Since Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the creation of religious freedom task force, members of the political Left have been voicing concerns that this is an attempt to impose certain religious beliefs on the nation. For example, an editorial in the Houston Chronicle stated: Make no mistake. The Religious Liberty Task Force — a name…
Alex Epstein, who describes himself as a practical philosopher, recently announced The Human Flourishing Project. Epstein started the “project to tackle the problem I care about most: human beings lack reliable access to the knowledge we need to flourish.” In his introductory podcast, Epstein notes that, despite the material abundance in the world today, there…
For some time, 13-year-old Jaequan Faulkner has operated a hotdog stand in front of his house in Minneapolis. Recently, someone called the authorities to complain that he was operating without a permit. Rather than cite the teenager for violating city regulations, officials decided to help the entrepreneur through the process. Indeed, health inspectors donated the…
In the mid-1990s, Joe Overton identified a political concept that became known as the Overton Window. The website for the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, where Overton was a senior vice president, describes the concept: Joseph Overton observed that in a given public policy area, such as education, only a relatively narrow range of potential…
The United States constitution allows for the seizure of private property for “public use,” so long as “just compensation” is paid to the owner. The Kelo ruling in 2005 brought the issue of “public use” to the forefront. In that case, the Court endorsed the use of eminent domain for economic development, thereby hanging, as…
Nuisance law holds that an owner has the right to the peaceful use of his property. Loud noises, nauseating odors, and similar disturbances can interfere with one’s use of his property, and is thus considered a nuisance. However, nuisance is highly contextual–what is a nuisance in one context is not necessarily a nuisance in another….
Last week, Chronicle business columnist Chris Tomlinson wrote about the contradictions in the newspaper business. Interestingly, what he calls contradictions are really an admission of his own confusion about how a free market operates. For example, he writes The industry itself was founded on a contradiction. Historically, publishers focused on selling paper more than news….
States cross the nation have enacted laws that allow property owners to designate their property lines by painting purple lines on trees, fence posts, and various other things. The purple lines are intended to take the place of “No Trespassing” signs. While I have no problem with a property owner explicitly stating that others are…
Close Public Libraries Permanently Nearly a year after Harvey flooded many of Houston’s public libraries, six remain closed and virtually no repairs have been performed at the others. The city is still waiting for insurance money and FEMA checks. Now would be a good time to consider closing down the entire public library system. There…
Advocates of tariffs and other trade barriers often claim that their goal is “fair trade.” If another country imposes tariffs on American products, the argument goes, it is only fair for the American government to impose tariffs on products from that country. But this argument ignores a simple fact: trade does not occur between nations….
I recently had an interesting conversation with a liberal friend. As would be expected, we disagree on many political issues. During our conversation, she said that many people will make bad decisions, and government needs to protect them. I agree with her that many people will make bad decisions. I disagree with her that government…