Harry Mount
Humanitarian action, whether short-term aid after a crisis or long-term development assistance, is generally approached as a technical challenge. Economist Chris Coyne challenges this engineering mentality in his new book Doing Bad By Doing Good: Why Humanitarian Action Fails. Given…
The Guardian’s report that Verizon has been forced to share customer metadata with the National Security Agency illustrates leaks’ vital role as safeguards of individual liberty. By definition public disclosure of classified material violates the law, but at its best…
Two more developments in the widening domestic spying scandal. The Associated Press (no stranger to surveillance) reported some two hours ago that the NSA metadata harvesting extends beyond Verizon to include all major American telephone carriers. The Huffington Post has…
Because I love you, dear readers, I spent Monday afternoon roaming Capitol Hill for details about the bipartisan House background check bill, introduced by Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Calif.), who soon picked up Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) as a cosponsor. Thompson’s…
Federal regulation is preventing a critically ill 10-year-old Pennsylvania girl from receiving an adult lung transplant because she falls short of the 12 year age requirement, Joel Gehrke reports at The Washington Examiner. Pennsylvania lawmakers have asked Secretary of Health and Human Services…
The immigration reform debate is almost as hot as the Southwest desert sun, and has focused primarily on illegal immigration and how to address it. However, I fear a major point is being overlooked, one that offers a potential remedy…
Americans’ support for marijuana legalization has increased almost 20 points in roughly a decade, and recently surpassed opposition for the first time. And a new study by Brookings Institution Senior Fellows William Galston and E.J. Dionne finds surprising answers to…
President Obama gave a marquee national security speech last week, proposing an endpoint for the war on terror. The day before, Attorney General Eric Holder had disclosed the killing of four American citizens in a letter to key senators. Al Qaeda chief…
From WCVB-ABC Boston: PALMER, Mass. – A Massachusetts kindergartener has been given detention and could be suspended from the bus after bringing a Lego-sized gun to school last week. WGGB in Springfield reported that the incident happened on an Old…
That was the takeaway from a discussion of his new book The End Is Near, and It’s Going to Be Awesome. In it, the National Review ace noted at Thursday’s event hosted by the Cato Institute that fiscal crisis is…
