Postal Censorship and Surveillance: A Timeline
The government's long and shameful history of intercepting people's letters
August/September 2021
Post Apocalypse
Neither rain nor sleet nor snow will stop the U.S. Postal Service. But a pandemic on top of a political fiasco? That's a first-class problem.
Features
The Post Office Pension Ponzi Scheme
The USPS has overpromised and undersaved for its employees' retirements—all while losing nearly $9.2 billion last year.
The USPS' Semi-Secret Internet Surveillance Apparatus
The agency best known for delivering mail has a side hustle in online snooping.
Why Is It So Hard To Sue a Bad Cop?
"Redress for a federal officer's unconstitutional acts is either extremely limited or wholly nonexistent."
Why Didn't COVID-19 Kill the Constitution?
We can thank judges who were prepared to enforce constitutional limits on public health powers.
How Mass Immigration Stopped American Socialism
Relatively open borders helped halt the early 20th century welfare state.
Interview
Meet The New York Times' Libertarian Podcaster
Jane Coaston on the polarization of everything.
Topics
COVID Power Proves Tough To Kick
Politicians and bureaucrats are addicted to foisting their arbitrary reopening rules on everyone else.
SCOTUS Revisits Gun Control
"The Second Amendment does not exist to protect only the rights of the happy few who distinguish themselves from the body of 'the people' through some 'proper cause.'"
America's Forever War Sputters Out
It is easy to be indifferent to a war if you are oblivious to its costs.
Biden's Justice Department Goes After Police Misconduct
A sharp departure from the Trump administration's approach
How Many Union Members Does It Take To Operate a Train?
Labor unions have been lobbying federal regulators to mandate that all freight trains operate with two-person crews in the cab. But automation renders this largely pointless.
Six Marijuana Legalization Lessons
What have policy makers learned since Colorado became the first state to allow recreational use in 2012?
Even COVID-19 Couldn't Kill REAL ID
The ID overhaul, presented as a national security safeguard more than 15 years ago, still hasn't been fully implemented.
Biden Continues Trump Seizures of Private Land for Border Wall
"We thought President Joe Biden would protect us. Now we've lost our land. We don't even know what comes next," says Baudilia Cavazos.
Net Neutrality Is Far From Necessary
Remember, the "open internet" that regulatory rules purportedly preserve emerged from a world without net neutrality rules.
The Bill Will Come Due on Biden's Trillions
Biden's infrastructure package is really a jackpot for public unions and big business.
Plastic, Perfected
Researchers have developed a promising and "infinitely recyclable" plastic called polydiketoenamine.
Why Welfare Reform Worked
Work, not dependency, was what lifted many people up out of poverty.
Culture
Books
Autonomous Mexico
What happened when some indigenous people took their lands back from the state
America's Cross-Partisan Dalliance With Eugenics
A new book pulls the curtain back—but only partway.
Reviews
Trots and Bonnie
Shary Flenniken portrayed her comic strip characters "with a complete lack of adult-world moralizing or editorial restraint."
Falcon and the Winter Soldier
Dull platitudes about diversity from the Marvel Cinematic Universe
Celebration of Life for Margo St. James
St. James fought for sex workers at a time when the mainstream U.S. feminist movement was hostile to them and leftist organizers portrayed them as victims.
COVID Diaries NYC
The HBO documentary provides plenty of examples of people conflating moral and medical judgments.
Fugitive Telemetry
The book's cyborg-protagonist exhibits a Holmesian disdain for the fallibility and frailty of the human investigators with whom it's forced to collaborate.
Philly D.A.
For progressive Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, getting elected was the easy part.
ETC.
Economist John Cochrane Is Still Worried About the Debt
The U.S. national debt held by the public is currently almost $22 trillion, surpassing the country's annual GDP for the first time since World War II.
Brickbats: August/September 2021
News of politicians, police, and bureaucrats behaving badly…
