Back in 2004, rapper P. Diddy started an organization called Citizen Change and launched a campaign called Vote or Die. Diddy and the campaign were subsequently mocked in some circles, notably the popular TV show South Park. Since 2006, Citizen Change has been inactive, but in a recent interview at a Revolt music conference, Diddy…

Did you know President Obama’s “core legacy” is free trade — and the centerpiece of this alleged “free trade” policy is the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)? Neither did I. But that’s what Shikha Dalmia says, writing at the leading right-wing libertarian periodical Reason (“Why Is Hillary Throwing Obama’s Core Legacy on Free Trade Under the Bus?”…

Charter schools, for the libertarian establishment, are what passes for “free market reform” in public education. They’re regularly pushed by mainstream libertarian think tanks, and at Reason they’re topped only by Uber, right-to-work laws and defined-contribution pensions on the list of libertarian shibboleths. But besides not being very effective they’re not very libertarian either (in…

A common negative stereotype of the conventional “pot-smoking Republican” variety of libertarian is their condescending dismissal of anyone who disagrees with them as “not understanding economics.” Such people are so fond of firing off this rhetorical weapon that they often use it in situations where it’s far more applicable to themselves. Reason‘s recent commentary on…

Every time I write a commentary on one of John Stossel’s godawful columns, I tell myself I’ll lay off him for a while. But good lord, this latest wretched little piece of pro-corporate apologetics (“Corporations Have Become Hollywood’s Go-To Villains,” Reason, July 1) is about the worst thing he’s ever done. The biggest challenge any…

Origin Story  Those who are not familiar with comic books and the history surrounding them may be confused about the recent kerfuffle over the Batgirl cover and it being pulled. Never fear! For I have in my Utility Belt of Knowledge, the proper gadgets to give some context and offer critique. Batgirl, or Barbara Gordon as she is better…

Cody Wilson, a founder of Defense Distributed, is a name too often connected with the failures of corporate and government bureaucracy. For those not in the know Defense Distributed is a Texas non-profit that defends the so-called constitutional right to bear arms.  But once again this supposed “guarantee” will be abridged by another corporation. This…

On December 3, 2014 the New York Daily News reported that a “… hulking brute grabbed a 28-year-old MTA employee up in a bear hug at a Bronx train station, shoved her onto the platform and began choking her in an unprovoked attack — then ran away smiling …” (emphasis added). Curiously, only a day later they reported that, “Police…

Recently, the all-woman’s college Mount Holyoke in South Hadley Massachusetts decided to cancel the play production The Vagina Monologues. This, in turn stopped a tradition of having the play performed on Valentine’s day to raise awareness of violence against women. They cited the play as, among other things, transphobic and having an overly narrow and reductionist view…

È opinione comune che, secondo come vengono formulate le domande, i sondaggi possono produrre praticamente qualunque risposta desiderata. Emily Ekins, parlando dell’atteggiamento della generazione Y su questioni economiche e politiche (“Are Millennials Far Left on Economics? No,” Reason, 18 agosto), dimostra un’incoerenza concettuale quasi totale nell’inquadrare i risultati di un sondaggio Reason-Rupe sulla generazione Y…

It’s a common observation that polls can produce virtually any response desired, depending on how the questions are worded. Emily Ekins, ostensibly reporting on the political and economic attitudes of millennials (“Are Millennials Far Left on Economics? No,” Reason, August 18), displays almost total conceptual incoherence in framing the results of a Reason-Rupe poll of “millennials” (young Americans age…

When I saw A. Barton Hinkle’s hit job on the Wobblies (“Meet the Left-Wing Extremist Running for U.S. Senate,” Reason, September 3), I had to double-check to make sure I was on the right website. Was it FrontPage Magazine? Breitbart? Nope — it was Reason! Reason prints some fairly right-leaning stuff, but seldom anything like…

If you thought the standards of the Famous Artists’ School (“Can You Draw the Pirate?”) on old matchbook covers were lax, wait till you see Reason magazine’s criteria for recognition as a “free market think-tank.” The American Federation of Teachers blacklists asset managers who manage public sector employees’ defined benefit pension funds, but have contributed…