Reason Alert: October 9, 2009
– Reason.tv Video: President Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize and Heisman Trophy
– What President Obama’s Nobel Prize Says About the World
– The Lessons of Previous Health Care Reforms
– Don’t Blame Voters for California’s Budget Woes
– Ayn Rand’s Place in American Intellectual and Cultural Life
– New at Reason
Reason.tv Video: President Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize and Heisman Trophy
What President Obama’s Nobel Prize Says About the World
“Among many other things, this selection illustrates the United States’ way-too-oversized role in the world’s imagination. And it shows how people-almost touchingly-remain suckers for likeable politicians who replace guys they hated, investing in them a kind of faith mere mortals usually don’t merit. As Chili Davis famously (and presciently) said about Dwight Gooden, ‘He ain’t God, man.'” – Reason magazine Editor-in-Chief Matt Welch
The Lessons of Previous Health Care Reforms
In The Wall Street Journal, Reason magazine’s Peter Suderman writes, “Like participants in a national science fair, state governments have tested variants on most of the major components of the health-care reform plans currently being considered in Congress. The results have been dramatically increased premiums in the individual market, spiraling public health-care costs, and reduced access to care. In other words: The reforms have failed…Despite these state-level failures, President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats are pushing forward a slate of similar reforms. Unlike most high-school science fair participants, they seem unaware that the point of doing experiments is to identify what actually works. Instead, they’ve identified what doesn’t-and decided to do it again.”
Health Care Research and Commentary
Don’t Blame Voters for California’s Budget Woes
In an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal, Reason Foundation’s Shikha Dalmia, Adam Summers and Adrian Moore write, “Whatever the wisdom of ballot initiatives that protect some programs from cuts, they are not the root cause of California’s fiscal disaster. That cause is the government’s spending addiction. From 1990 to 2008, California’s revenues increased 167%, but total spending soared 181%.”
California Research and Commentary
Ayn Rand’s Place in American Intellectual and Cultural Life
“Contempt has long been the standard literati response to Rand. Like Jack Kerouac, Rand is typically written off as a writer whose basic appeal is to maladjusted adolescents, a sort of vaguely embarrassing starter author who is quickly outgrown by those of us who develop more sophisticated aesthetic and ideological tastes. There’s more than a small degree of truth to such a characterization, but the extreme prejudice with which Rand is dismissed belies a body of work that continues to reach new audiences. Given that critical context and the recession-driven boomlet in Randian thought, Ayn Rand and the World She Made and Goddess of the Market are not simply well-timed explorations of an enduring writer. They are essential guides to contemporary American politics and culture.” – Reason.com Editor Nick Gillespie
Brian Doherty: Why Ayn Rand Is Hot Again
From Reason’s Archives: Ayn Rand at 100
New at Reason
Reason.tv Video: Light Bulbs vs the Nanny State
From Guns to Butter
How a Second Amendment case can help restore economic liberty
Jacob Sullum
The Supreme Court Takes on Guns, Again
Heller lawyer Alan Gura revived the Second Amendment. Can he do the same for the 14th?
Brian Doherty
When Public Power Is Used for Private Gain
It’s time for New York’s highest court to say no to eminent domain abuse
Damon W. Root
Marching with Michael Moore
After a rally, union toughs get a sneak peak of Capitalism: A Love Story
Sean Higgins
Obama and the Socialist Canard
The president is no left-wing extremist
Steve Chapman
Transfer Machine
Why the true burden of government is the spending level
John Stossel
The Doers vs. The “Thinkers”
David Harsanyi
The fatal conceit of trying to plan the economy
Reason.tv Video: Swedish Author Johan Norberg
The origins of the financial crisis
Interview with Michael Moynihan
Chicago Wins By Losing
Why losing the Olympics is a blessing in disguise for the Windy City
Steve Chapman
The Teutonic Turn
In the midst of an economic downturn, German voters go libertarian
Michael C. Moynihan
Scenes From a Crackdown
Police overkill at the G20 summit in Pittsburgh
Radley Balko
Media Contact:
Chris Mitchell
Director of Communications
Reason Foundation, Reason magazine, Reason.tv
(310) 367-6109