FreedomTalks

The Financial Times says “yes.”
As an interim measure, the US should relax its travel ban, encouraging the people-to-people contacts that can help to stimulate the development of a more open society. Restrictions on travel by US-based Cubans introduced in 2004 should be reversed. None of this seems remotely likely under the Bush administration. But a [...]

Hi there, FT readers.  Hope you’ve been reading checking out what I’ve been writing over at Andrew Sullivan’s blog. Here are some posts that may be of interest to you:

Regulating DC taxi cabs
Environmentalism and the politics of fear
The president’s role in shaping the economy
 Health care metrics and health care stats

Meanwhile, you should also check out [...]

Former Austin Mayor Kirk Watson really didn’t have an answer to the question, “What are Barack Obama’s legislative accomplishments?” Could this become a theme in the general election if Obama wraps up the nomination? Stay tuned.

Colorado’s “Blue Ribbon Commission on Health Care Reform” recently published it’s final report.  Predictably, the commission advocates the standard collection of mandates, subsidies (to families earning as much as $80,000), and “cost shifting.”  To quote the report: 

“Eleven (11) of the health care reform proposals submitted to the Commission included an individual mandate as a key [...]

The recently passed energy bill includes a mandate that will ban the traditional incandescent light bulb. New research, as reported by the Washington Post, strongly correlates lower melatonin levels with breast cancer. An Israeli researcher explains the connection:
Abraham Haim, a University of Haifa chronobiologist involved in the study, said the findings raise questions [...]

FYI: Posting here will be lighter this week as I’m part of the crew who’s guest blogging for Andrew Sullivan over at the Atlantic. I’ll be writing about some of the issues that I tend to cover here, but also about a variety of other topics that I write about elsewhere (and some that I’m [...]

Virginia blog Leesburg Tomorrow is complaining about FreedomWorks’ support for payday lenders in Virginia.
[I]n effect it is the special interests of payday lenders who are out to take away your financial livelihood. Remember, this is an industry which has made up to $5,000 on a $300 loan off of a low-income warehouse worker, thanks to [...]

For anyone thinking that Barack Obama might somehow favor less intrusive economic policies than Hillary Clinton, this ought to suggest otherwise:
Clinton and Obama both promised that they would make the tax code more middle-income-friendly and would protect consumers from threats — including predatory credit card companies and rapacious college lenders. Both candidates condemned corporate [...]

In a very disappointing turn, yesterday House Republicans selected Rep. Jo Bonner of Alabama to the Appropriations Committee, instead of a reformer like Rep. Jeff Flake. It’s a clear signal that, despite recent rhetoric, House Republicans haven’t broken their spending addiction. Like too many members, Rep. Bonner has institutionalized pork requests. [...]

Are we running out of natural resources? Listening to the chatter of the media, it can certainly seem that way. But next time somebody frets about a loss of resources, remember Julian Simon’s example:
The essence of Simon’s position in the bet was that, despite the population growth that was sure to occur during [...]