What is an Astronaut's Life Worth?: An Interview with Robert Zubrin

"You're saying that you're going to give up four billion dollars to avoid a one in seven chance of killing an astronaut, you're basically saying an astronaut's life is worth twenty-eight billion dollars," says astronautical engineer and author Dr. Robert Zubrin. Zubrin, the author of a popular and controversial article in Reason's space-centric February 2012 Special Issue, argues that...

3 Lies About the Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker Recall

Don't believe the lies about the Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker recall! Please help us get the word out by voting up this story on Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/wisconsin/comments/trtrh/3_lies_about_the_wisconsin_gov_scott_walker_recall/ Ever since he took on Wisconsin's teachers unions and denied them collective bargaining rights, Republican Gov. Scott Walker has been Public Enemey No. 1 for pu...

Outraged Fullerton citizens react to Kelly Thomas beating tape

The May 15 city council meeting in Fullerton, California was packed with outraged citizens ready to voice reactions to newly released security camera footage showing police brutally beating Kelly Thomas to death at a bus depot. Thomas was a 37-year-old schizophrenic drifter who died after a July, 2011 altercation with six police officers in which he was tasered, beat with batons, and hit repeat...

Why We're Entering the Age of Ron Paul

Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) will no longer be actively campaigning in forthcoming primaries for the Republican presidential nomination. But the libertarian politician's legacy - including controversial yet popular stands on everything from auditing the Federal Reserve to withdrawing troops from abroad to radically cutting government borrowing and spending - is just getting started. Paul, says Brian...

Sex Politics and the GOP as We Know It: An Interview with Nancy Cohen

"The reason we've gone crazy, in a word, is sex," says Nancy Cohen, author of Delirium: How the Sexual Counterrevolution is Polarizing America. Cohen explains how sexual fundamentalists became the gate keepers of election 2012. "That is why we're seeing someone like Santorum, who is really a fringe candidate," Cohen says, "and it's also why Mitt Romney has been forced t...

Moms Say, "No More Drug War!"

"Mothers throughout history have come forward for the sake of their children," says Gretchen Burns Bergman, executive director of Parents for Addiction Treatment and Healing (PATH). "We're coming forth saying that the drug war has been more damaging to our families than the drugs themselves." The Woman's Christian Temperance Union is well-known for helping push forward Prohi...

Tom Easton on Dodd-Frank: "A Terrible Law"

"I think there's growing understanding of how terrible this law really is," says The Economist's Tom Easton of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010. Dodd-Frank was passed in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, and Easton is one of the very select few who have read the entire sweeping bill. He asserts that "the single most indicting read on Dodd...

Is Austerity to Blame for Europe's Economic Woes?

From Nobel laureate Paul Krugman to the free-market-friendly Economist magazine to former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, all sorts of experts are charging that financial austerity measures are killing the great economies of Europe. "Austerity Is So Wrong!" reads the headline of a Krugman piece at The Daily Beast that argues against cutting government spending during weak economi...

The Vampire Economist and the Moral Molecule: Q&A with neuroeconomist Paul Zak

In his new book, The Moral Molecule: The Source of Love and Prosperity, neuroeconomist Paul J. Zak discusses his research on oxytocin, aka the "moral molecule." For the past 10 years, Zak has been conducting the same kind of trust games that are common in experimental economics, but with a twist. Before and after the trust games, Zak has been taking blood samples with the goal of gain...

Brian Doherty on Why Young People Love Ron Paul

"This is no longer just a set of weird ideas that individuals scattered across the country believe in," Explains Reason Magazines Brian Doherty, "this is a movement now." http://www.amazon.com/Ron-Pauls-rEVOLution-Movement-Inspired/dp/0062114794 Reason's Brian Doherty sat down with ReasonTV to talk about his new book and how Ron Paul has changed politics in America. Doherty ...

Cafe Hayek's Don Boudreaux Brings Sanity to the "Half-Witted" Media

"Many years ago my family ordered me to remove my shoes before sitting down to watch the evening news," recalls George Mason University economist Don Boudreaux in his new book, Hypocrites & Half-Wits: A Daily Dose of Sanity from Cafe Hayek. "Seldom had I spent 30 minutes of any given evening watching the likes of Dan Rather without my wanting to throw my shoe at his face afte...

Reason's Bob Poole on How to Fix America's Airports

Why don't airports and airlines inovate? Bob Poole has been working on finding out why for about 20 years. He gave a presentation at Reason Weekend explaining not only why but how we can fix America's airports. At Reason Weekend, the annual donor event held by Reason Foundation (the nonprofit that publishes this website), Poole gives a short history of air transportation in the United States. A...

John Stossel on Journalism, How he became Libertarian & his new book "No They Can't"

"Are you John Stossel?... I hope you die soon,'" explained Stossel, Fox Business Network host and Reason Contributor. Stossel visited Reason's DC office to promote his new book, No, They Can't: Why Government Fails But Individuals Succeed, and take questions from the audience. Stossel discussed his time as a consumer reporter, how he became a libertarian, and the power of the internet...

Sex and the Supreme Court: The True Story of Lawrence v. Texas

"There are some things a state can not do to direct the moral content of your life," explains author and law professor Dale Carpenter, "and controlling your sexuality is one of those things." In his new book, Flagrant Conduct: The Story of Lawrence v. Texas, Carpenter outlines both the back story and the importance of the 2003 Supreme Court case that invalidated American's s...

Matt Welch Discuss Obama's Campaign Strategies w/ Jansing & Co.

Reason Editor in Chief, Matt Welch appeared on Jansing & Co. to discuss Obama's latest campaign video highlighting his accomplishments and decision making, particularly the assassination of Osama bin Laden, and Obama's relationship with the Clintons. Air date: April 30, 2012. Approximately 13.25 minutes. Scroll down for HD, iPod and audio versions of this video and subscribe to Reason.tv's ...

The Real Breaking Bad: How the Drug War Creates Collateral Damage

88-year-old Bob Wallace, and his 85-year-old girlfriend, Marjorie Ottenberg fell in love 35 years ago backpacking to the tops of the highest peaks in the world. Wallace is a Stanford educated engineer and Ottenberg is a former chemist and decades ago they came up with a water purification product for backpackers like themselves called Polar Pure out of their garage in Saratoga, Calif. "For...

Brian Doherty on Ron Paul's Revolution

"Ron Paul invented the notion of a populist, activist, modern movement thats transpartisan" says Reason's Brian Doherty Brian Doherty sat down with ReasonTV to talk about his new book and how Ron Paul has changed politics in America. Doherty wrote about the evolution of the libertarian movement in his 2007 book "Radicals for Capitalism: A Freewheeling History of the Modern Americ...

What We Saw at Occupy Wall Street's May Day Protest in NYC

Occupy Wall Street held a "General Strike" to commemorate May Day in New York City. Led by Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello, the "Guitarmy" of a few thousand people noisily marched 28 blocks down Fifth Avenue toward Union Square Park. Reason.tv was on the scene to speak with Morello, USMC Sgt. Shamar Thomas (who became a viral video sensation after screaming at...

Public Schools Use GPS Uniforms to Track Students! (Nanny of the Month, April 2012)

We've got Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal demanding clean urine in exchange for welfare benefits (a bad idea that also doesn't work as advertised, but hey, at least the boozers are safe!), North Carolina regulators busting a blogger for praising the paleo diet (an offense that can get you tossed in the clink!), but this month the freakiest controllers come to us from a Brazilian city where public scho...

Author David Brin on Dogmatic Libertarians, Transparency, and Uplifting Dolphins

"The issue should not be government. It should not be unlimited and unalloyed idolatry of personal property, which is the path that the libertarian movement has gone down," says David Brin, a science fiction writer and self-identified "heretical libertarian." Brin sat down with Reason.tv's Tim Cavanaugh to discuss his recent critiques of the libertarian movement, which he be...

Matt Welch Discusses Apple and Corporate Taxes w/ Varney & Co.

Reason Editor in Chief, Matt Welch appeared on Varney & Co. to discuss Apple's legal methods to lower it's tax rate to 9.8%. Welch supports lowering the tax rates and simplifying the tax code to avoid corporate lobbying. Air date: April 30, 2012. Approximately 3.35 minutes. Got to reason.tv for HD, iPod and audio versions of this video and subscribe to Reason.tv's Youtube channel to receive...

Destroying Latin America: Journalist Mary O'Grady on Populism, Protectionism, and Prohibition

"The inequality produced by liberty: This, for the socialist, is the soft underbelly of pro-market rationale and the best place to attack," says Mary O'Grady, a columnist who covers Latin America for the Wall Street Journal. "I would argue that it's the intellectual stream that prevails in Latin America, and it's the reason the region can not hope to reach its potential any time ...

Trayvon Martin, George Zimmerman & The Decline of Racism & Violence in America

Trayvon Martin will not go gently into that good night, and the poor kid's ghost can and will haunt us, it seems, until justice is done. His shooter, the neighborhood watch captain George Zimmerman, has been arrested and charged with second-degree murder, so the wheels of the legal system, however slowly and imperfectly, are grinding forward. But we can't shake the death of 17-year-old Trayvon....

Kennedy, Nick Gillespie and Matt Welch Talk 2012 Presidential Race

"Could Gary Johnson be the Ross Perot of 2012?" asks Reason Contributor Kennedy. Reason.tv's Nick Gillespie and Reason's Matt Welch joined Kennedy for a discussion about the future of the "libertarian moment," now that the Presidential race has come down to "two guys who love to spend money." Other topics discussed: the Obama Administration's "strong suggestio...

Arizona's Immigration Law Heads to the Supreme Court

"As long as there is not a direct conflict, which the federal government did not do a very good job of pointing to today, the Arizona law gets to stand under the Preemption Doctrine," says Reason's Damon Root, who was at the Supreme Court during Wednesday's oral arguments surrounding Arizona's controversial immigration law. "The federal government is saying that 'we have the powe...

Charles Murray: Why America is Coming Apart Along Class Lines

Charles Murray, one of America's most influential social policy thinkers, has come out with a widely discussed new book called Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010, which argues that Americans are splitting into two divergent classes, and that this growing divide could end American life as we have known it. A self-described libertarian, Murray started his career as a liberal Demo...

What We Saw at the Occupy the Justice Dept. Rally in DC!

On Tuesday, April 24 members of the Occupy movement gathered in DC at the Department of Justice to protest "mass incarceration" of black and Latino youth, demand the release of convicted cop killer Mumia Abu-Jamal, end the "racist death penalty," and more. Among the celebrities scheduled to address the crowd were actor Danny Glover, rapper Chuck D, activist Angela Davis, and...

Marion Barry Doubles Down on "Dirty Asians"

Marion Barry was D.C.'s mayor for sixteen years (1979-91 and 1995-99), and currently he's a city council member representing Ward 8, a section of D.C. that's overwhelmingly African-American. Barry, who popularized the phrase "Bitch set me up!" during an FBI sting operation that sent him to prison, is back in the news for declaring that Asian business owners in his district should be ...

Nick Gillespie on California's Unlearned Budget Lesson, the GSA & the Secret Service Scandals

"[Secret Service] were trying to get the prositutes to take less money, that's a rarity in government" says Nick Gillespie on The Willis Report. Gillespie also discusses Califronia's budget problems through its broke colleges and high-speed rail delusions, the GSA and Secret Service scandal. Approximately 6.44 minutes. Scroll down for downloadable iPod, HD, and audio versions. Subscri...

How City Hall is F*cking Record Store Day!

April 21, 2012 marks the fifth annual Record Store Day, a nation-wide project to promote struggling brick-and-mortar music shops. Across the country, independent stores offer exclusive, one-of-a-kind recordings as a way to bring customers through the door. "It is the busiest day of the year," says Mike Moffat, co-owner of Washington, D.C.'s Smash Records, a shop that sells new and use...

Lynching Charlie Lynch, Medical Marijuana Martyr: Q&A with Filmmaker Rick Ray

In 2006, Charlie Lynch opened a medical marijuana dispensary in Morro Bay, California. He was such a stickler about following California state law that he called all the legal authorities he could. The ribbon-cutting for his shop was attended by local pols and chamber of commerce types and his shop flourished due to his outgoing personality, dedication to customer service, and strict enforcemen...

Regulation is a 20th Century Solution to a 21st Century Problem, says Julian Morris on Cavuto

Reason Foundation's Vice President of Research Julian Morris appeared on Fox Business' Cavuto to talk about the creation of yet another federal agency--the Office of Financial Research--to regulate the financial sector and why the concept of regulating industry is outdated. Air Date: April 19, 2012. Approximately 4:45 minutes. Visit http://reason.tv for downloadable versions and subscribe to Re...

Too Much Copyright

"This disconnect between the public's view of copyright and fair use and what should and should not be prosecuted, versus the 'copyright maximist' view of the law, is our generation's Prohibition," says Ben Huh, CEO and founder of Cheezburger and a loud voice in the recent backlash to SOPA and PIPA, two congressional bills aimed at curbing internet piracy. Copyright exists to "pr...

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Puerto Rico's Infrastructure Reniassance - David Álvarez on Public-Private Investment

"People were thinking that we were just selling the schools," head of Puerto Rico's public-private partnership program David Álvarez admits, "we explained that the private sector was just building and doing infrastructure." "You've even run TV commercials," Reason's director of government reform Leonard Gilroy responds, "how many of you have seen TV commercial...

Live From Washington, DC: The Space Shuttle Era is Over (Thank God!)

So the space shuttle Discovery has flown its last mission; it's been towed over the nation's capital like a bruised Chevy after a demolition derby before being deposited at the Udvar-Hazy air and space musuem in northern Virginia. Other space junkers -- Atlantis and Endeavour -- are being retired like Brett Faver in a pair of Crocs, too, bringing to end an underwhelming three decades of fruitle...

Matt Welch Talks Romney's Private Plan and Obama's Massive Fundraising Campaign on MSNBC

Reason Editor in Chief Matt Welch appeared on MSNBC's Jansing & Co. to discuss Mitt Romney's private talks with donors, his possible SNL appearance and President Obama's successful month for campaign fundraising. About 4.30 minutes. Go to Reason.tv for downloadable versions and subscribe to Reason.tv's YouTube channel to receive automatic notification when new material goes live.

Matt Ridley on Ideas having Sex, Free Trade, & Apocalyptic Science w/ Reason's Kennedy

"[Some people] simply don't believe that when two people trade one is not ripping the other off," exclaims Matt Ridley, zoologist and author of The Rational Optimist. "A big problem with the world is that human beings find positive sum games difficult to understand." Ridley sat down with Reason's Kennedy to discuss his thoughts on free trade, ideas having sex and the irratio...

Matt Welch Talks Social Darwinism, Buffett Rule on MSNBC's Weekends with Alex Witt

Reason Editor in Chief Matt Welch appeared on MSNBC's Weekends with Alex Witt to discuss whether or not the so-called "Buffett Rule" can fix the government's budget woes and why it's necessary to talk about spending cuts. Air Date: April 17, 2012. About 5 minutes. Visit http://reason.tv for downloadable versions and subscribe to Reason.tv's YouTube channel to receive automatic notific...

Matt Welch Discusses the GSA Scandle & the Widespread Abuse of Taxpayer Money on Fox Business

Reason Editor in Chief Matt Welch appeared on Fox Business to discuss the latest developments in the GSA scandal, which uncovered bribes, kickbacks, and reckless behavior in the department that manages federal funds, and the widespread mentality of wasting taxpayer money. Air Date: April 13, 2012. About 3 minutes. For more Welch on GSA, click here. Visit Reason.tv for downloadable versions and ...

Union Legacy Costs Bankrupting Detroit - Shikha Dalmia on Fox Business

"You cannot tax fast enough to pay for all the promises you've made, and the more you tax the productive class the more it leaves the city," says Reason senior policy analyst Shikha Dalmia on Detroit. Dalmia discussed on Fox Business how the a Michigan bailout of Detroit only delays the inevitable. She suggests the city council rewrite contracts with union employees in order to lower ...

Food Trucks vs. The Establishment: Attorney Jeffrey Dermer on the Legalities of Mobile Vending

"If freedom can't win over something so innocuous and where the benefits are so wide, then you can't win at all," says Jeffrey Dermer, a lawyer and founder of the Southern California Mobile Food Vendor's Association, a group devoted to protecting the legal rights of food truck operators. Food trucks made news in California when a state assemblyman pushed forward a law that would've ba...

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D.C. Escalator Nightmare

How is Washington, D.C. supposed to run the world when it can't even fix its own escalators? Strap on some steel-toed safety shoes—you're gonna need them—as Reason.tv correspondent Kennedy investigates D.C.'s dismal and dangerous subway system. Metro, the sprawling 106-mile rapid transit system that serves 3.4 million D.C.-area residents, is notorious for a lot of things, but nothing so much as...

Why Democrat vs. Republican is the Wrong Way to Look at the 2012 Election

"We had a non-Obama president recently, his name was George W. Bush, it wasn't all puppy dogs and rainbows," says Reason's Matt Welch. "Being Republican is not enough to counter Obama. Mitt Romney is not offering an alternative to Obama," adds Reason.tv's Nick Gillespie. From Newt Gingrich's inexplicable campaign chatter about a taxpayer-subsidized colony on the moon to Mitt...

Matt Welch Discusses 2012 Election, Judicial Activism & "Social Darwinism" on Melissa Harris-Perry

Reason Magazine Editor in Chief Matt Welch appeared on MSNBC's Melissa Harris-Perry Show to discuss today's most heated political battles - Obama vs Romney on the economy, Obama vs SCOTUS on healthcare, & SCOTUS vs the public's privacy on strip searches. Air Date: April 7, 2012. About 33 minutes. Visit Reason.tv for downloadable versions and subscribe to Reason.tv's YouTube channel to recei...

Economist Art Laffer On How to Fix California

"It's not Republican, it's not Democrat. Honestly, it's not liberal, it's not conservative ... It's economics," says Economist Art Laffer. "If you tax people who work and you pay people who don't work, don't be surprised when you get a lot of people not working." Laffer is the founder of supply side economics, the namesake of the "Laffer curve" and the author of th...

Can Volunteers Protect Communities?

The shooting death of unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman has opened a nation-wide discussion about the role of citizen law enforcement. But as the town of Redlands, Calif. can attest, a properly run volunteer police program can be efficient, cost effective and safe. "If you want to volunteer with the Redlands Police Department, we'll find a pla...

4 Loko Tacos & Other Illicit Foods - Kennedy w/ Keep Food Legal's Baylen Linnekin

"[Four Loko] is truly vile to drink," admits Baylen Linnekin, executive director of Keep Food Legal, "but I'm not the arbiter of taste and neither should the government." Be it unpasteurized, caffeinated, or sodium-enriched, government inevitably finds excuse to regulate and even ban food and drink that they say risk public health or safety. Keep Food Legal fights to keep th...

Governor Luis Fortuno on How Puerto Rico Avoided Becoming "America's Greece"

"Things were so bad that I had to fly up to New York to meet with ratings agencies before being sworn in, to avoid a guaranteed downgrade to 'junk' status," says Puerto Rico's governor Luis Fortuño. "We should have been America's Greece." Fortuño spoke at Reason Weekend 2012, Reason Foundation's annual donor event, which took place in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He discussed the ...

Nick Gillespie Talks Augusta National, The Master's, IBM & Sexism

Should Augusta National golf club, which hosts the Master's, give IBM CEO Ginni Rometty an honorary membership? Big Blue is the chief sponsor of the event and each of Rometty's four predecessors got a green jacket. But the club refuses to allow women as members. Reason's NIck Gillespie discusses the legality and wisdom of sexism with OutFront host Erin Burnett. Air Date: April 4, 2012. About 6 ...

Nick Gillespie on Red Eye with Greg Gutfeld & Ann Coulter

Reason's Nick Gillespie appeared on Fox News' Red Eye with Greg Gutfeld and guests Ann Coulter and Remi Spencer. Among the topics discussed: Whether active military should be allowed to speak out against the president on Facebook, Mitt Romney's lameness, and much more. Air date: Thursday, March 5, 2012.

Matt Welch Talks DEA Raids on CA Pot Clubs, Obama, & Rolling Stones on Varney & Co.

On Fox Business' Varney & Co., Reason's Matt Welch discussed the outrageous DEA and IRS raid on Oaksterdam University in California. Welch also discusses the increase in gun sales amid a slow economic recovery and reveals his favorite Rolling Stones' song. Airdate: April 6, 2010. About 3.40 minutes. Go to Reason.tv for downloadable version and subscribe to Reason.tv's YouTube Channel and re...

Is Bullying an Epidemic?! Nick Gillespie on Fox & Friends

Reason's Nick Gillespie appeared on Fox & Friends with Rosalind Wiseman, whose "Queen Bees and Wannabes" was the source for the movie "Mean Girls," to discuss whether bullying is a growing crisis in American schools. Air Date: Wednesday, April 4, 2012. About 3.30 minutes. Related: Gillespie's controversial essay in the Wall Street Journal: http://bit.ly/HxDIOK Go to Reas...

Katherine Mangu-Ward Talks Happy Meal Toy Lawsuit on Fox Business

Reason Managing Editor Katherine Mangu-Ward appeared on Fox Business to talk about the lawsuit over McDonald's Happy Meal toys that was thrown out by a California judge. She says that even though this is one good step away from the nanny state, there is still a long way to go in combating the food police. About 3 minutes. Go to Reason.tv for downloadable versions and subscribe to Reason.tv's Yo...

Nick Gillespie Talks Augusta National, The Master's, IBM & Sexism on FBN's Willis Report

Should Augusta National golf club, which hosts the Master's, give IBM CEO Ginni Rometty an honorary membership? Big Blue is the chief sponsor of the event and each of Rometty's four predecessors got a green jacket. But the club refuses to allow women as members. Reason's Nick Gillespie discusses the legality and wisdom of sexism with Gerri Willis on Fox Business' Willis Report. Air Date: April ...

"Ideas Having Sex" A Conversation with John Tierney and Matt Ridley

"Where ideas have sex, is in technologies," says author and biologist Matt Ridley, "we give far too much credit to individuals for innovation...all of them are standing on the shoulders of lots of other people." Ridley discussed his views on trade, invention and creativity with the New York Times' John Tierney at a Reason Foundation event at the Museum of Sex in New York Cit...

What We Saw at the San Francisco Marijuana Rally

On April 2, federal agents raided Oaksterdam University as well as the home of Richard Lee, Oaksterdam founder and the main supporter of Prop 19, California's 2010 initiative to legalize marijuana that received 46% of the vote. On April 3, several hundred people gathered at a rally at the San Francisco City Hall to protest the federal government's crackdown on medical marijuana dispensaries. On...

Peter Schiff - The Fed Unspun: The Other Side of the Story

"Ben Bernake fancies himself as a student of the Great Depression," says renowned investment broker, global strategist, author, and Austrian economist Peter Schiff, "but... if he were my student he would have gotten an F." During a lecture entitled "The Fed Unspun: The Other Side of the Story", Schiff responded to Bernake's recent four-part college lecture series, ...

5 Keys to Restoring America's Prosperity: John B. Taylor

In his new book, First Principles: Five Keys to Restoring America's Prosperity, Stanford University professor of economics John B. Taylor, details the not-so-secret ingredients to rebuilding American's economic future: predictable policy, rule of law, strong incentives, reliance on markets, and a clearly limited role for government. "America can be great again, economically speaking,"...

Will Whole Foods Destroy Brooklyn?

Whole Foods will open its first location in Park Slope, Brooklyn next year, following an eight-year battle with community activists, preservationists, and some leaky subterranean oil tanks. Opponents of the project are concerned the upscale grocer will destroy the bucolic landscape, chase away the thriving manufacturing industry, and forever conceal the historic backyard of one of Brooklyn's mo...

John Stossel on the Successes of Freedom in Education

"It shows how horrible things were, that it took this long for this eminently sensible thing to happen" said Fox Business host John Stossel of school choice in education. Stossel made a speech at Reason Weekend 2012, Reason Foundation's annual donor event, about the successes of freedom in education. He talked about trying to update his 20/20 special, "Stupid in America," an...

The Truth about Public Servants: A presentation by Reason Foundation's Adrian Moore

"The problem [with government workers] really is the unions," says Adrian Moore, who is Reason Foundation's vice president for policy. "These are organizations whose mission is to oppose the taxpayers and get a better deal for their members. That's their mission." At Reason Weekend, the annual donor event held by Reason Foundation (the nonprofit that publishes this website),...

Don't You Dare Try to Feed the Homeless in Bloomy's NYC (Nanny of the Month, March 2012!)

This month Alabama lawmakers were itching to make it a criminal offense to annoy people online (isn't that what the interweb is all about?), and a national poll exposed the split personality of Americans who pretend to support individual responsibility, all the while cheering bans on smoking, transfats and the like. But this month top dishonors go to the man who is perhaps the busiest busybody ...

Peter Suderman Talks ObamaCare, Mitt Romney on The Melissa Harris-Perry Show

On Wednesday, March 25, Reason Senior Editor Peter Suderman appeared on MSNBC's Melissa Harris-Perry show to discuss the Supreme Court health care case and the what the GOP primary says about the state of the Republican party. Approximately 23 minutes. Go to reason.tv for downloadable versions of this video. Subscribe to Reason.tv's YouTube Channel for automatic updates when new content is posted.

Remy: Health Care Mandates vs Pizza Toppings

Internet sensation Remy explains how pizza can tell us a lot about health care mandates. Written and performed by Remy and produced by Meredith Bragg. About 2.30 minutes. Go to http://reason.tv for downloadable versions. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to get automatic updates when new material goes live. Follow Reason on Twitter at http://twitter.com/reason Follow Remy on Twitter at http://tw...

Obamacare #FAIL: Day 3 at the Supreme Court

"If I was in the Obama administration, I would not be comfortable with how the last three days went." Reason's Damon Root was in attendance for the third and final day of oral arguments before the Supreme Court on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), which focused primarily on the issue of severability, which brings into question whether the individual mandate be exci...

Independent Run by Ron Paul Would Pull 17 percent of Presidential Vote: New Reason-Rupe Poll

As Mitt Romney looks to sew up the Republican presidential nomination, the just-released Reason-Rupe Foundation poll shows that Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) could play the spoiler if he mounted an independent campaign by making it virtually impossible for the GOP candidate to beat Barack Obama. "Ron Paul would probably take about 17 to 18 percent of the national vote," says Reason Polling ...

Why Obamacare is "the Most Important Case" in 50 Years: Q&A with Timothy Sandefur of PLF

Does the fate of a federal government with limited powers rest in the hands of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia? And if so, will he rule against broad federal powers (as he did in the Gonzales case) or in favor of the feds' right to regulate just about anything (as he did in the Raich case)? The Supreme Court case over The Affordable Care Act, a.k.a. Obamacare, "is certainly the most i...

Nick Gillespie Talks Ryan-GOP Budget Plan w Fox Business' Tom Sullivan

"It's the entitlement mentality among the rich & middle class that's bankrupting this country," says Reason Nick Gillespie on Fox Business' Tom Sullivan Show. Gillespie, the co-author of The Declaration of Independents: How Libertarian Politics Can Fix What's Wrong with America, takes aim at the GOP budget plan recently released by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.). Follow Gillespie on Twit...

"Constitutional Thunderdome": Day Two of Obamacare Oral Arguments

Reason's Damon Root attended the pivotal second day of oral arguments before the Supreme Court on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), which he described as a "Constitutional Thunderdome." The debate over the legality of the mandate to purchase insurance at the heart of ACA was, says Root, a rough-and-tumble colloquy about the "the role of government in our lives...

Obamacare at the Supreme Court: Day One

Reason's Damon Root got a coveted seat for the Supreme Court oral arguments on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). Day one of this epic judicial showdown focused primarily on whether or not the individual mandate constitutes a tax. If the justices rule that the penalties associated with the mandate should be considered a tax, the challengers to ACA would have to wait until 201...

Obamacare, Mandates and Regulatory Confusion: Reason-Rupe Poll Results with Emily Ekins

A new finding by the Reason-Rupe Public Opinion Survey shows a majority of Americans dissatisfied with the health care law being debated in the Supreme Court while simultaneously confused about the role of government in current health care policy. "About 40 percent [of Americans] thought it wasn't regulated enough," explains Reason Polling Director Emily Ekins. When it comes to health...

3 Reasons to Kill Obamacare Before it Begins!

As the legality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act - a.k.a. Obamacare - goes before the highest court in the land, here are three reasons to chuck the whole program even before it gets underway. 1. It Represents the End of Limited Government. The Supreme Court will issue its verdict later this spring of course, but there's no question that if the government can force you to do so...

What We Saw at the Reason Rally

Reason.tv headed down to the National Mall for the Reason Rally (no affiliation!) in Washington, DC. The March 24 event was billed as the "largest gathering of the secular movement in world history" and drew a several thousand-strong crowd of damp, enthusiastic unbelievers (and a few protesting believers) to the National Mall. Reason.tv asked a few of these folks why they bothered to ...

An Atheist Billboard in Brooklyn

American Atheists have unveiled a billboard directed at Williamsburg, Brooklyn's extremely devout Hasidic Jewish community with the provocative statement, "You know it's a myth. And you have a choice." Reason TV correspondent Kennedy braved the 'Burg to ask the locals how they feel about atheists prosthelytizing from signs in the sky. Later, Kennedy had a feisty conversation in an act...

Teachers Union and NAACP Sue NY Charter School: An Update on Bob Bowdon's Choice Media TV

"The teachers union in New York City got together with the NAACP and sued to essentially kick charter schools out of buildings," says Bob Bowdon, founder of education reform homepage Choice Media TV. Bowdon talks about the implications of this lawsuit and also about other education stories that his team has covered. He discusses one report addressing the racial achievement gap in Seat...

Time To Take Our Medicine, Bring on the Foreclosures Says Jim The Realtor

"When I come into a house with buyers, I start picking it apart," says San Diego's Jim Klinge, known on the internet as 'Jim the Realtor,' a wise-cracking real estate agent who posts his honest, painful, and sometimes hilarious assessment of bank-owned properties on his Youtube channel: youtube.com/jimtherealtor. While both the Bush and Obama administration have advocated programs aim...

Nick Gillespie Talks Paul Ryan/GOP 2013 Budget on Varney & Co.

"If Democrats are complaining that Paul Ryan's budget doesn't spend enough," says Reason's Nick Gillespie, "the real problem is it spends too much." Gillespie appeared on Fox Business' Varney & Co. to discuss the controversial budget plan. Gillespie notes that Ryan's plan envisions the feds spending $3.5 trillion in fiscal year 2013 and $4.9 trillion in 2022. In no year ...

Mark Frauenfelder on DIY Super-Humanism, Unschooling and the Future of Print Journalism

"You know, I studied mechanical engineering in school and I ended up becoming a journalist. I can name a dozen people right now that I think are amazing people who didn't go to college," says editor of Boing Boing Mark Frauenfelder. He sat down with managing editor of Reason.com Tim Cavanaugh to talk about alternatives to public school and education in the real world. Frauenfelder is ...

Charles Nichols Challenges California's Open Carry Ban

"It's unconstitutional to ban an entire class of weapons, one that the public find most useful for self-defense," says Charles Nichols, president of California Right To Carry and the man behind the first lawsuit to challenge California's open carry gun ban. Nichols sat down with Reason.tv's Tim Cavanaugh to discuss his lawsuit, which is actually targeting the original ban from the 197...

Atlas Shrugged: Part II Greenlighted, In Theaters Next Fall

"It's a poetic moment that today [February 2, 2012] Ayn Rand was born 107 years ago and we are greenlighting Atlas Shrugged: Part II," announced producer John Aglialoro at Reason Weekend 2012, which was held in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Aglialoro was joined by his partner Harmon Kaslow in making the announcement. Filming is set to begin in April and the movie will hit theaters this fall,...

Nick Gillespie Discusses New ADA Pool Regulations with Erin Burnett

Reason.tv editor in chief Nick Gillespie appeared on CNN's OutFront with Erin Burnett to debate trial lawyer Justin Leto about new regulations requiring private companies to install handicap lifts into pools, and whether this regulation would help bring equality to America's disabled or simply benefit the trial lawyers. Air Date: March 15, 2012. Approximately 5.30 minutes. Go to http://www.reas...

Ilya Somin on Why The Individual Mandate is Unconstitutional and a Threat to Liberty

A Supreme Court ruling upholding the individual mandate "will really be, if not a death blow, then certainly a very severe blow to the whole idea that the federal government's powers are limited and that it's not the case that the federal government can do pretty much whatever it wants," says George Mason University law professor Ilya Somin, author of an amicus brief in U.S Department...

Why The Future Is Better Than You Think

Can a Masai Warrior in Africa today communicate better than Ronald Reagan could? If he's on a cell phone, Peter Diamandis says he can. Peter Diamandis is the founder and chairman of the X Prize Foundation, which offers big cash prizes "to bring about radical breakthroughs for the benefit of humanity." Reason's Tim Cavanaugh sat down to talk with Peter about his new book Abundance and ...

How Sex Offender Registries Fail Us

You can be put on the sex offender registry for urinating in public, having consensual sex as a teenager or even for "sexting." And in California, once you are on the list, you are on it for life. The registry has become the medieval stocks of the 21st century and, as attorney Janice Bellucci says, once someone is on the registry, "he is treated like a leper". There are viol...

John Stossel on the Media, Liberty, and Why He Doesn't Miss Working for ABC

"At ABC, it was like, 'This is mainstream. This is correct. And then there are you whackos," said Fox Business host John Stossel. Stossel made a keynote speech at Reason Weekend 2012, Reason Foundation's annual donor event. He talked about why liberty is counter-intuitive to most people and how being accepted by conservatives more easily than by liberals surprised him. He also shared ...

How Housing Policy Caused the Financial Crisis

The 2008 financial crisis "proved that financial markets are not self-regulating," says political scientist Francis Fukuyama in a recent interview with the website TheBrowser: "[Peter Wallison] lays it all at the door of Fannie and Freddie and government intervention. It seems to me transparently designed to exonerate free markets...I like free markets...[but] that particular con...

Journalist Sam Slovick on Occupy LA: Scenes From a New Revolution

"People say, 'What do these people want?, 'Where is the list of demands?' You know, it's like an embryonic movement," says journalist and filmmaker Sam Slovick. "You can't throw a crayon into daVinci's baby crib and tell him to paint the Mona Lisa, it's not there yet?" Slovick is the writer and director of the documentary Occupy LA: Scenes from the New Revolution, a five par...

Abundance Edit 2

Matt Welch Discusses Obama's Symbolic Presidency with Varney

Reason Editor in Chief, Matt Welch appeared on Varney & Co. to discuss how Obama's job policies are only symbolic gestures and argues that the unemployment crisis would be better fixed by good governance and congressional budget. Air date: March 8, 2011. About 3 minutes. Go to Reason.tv for HD, iPod and audio versions of this video and subscribe to Reason.tv's Youtube channel to receive aut...

What's New With Nanotech: A Presentation by Zyvex CEO Jim Von Ehr

"If we take the carbon atoms in this lump of coal, they're not worth very much because they are random and unstructured. But if we were to take those same atoms and rearrange them into a crystal, they're diamond," explains Zyvex CEO Jim Von Ehr. The nanotech pioneer has committed his life to restructuring at the molecular level, and at Reason Weekend 2012, Reason Foundation's annual d...

Sackett v. EPA: How One Couple's Battle Against the Feds Might Protect Your Land

The decision in the Supreme Court case Sackett v. EPA, due later this spring, could very well affect the meaning of property rights and due process in the United States. So how did a small-town couple from Northern Idaho ever become the center of such a momentous case? Reason.tv talked with the Sacketts and their attorney to find out. Mike Sackett dreamed of building a home on Idaho's Priest La...

Racism, Ron Paul and the Battle over the Right to Bear Arms: An Interview with Adam Winkler

"Part of the way African Americans were kept as second class citizens in America was by denying them access to guns," says Adam Winkler, author of Gunfight: The Battle over the Right to Bear Arms in America, "I think America is a violent society not because of our guns, but because of our culture." Winkler sat down with Reason.tv's Tracy Oppenheimer to "tell the amazing...

Milton & Rose Friedman's Legacy of School Reform

Why choice is winning - and helping poor kids learn. "We have a simple problem in this country" when it comes to education, says Robert C. Enlow, president of the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice. "And that's a monopoly. It's not the people in the system. It's the system itself." How bad is the problem? Consider this: Since 1970, direct per-pupil spending on K-12 p...

Look out Kate Upton, AZ pol pushing anti-Photoshopping bill! (Nanny of the Month, Feb 2012)

This month's slate of busybodies includes a familiar name as well as some nannying newcomers. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), ever watchful for the new "club drug," is waging yet another crusade against yet another new product, and guess who he's doing it for? The kids! And then there's Utah state Rep. Tim Cosgrove (D-Murray). Faced with the fact that law enforcement was wasting resources ...

Peter Suderman Discusses Greek Collapse and MF Global Meltdown on Freedom Watch

Associate Editor of Reason Magazine Peter Suderman appeared on Freedom Watch with Judge Napolitano to discuss Greece's financial meltdown and its subsequent resistance to any austerity measures other EU members want to impose upon it. He also discussed the collapse of financial firm MF Global and whether or not more regulatory enforcement is necessary. Air date: 1/31/2012. Run time approximatel...

Transplant Denied: How Medical Marijuana Policy Kills Patients

Norman Smith seemed to be making progress in his liver cancer recovery at Cedars-Sinai hospital in Los Angeles, Calif. He had some of the best doctors in the world, he was on a transplant list and he had completed a successful clinical trial that had his doctors dubbing him a "miracle man." Then, his cancer returned and two months before he was would have received a transplant, he was...

Matt Welch Talks Social Contract, Personal Liberty, Government, Affirmative Action on MSNBC

Reason Magazine Editor in Chief Matt Welch appeared on MSNBC's Melissa Harris-Perry Show to discuss the Hobbesian social contract, whether or not the current scope of government is too large, the difference between "states' rights" and personal liberty, affirmative action, and more. Air Date: February 25, 2012. Approximately 38 minutes. Visit Reason.tv for downloadable versions and su...

Why is the Economy Growing So Slowly?

"Considering that we had this big Tea Party movement in 2010, there has been very little talk about actually cutting spending," says American Enterprise Institute's James Pethokoukis, "except that Mitt Romney doesn't want a lunar colony." Pethokoukis is a former Reuters columnist and widely read blogger, who covers economics, politics, and fiscal policy. He sat down with Rea...