Brickbats: May 2021
News of politicians, police, and bureaucrats behaving badly…
Latest
Everyone Should Be Able To Bet on the Kentucky Derby From Anywhere
Six states don’t allow any horse racing bets, but others still make it difficult.
Economic Lessons From COVID-19
What the pandemic has re-taught us about the perils of planning, the power of incentives, and the complexities of externalities.
The State Department Fought To Allow 'Ghost Gun' Files and Won. Why Is It Still Trying To Remove Them?
Despite its victory, the State Department is insisting that a court order to allow the files to spread is not yet technically in effect.
The U.S. Won't Beat China by Being More Like China
Biden's argument about a strategic competition with China ignores America's advantages.
Tennessee Man Arrested for Posting Picture Mocking Dead Police Officer Files First Amendment Lawsuit
Police arrested and charged Joshua Garton with harassment for posting a photoshopped picture of two men urinating on a police officer's grave.
Tepid Reopenings Are Producing the Most Absurd Pandemic Regulations Yet
Washington, D.C., policy makers are pairing their very gradual reopening with a series of complicated, confusing, and unworkable regulations.
At The New York Times, Intent Does Not Matter When Someone Uses 'the N-Word,' Except When It Does
The paper let linguist John McWhorter use the racial slur he was discussing but felt a need to explain that decision.
12 Years to Disaster? How Climate Activists Distort the Evidence
The data behind apocalypse 2030 is based on placing blame, not predicting the future.
A Child's Loss Fuels Mysterious, Riveting The Drowning
A mother goes to extreme lengths to try to prove her son’s still alive.
A Keynesian Warmonger Gets What He Deserves in the Otherwise Awful Without Remorse
A terrible, Tom Clancy-inspired action movie that ends in a lame speech touting war as economic stimulus.
COVID-19 Vaccination Rates Plummet Since Johnson & Johnson Vaccine Pause
Plus: Groups pressure Biden to fight "disinformation," Bill de Blasio promises July 1 reopening for NYC, and more...
Some States Are Finally Getting Serious About Addressing Police Misconduct
Reforms like the ones recently passed in Maryland and New Mexico offer a better long-term fix than the conviction of one police officer.
Fight Crime by Ending Civil Asset Forfeiture
Even government officials can occasionally admit the need for limits to their thievery.
The Third Temptation
To Austin Rogers, the trio of temptations presented to Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew has key political implications.
The Men Accused of Killing Ahmaud Arbery Should Not Face Federal Hate Crime Charges
Charge them for their crimes, not their thoughts.
How the NFL and the Players Union Screw Draft Picks Out of Millions
During the draft, they can't even endorse snacks that the league hasn't approved.
No, Genetically Modified Mosquitoes Will Not Turn the Florida Keys Into Jurassic Park
The goal is to drastically reduce the population of disease-carrying bloodsuckers.
Arizona Legislature Passes Bill Requiring Convictions for Asset Forfeiture
If the governor signs the bill into law, Arizona will become the 16th state to require a conviction for asset forfeiture.
In Oklahoma and Texas, Parents Who Let Their Kids Play Outside Will No Longer Fear Neglect Charges
The Reasonable Childhood Independence bills restore basic freedoms to kids and their families.
Biden's 'American Families Plan' Sends the IRS To Snoop on Bank Transactions, Venmo Accounts
The White House says cracking down on tax cheats will generate $700 billion over 10 years to help offset a $1.8 trillion expansion of welfare programs.
The FDA Wants To Lower Nicotine in All Cigarettes, Which Will Make Smokers Smoke More
This is the same agency that cost thousands of lives with its botched vaccine rollout.
Biden Is Using the Pandemic as an Excuse for Permanent Expansions of Government Power
For Biden, the pandemic has become a catchall justification for a slew of big-government programs that he and the Democratic Party already wanted to pursue.
If Biden Truly Wanted To Create Jobs, He Wouldn't Support the PRO Act
Destroying the ability of freelancers to make a living is union protectionism, not economic opportunity.
This School Punished a Cheerleader for an Off-Campus Snapchat. Does That Violate the First Amendment?
The Supreme Court weighs the power of school officials to punish students for off-campus speech.
Joe Biden Wants To Close the 'Boyfriend Loophole.' Here's What That Means.
Plus: Ghost guns, the unintended consequences of criminalizing sex work, and more...
Gov. Andrew Cuomo Clings to His Pedestal
"Incompetent government kills people," he said in January.
Joe Biden Just Outlined the Most Expensive Agenda in Modern History. Progressives Want More.
"We need a Green New Deal for Public Housing," says Rep. Jamaal Bowman. "We need a Green New Deal for Cities…and we need a Green New Deal for Public Schools."
California Already Tried Biden's Ghost Gun Ban. It Didn't Work.
Two years after California banned them, the ATF was complaining that 41 percent of guns they came across in L.A. were the very guns already banned
If Biden Is Serious About Criminal Justice Reform, He Needs To Get Serious About Qualified Immunity
The doctrine shields state actors from accountability.
Gunmaking CAD Files Free To Spread Around the Internet, 9th Circuit Rules
States had been trying to stop the Feds from loosening their hold on certain software, but the Appeals Court says they don't have that power
Congressional GOP Doctors Urge Americans To Get Vaccinated Against COVID-19
Physician Rand Paul is curiously absent.
The Reason Interview With Nick Gillespie
Art Tavana: What Guns N' Roses Tells Us About the American Dream
How Axl Rose reflected a country desperate but unwilling to move on from a worn-out postwar consensus on national identity, gender roles, and global hegemony.
Biden's Infrastructure Plan Would Redefine 'Broadband' To Justify Spending $100 Billion on Government-Run Internet
The Biden administration is manufacturing a market failure to justify spending $100 billion on municipal broadband and other government-run internet projects.
Biden Brings Back Plan for Free Community College
This is a subsidy for the schools, not the students.
This 87-Year-Old Republican's Bill Would Restore the Second Amendment Rights of Cannabis Consumers in States That Have Legalized Marijuana
Under current law, marijuana users who possess firearms are committing a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
Beware of Big Presidential Speeches During Times of Crisis
Biden tonight, like LBJ in 1964, Ford in 1975, Reagan in 1981, and Obama in 2009, is ready to make some terraforming asks to a pliant Congress.
Basecamp Becomes the Latest Tech Company To Ban Talking Politics at Work
Silence isn't violence, and recusing your company from political discourse, as Basecamp and Coinbase have done, is a perfectly valid line to draw.
Biden Seeks $1.8 Trillion for Public Child Care, Preschool, College
Plus: ACLU opposes menthol cigarette ban, student Snapchat case comes before Supreme Court today, and more...
American Indifference Allowed the War in Afghanistan to Drag On
We’ll have to pay attention this time to ensure a conclusion to the accidental forever war.
Society Is Richer and More Accepting, Thanks to Libertarian Ideas
And yet neither Democrats nor Republicans represent those principles.
SCOTUS Will Decide Whether the Right To Bear Arms Extends Beyond Your Doorstep
New York, like several other states, limits public carrying of handguns to the favored few.
Should Dying Cancer Patients Suffer From Undertreated Pain Because of 'Concerns Regarding Addiction'?
Two recent studies show how ham-handed efforts to reduce opioid prescriptions undermine medical care.
The FDA's 'Safety Pause' Predictably Lowered Americans' Confidence in Safety of J&J COVID-19 Vaccine
Who could possibly have known that that would happen?
