season as insightful as it is funny.
Trump's School Lunch Changes Lead to a Pointless Food Fight
"It's unconscionable that the Trump administration would do the bidding of the potato and junk food industries," noted one critic. But Trump's changes are relatively minor.
What The New York Times' 1619 Project Gets Wrong About Capitalism: Phillip Magness
In a new collection, the economic historian documents how classical liberals pushed for abolition and equality in 19th-century America.
Even in a Pandemic, 'Constitutional Rights Still Exist'
A federal judge defended religious freedom by blocking a misguided ban on drive-in Easter services.
Boston Restaurants Want To Sell Groceries. Bureaucrats Say No Way.
The city said that food-packaging regulations stand in the way. That's not true.
Father Can't Be Ordered "to Comply With the Cultural Norms of Hasidic Judaism" During His Visitation Time with Children
So holds a New York appellate court.
Some Backstory on the Louisville Free Exercise Clause / Drive-in Church Services Case
Did Louisville actually purport to ban drive-in church services, or was it just asking people to voluntarily refrain? And what notice did the City have about the temporary restraining order request?
COVID-19 and Its Accompanying Restrictions Continue to Harm World Food Supply
Ill workers in processing facilities, the forced death of restaurants, and national and international storage and shipping disruptions all threaten our food supply.
Religious Freedom Clashes With Public Health Enforcers
Plus: Signal will leave the U.S. market if EARN IT passes, Justin Amash blasts Michigan shutdown orders, and more...
Churches, Shutdown Orders, and Religious Freedom Restoration Acts (in Kansas and Elsewhere)
If people are allowed to go to bars, restaurants, libraries, schools, and factories (with suitable social distancing), should they also be allowed to go to church?
"On Holy Thursday, an American Mayor Criminalized the Communal Celebration of Easter"
A federal judge blocks the Louisville ban on drive-in church services.
Huge Legislature-Governor Conflict in Kansas, Over Emergency Powers (Stemming from Religious Freedom Dispute)
A "drafting snafu" with the Legislature's concurring resolution, which endorsed the Governor's initial emergency order, is casting many things in doubt.
Mississippi City Bans Drive-in Church Services
That violates the Mississippi Religious Freedom Restoration Act, and probably the freedom of assembly and association.
Is Quibi the Next Revolution In Small Screen Streaming Video?
The new service was built for a world that no longer exists. Yet it may still end up being relevant to the one we now inhabit.
Karl Hess: From Republican Speechwriter to New Left Radical to Libertarian Homesteader
Friday A/V Club: Daniel Tucker discusses his documentary Local Control: Karl Hess in the World of Ideas—and we also screen the movie itself.
Is Passover the Most Libertarian Holiday?
The annual retelling of the Exodus story reminds us not to take freedom for granted.
