Culture & Media 
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Obama and the L-Word
The president’s habit of telling untruths
March 9, 2010The president, who promised in both word and style to usher in a “new era” of Washington “responsibility,” routinely says things that aren’t true and supports initiatives that break campaign promises. When called on it, he mostly keeps digging. And when obliged to explain why American voters are turning so sharply away from his party and his policies, Obama pins the blame not on his own deviations from verity but on his failure to “explain” things “more clearly to the American people.”
A Sorry Complaint About Obama
Does being American mean never having to say you're sorry?
March 8, 2010Profane, Pointless...and Profound
The history Gimme Something Better charts punk's cultural triumph.
March 5, 2010Gimme Something Better (Penguin), an oral history compiled by journalists Jack Boulware and Silke Tudor, focuses on the Bay Area scene that ultimately gave rise to Green Day and other acts. Like punk itself, Gimme Something Better is an intense, insular, ingratiating, and at times baffling and repulsive read (it abounds with stories about drug overdoses, cracked skulls, and public urination). But in charting the passage of a loosely defined but vital movement from the margins to the center of popular culture, the authors help to explain how America has become a much looser, individualized place over the past few decades. Just the names of the various characters and bands recorded in the volume underscores that: Jello Biafra, Klaus Fluoride, Insane Jane, Chicken John, Bob Noxious, Rancid, Vomit, Mr T Experience, Pansy Division, among dozens of others, testify to a playfulness and a penchant for self-invention that we now take for granted.
Russia's Winter Games of Discontent
Why the Russians are so upset about the 2010 Winter Olympics
March 5, 2010View Resources by Type
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- Obama and the L-Word
The president’s habit of telling untruths
Matt Welch
March 9, 2010 - A Sorry Complaint About Obama
Does being American mean never having to say you're sorry?
Steve Chapman
March 8, 2010 - Profane, Pointless...and Profound
The history Gimme Something Better charts punk's cultural triumph.
Nick Gillespie
March 5, 2010 - Russia's Winter Games of Discontent
Why the Russians are so upset about the 2010 Winter Olympics
Cathy Young
March 5, 2010 - Busting the Well-Endowed
It's time to cut federal funding for the arts
Shikha Dalmia
March 4, 2010 - The Five Varieties of Bad Political Thinking
Understanding what's wrong with politics today
Michael Weiss
March 2, 2010 - A Tale of Two Libertarianisms
A new book of unpublished critiques by Murray Rothbard reveals a divide in the larger libertarian project
Brian Doherty
March 1, 2010 - Dressed for Success
Business casual and the evolution of the American workplace
Greg Beato
February 26, 2010 - Who Will Watch The Watchmen?
An interview with National Journal's Shane Harris, author of a new book on the rise of the surveillance state
Katherine Mangu-Ward
February 25, 2010 - Weaponizing Mozart
How Britain is using classical music as a form of social control
Brendan O'Neill
February 24, 2010 - The Paulpocalypse
A longtime Ron Paul watcher wonders if his CPAC victory is the dawn of a new age, or the beginning of the end
Brian Doherty
February 24, 2010 - Everyone Who Knows What They're Talking About Agrees with Me
And everyone who doesn't wears a tin foil hat
Ronald Bailey
February 23, 2010 - A Libyan Charm Offensive
To the shores of Tripoli with the son of Qaddafi
Michael C. Moynihan
February 22, 2010 - Is Texas About To Execute Another Innocent Man?
State officials would rather kill a prisoner than give him a DNA test.
Radley Balko
February 22, 2010 - A Conspiracy So Immense
What a new history of conspiracy theories tells us about Birthers and Truthers
Michael C. Moynihan
February 19, 2010 - The Visible Persuaders
Advertising as a medium for truth telling
Greg Beato
February 19, 2010 - Our Afghan "Government in a Box"
Did Gen. McChrystal reveal more than he intended?
Terry Michael
February 18, 2010 - The Real Reason for Obama's Unpopularity
Every honeymoon ends
Steve Chapman
February 18, 2010 - Palin Exposes the Tea Partiers' True Colors
Why trading liberty for security is not consistent with a limited government philosophy.
Steve Chapman
February 11, 2010 - A Rand Revival
Understanding the best—and worst—of Ayn Rand's philosophy
Cathy Young
February 11, 2010 - Back to the Drawing Board
Democratic fantasies face the bracing slap of reality.
Matt Welch
February 8, 2010 - Our "So-Called" Leader
The trouble with Obama's State of the Union
David Harsanyi
January 29, 2010 - Five Reasons Why Libertarians Shouldn't Hate Government
Plus, Five Big Projects That Went Well and Five That Were Disasters
William D. Eggers and John O'Leary
January 13, 2010 - Class War
How public servants became our masters
Steven Greenhut
January 12, 2010 - Who Is Wesley Mouch?
Why Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged matters today
John Stossel
January 7, 2010 - Don't Fear The 2010s!
Embrace the coming decade's new distractions and overblown worries.
Nick Gillespie
January 5, 2010 - Reading the Tea Party Leaves
Will we see a repeat of 1994—or 1964?
Michael Munger
December 31, 2009 - Reason Staffers Pick The Best and Worst Things of The Decade
What was bad and good during the Aughts
December 30, 2009 - The Year in Books
Reason staffers pick the best books of 2009
December 30, 2009 - Dump the Audience?
Figuring out what's next for my Fox Business show
John Stossel
December 24, 2009 - Nazis, Commies, and Death Panels
It's the year in hyperbole!
Michael C. Moynihan
December 23, 2009 - Driving Miss Lazy
In praise of drive-through
Greg Beato
December 21, 2009 - Whole Foods Health Care
Organic-foods magnate John Mackey talks about his controversial health care proposals, why he was investigated by the feds, and “conscious capitalism.”
Matt Welch and Nick Gillespie
December 15, 2009 - Did ABC Fire John Stossel?
The truth about my move to Fox
John Stossel
December 10, 2009 - Progressives vs. Democracy
The health care debate reveals a nasty tendency within liberal politics
Brian Doherty
December 9, 2009 - Where Ayn Rand Went Wrong
She ignored a part of human nature
Shikha Dalmia
November 4, 2009 - 'The Last Gasp of the Dinosaurs'
Publisher and flat-tax Republican Steve Forbes on 1930s-style economic policies, the news industry, and the future of the GOP
Matt Welch
October 28, 2009
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