Free State Project activist Dennis Pratt and Soho Forum Director Gene Epstein debate the resolution, "A better way to persuade more people of libertarianism is to convince them of the ethics stemming from self-ownership and the non-aggression principle, without relying primarily on consequentialist/utilitarian arguments." Dennis Pratt, a libertarian writer and activist in New Hampshire, took the affirmative, arguing that the consequentialist arguments typical of libertarian economists are only narrowly effective, don't represent the core of libertarianism, and are too difficult for most people...
Reason
In April, Axios reported that President Joe Biden was planning "to issue an executive order to dramatically limit the number of asylum-seekers who can cross the southern border" in an attempt to "stem illegal border crossings." The Biden administration announced sweeping asylum restrictions in early June, but the move immediately drew backlash from both immigrant advocates and border hawks. "The entry of any noncitizen into the United States across the southern border is hereby suspended and limited," said Biden's order. When border encounters between ports of entry hit a daily average of 2,50...
Reason
It wasn't long before Jennifer Williams noticed there was something unusual about the two young girls she was fostering. Three-year-old Arya Hernandez was bright, outgoing, and without any of the behavioral issues Williams had become accustomed to over more than a decade as a foster parent in Georgia. But 4-month-old Emma seemed sickly. The baby's soft spot was too big for her age and in the wrong part of her head, and the whites of her eyes were discolored. She was also bowlegged and held her limbs in an unusual, awkward way. Williams was only taking care of the girls for the weekend while th...
Reason
President Joe Biden defiantly insisted in an interview tonight with ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos that he was the best and most-qualified qualified to run the country and beat Donald Trump. "I just had a bad night," Biden repeatedly insisted as Stephanopoulos pressed him on voters' concerns about his mental and physical state following his disastrous debate performance against his Republican rival, former president Donald Trump. Biden also refused to give a straight answer when Stephanopoulos asked him if he'd commit to taking an independent medical evaluation and releasing the results...
Reason
Why is marijuana legalization such a mess in New York? The answer seems clear: The rollout of licensed dispensaries has been "a disaster," as Gov. Kathy Hochul puts it, because of misguided policies and bureaucratic ineptitude. But Manhattan Institute Fellow Charles Fain Lehman is unsatisfied by that explanation. He prefers one that makes little sense but gives him an excuse to discuss "the real problem with legal weed": that marijuana addiction is more common and severe than people tend to think. In a recent New York Times Magazine article, Lehman argues that Americans generally do not take t...
Reason
Last week, Oklahoma state Superintendent Ryan Walters announced that the state could soon require public schools to teach the Bible and the Ten Commandments, including requiring religious text be included in all classrooms. "Every teacher, every classroom in the state will have a Bible in the classroom and will be teaching from the Bible in the classroom," Walters said last Thursday, "to ensure that this historical understanding is there for every student in the state of Oklahoma." The statement came just days after the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled that the state could not approve a religious ...
Reason
As President Joe Biden weighs whether to remain in the 2024 race, one of the defenses raised by the president's supporters is noteworthy—not just because of what it says about Biden's acuity but also because of what it says about the state of the modern presidency. During an appearance on MSNBC earlier this week, former Obama administration official Jeh Johnson argued that, effectively, the election is about picking an administration, not a president. "A presidency is more than just one man," Johnson told Joe Scarborough. "I would take Joe Biden at his worst day at age 86 so long as he has peo...
Reason
The results are in, and it's a landslide. After 14 years in power, Britain's Conservative Party has been expelled from office in the most dramatic of fashions—with its worst electoral result in decades. Rishi Sunak, the man who pledged to restore stability after a ruinous period of high inflation and political chaos, has already tendered his resignation to the King. His successor—the former lawyer turned center-left politician Keir Starmer—will now lead Britain's first Labour government for almost 20 years, having won as many seats in parliament as former Prime Minister Tony Blair back in 1997...
Reason
Soho Forum Director Gene Epstein and Chicago school economist David Friedman debate the resolution, "The Austrian economics of Mises and Rothbard contains economic intuitions that are important, correct, and missing from Chicago School economics." Taking the affirmative was Gene Epstein, the director of the Soho Forum and former economics and books editor at Barron's. His last published book was Econospinning: How to Read Between the Lines When the Media Manipulate the Numbers. Epstein has taught economics at the City University of New York and St. John's University, and he has worked as a sen...
Reason
On June 19, the Utah legislature passed resolutions directing state government entities to ignore the Biden administration's new interpretation of Title IX, joining numerous other states who have opposed the administration's proposed expansion of anti-discrimination protections. The two resolutions, HCR301 and HJR301, declare through "legislative findings" that the new rules are an "overreach of federal administrative authority." The issue stems from the Biden administration's proposed interpretative rule, released in April, which would expand the enforceable scope of Title IX of the Education...
Reason
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