Over the weekend, Australians protested against a new round of lockdowns imposed to curtail the spread of the latest COVID-19 variant. Police arrested dozens of participants, vowed to hunt down more, and threatened mass arrests in the event of future acts of dissent. It was a chilling reminder of how far a nominally free country […]
With troops finally scheduled to withdraw from Afghanistan after two decades of conflict, America’s intervention there will go down in history as an accidental forever war. After the initial invasion, it was only peripherally part of the country’s policy debates, rarely occupying the attention of Americans who did not have relatives involved in the fighting. […]
Officials in one Arizona school district are learning just how seriously families take privacy after parents were asked to consent to letting their children be questioned about a checklist of sensitive subjects including illegal behavior, income, and gun ownership. The district quickly backtracked, claiming the consent form hadn’t been properly vetted and that such private […]
President Joe Biden frequently calls out his political opponents as dangers to democracy. It’s an easy charge to make, given former President Donald Trump’s refusal to accept a loss at the polls, his followers’ rioting at the Capitol, and subsequent snipe hunts for election fraud and efforts to erect barriers to voting. But the current […]
There may be nothing more addictive than the desire to ban stuff. Even as one prohibition winds down those who would control our actions almost always retarget their efforts toward some newly discovered threat to public safety. In the 1930s, Prohibition agents shifted to chasing drug dealers without breaking stride. More recently, the collapse of […]
Already used to identify international travelers as they enter and exit the United States, facial recognition technology is becoming increasingly reliable and may soon become a regular feature of the travel process, say government researchers. But almost simultaneously come reports of haphazard implementation by federal agencies and real-life horror stories based on flaws in the […]
For those of us who consider President Franklin Delano Roosevelt more of a political grifter than a policy innovator, it’s no surprise that his signature fiscal legacy, Social Security, is in dire financial straits. New data from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) once again points out that the program, which was crafted from the beginning […]
When it comes to insanely restrictive (and, arguably, ineffective) pandemic measures, critics tend to point the finger at public officials and their appetite for power. But government functionaries may be no more of a danger to post-COVID freedom than some of our neighbors. Recent polling suggests that many among us not only approve of the […]
As Americans fight a very modern battle over ideological spin in public schools, the Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case rooted in earlier struggles over lesson content. The justices will decide whether Maine can continue to exclude religious schools from a program that pays private school tuition for students that live in places […]
Some Facebook users have recently received warnings about “extremism” and offers of help for those with acquaintances attracted to “extremist” ideas. It’s part of an international push to discourage and restrict communications considered radical and hateful. While often couched in concern about the potential for violence, this effort looks increasingly like a scheme to narrow […]
