- New Reason.tv Drew Carey Video: Eminent Domain Gone Wild
- Reducing Air Travel Delays
- Pakistan Shouldn’t Fear Democracy
- Is Overweight the New Healthy?
- New at Reason
New Reason.tv Drew Carey Video: Eminent Domain Gone Wild
In the latest Reason.tv video, Drew Carey takes an in-depth look at “eminent domain gone wild.” A boxing gym that takes at-risk kids off the streets and helps turn their lives around might be great for the community, but it doesn’t generate the tax revenue that luxury condos would. So National City’s government teamed with private developers to plot the Community Youth Athletic Center’s demise and replace it with high-rise condos. Reason.tv shows Ron Morrison, mayor of National City, saying the gym has tried to “sensationalize this as if the city is doing something bad to you.”
“The mayor’s statement shows exactly what is plaguing this country and why eminent domain abuse is so rampant. Too many politicians haven’t read the Constitution and don’t see anything wrong with taking land from you or me so they can hand it over to someone else to rake in more tax money,” said Adrian Moore, vice president of research at Reason Foundation. “We’re not talking about using eminent domain to build a school or vital freeway here. The mayor wanted to bulldoze a perfectly good gym that provides invaluable help to low-income kids, and the community, so that rich people could get richer. It’s disgraceful.”
» Reason.tv Drew Carey Video: Eminent Domain Gone Wild
» Reason.tv Drew Carey Video: Medical Marijuana
» Reason.tv Drew Carey Video: Gridlock
Reducing Air Travel Delays
President Bush just announced a series of measures aimed at reducing aviation delays this holiday season. He also mentioned long-term solutions, including congestion pricing. Two new Reason Foundation policy briefs examine congestion pricing and what steps must be taken at New York’s busiest airports to alleviate delays.
» Evidence That Airport Pricing Works (.pdf)
» Congestion Pricing at New York Airports (.pdf)
» Reason’s Aviation Research and Commentary
Pakistan Shouldn’t Fear Democracy
In The Wall Street Journal Asia, Reason Foundation’s Shikha Dalmia writes, “…the longer Mr. Musharraf is allowed to suspend democracy, the more politically powerful Pakistan’s religious extremists are likely to become. Those who doubt this thesis should peer across Pakistan’s southern border and examine what happened during India’s two-year flirtation with emergency rule in 1975…India’s example shows that even one vacation from democracy can be a huge setback for secularism. Yet another prolonged suspension of democracy will leave Pakistan few resources to beat back its Islamists. This is one instance where the Bush administration’s avowed commitment to democracy is not just the more principled — but also the more practical — way of countering the threat of Islamic extremists.”
Is Overweight the New Healthy?
In his nationally syndicated column, Reason magazine’s Jacob Sullum writes, “At five feet, nine inches tall and 175 pounds, I have a body mass index (BMI) of 25.9, which makes me ‘overweight.’ If I lost seven pounds, I’d have a BMI of 24.9, indicating what the government considers a ‘normal,’ ‘healthy’ weight. Yet that weight is not normal, since two-thirds of American adults exceed it. And judging from the latest research, it is not necessarily healthy either. According to a study recently published by The Journal of the American Medical Association, people in the government-recommended BMI range of 18.5 to 24.9 are more likely to die from a variety of diseases than people with BMIs of 25 to 30.”
New at Reason
The Liberal Candidate
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David Weigel
Rudy, the 700 Club and the Hilton Head Country Club
South Carolina will be a proving ground for Pat Robinson’s endorsement of Giuliani
Jeff Taylor
New Life for Pennsylvania Turnpike-lease Plan
Act 44 alone won’t raise enough money for transportation
Matthew J. Brouillette and Leonard Gilroy
Say You Love Santa
Pop culture’s war on secularists
Greg Beato
Cheap Dirty Fuels Versus Costly Clean Fuels
Which will win the race to fuel the future?
Ronald Bailey
Thank Deng Xiaoping for Little Girls
The tyrannical roots of China’s international adoption program
Jacob Sullum
The Media’s Gender Bender
Is Hillary Clinton really playing the gender card?
Kerry Howley
Do More Cops Equal Less Crime?
Or do the stats disprove the rhetoric?
Steve Chapman