June 2020
America Wasn't Ready for Coronavirus
Early takeaways from the country's response to a pandemic
Features
In Zimbabwe, It's Crisis as Usual
A new round of hyperinflation was taking a heavy toll on daily life, even before the coronavirus hit.
10 Ways a Roadside Police Stop Can Go Wrong
What could happen—and what to do about it—if you get pulled over by the cops
Interview
What It's Like To Be a Rational Optimist in a Pandemic
Matt Ridley on how the coronavirus caught him by surprise, the crucial role of dissent in politics, and the importance of innovation for survival
Topics
The Seen and the Unseen of COVID-19
As long as it's neither safe nor legal to conduct normal business, Bastiat's seen economic activity is beyond our reach. The unseen doubly so.
In Praise of Pointy Things
The gifting of a knife is the entrusting of a reliable tool, perhaps the most useful one that humans have invented and can own.
Did Louisiana Enact a Bogus Health Law as a Pretext for Banning Abortion?
The Supreme Court will consider the constitutionality of a Louisiana law that requires physicians who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at local hospitals.
A New Synthetic Opioid Is Killing American Drug Users
But we can't ban our way out of the research chemical problem.
Two Billionaires Demonstrate the Limits of Money in Elections
No amount of money can buy victory for candidates who fail to persuade voters.
Tennessee May Finally Reform Draconian Drug-Free School Zone Laws
Too often, minor drug crimes turn into mandatory minimum offenses with lengthy sentences despite the fact these types of cases rarely involve drug dealing to minors.
Immigrants Have a Right to Privacy Too
Forcibly collecting DNA samples from immigrants in detention is yet another horrifying form of mass surveillance
Months After Soleimani's Assassination, Another Strike on Militias in Iraq
Rocket attacks and "precision defensive strikes" will bring us ever closer to truly endless war.
Prager University and Tulsi Gabbard Lose Censorship Suits Against Google
Forcing Google to behave like a public utility would probably not serve the interests of those demanding that designation—or the rest of us.
Culture
How the Abolitionist Grandfathers of Modern Libertarianism Won by Losing—and Lost by Winning
While Europe was in revolt, America had its own Free Soil revolution of 1848.
Books
Scary Stories About Vaping Aren't Helping Anyone
Feel free to reject the advice of this terrible new book.
No, Segregationists Weren't the Driving Force Behind School Choice
The anti-voucher polemic is augmented by historical half-truths and selective omissions of countervailing evidence.
Reviews
Sinking in the Swamp
An extended profile of the numerous, eclectic grifters surrounding President Donald Trump
Suffrage
From our modern vantage point, it's easy to scorn some decisions that suffrage movement leaders made. Suffrage adds context.
Ugly Delicious
Is tahini salsa verde an insidious form of cultural appropriation or two immigrants from Oaxaca riffing on food traditions they love?
The Consequential Frontier
The "privatization" of space has already expanded the possibilities of the cosmos for all mankind far beyond what six decades of federal bureaucracy could.
ETC.
Vermin Supreme Says This Time, He's Serious
"The political duopoly electioneering of the presidential system has indeed risen to the level of a joke."
Brickbats: June 2020
News of politicians, police, and bureaucrats behaving badly from around the world
