Author ArchivesJohn

I’ve found myself defending Rudy Giuliani a lot lately. He’s a far cry from libertarian, but his bread is buttered on the right side: Rudy tends to be morally liberal and fiscally conservative in general. This time, he’s coming under fire for comments he made about ‘universal healthcare’, and before ...

Libertarians: don’t miss this. Drew Carey was a relatively quiet libertarian throughout most of his career as a comedian, TV host and actor… until recently. Drew has been contracted by the Reason Foundation for a series of documentary-style videos online, a project they’re calling Reason TV.

Let me be among the first to say that I’m sad about what the media and public will do to Dog the Bounty Hunter after the National Enquirer got hold of a recorded phone conversation he had with his son Tucker, in which he uses the word ‘nigger’ several times. ...

You may think it a ridiculous question. I do. The people who should celebrate religious festivals are the people who want to celebrate them. The people who should not celebrate religious festivals are people who do not want to celebrate them. We’re all individuals with different values, different religious beliefs, ...

That’s what Brendan O’Neill suggests in Spiked Online: that British authorities and others are now regarding Halloween as an annoyance and even a threat. What’s gone so wrong with Halloween, and how is this playing out? O’Neill writes: “Police forces around Britain are supplying households with posters warning children not ...

I’m delighted to see this. Students from 110 universities around the United States are today protesting campus prohibitions on carrying firearms for their protection. This is overdue. When a school shooting happens, people wring their hands and wonder how tragedies, like the one at Virginia Tech, can be prevented. At ...

As the fires in California finally come under the control of exhausted firefighters and over half a million people begin to make their way back into their San Diego area homes, some Europeans seem to have developed a hate for Americans such that preempts any thoughts of support or empathy ...

I shit you not. The man in the picture is David Pratt, an American who moved to England and is finding life rather less free on the other side of the pond, where he’s been hoping to apply for citizenship. He bought the T-shirt in Venice, California, where such shirts ...

This is about as good as it gets for a conservative presidential candidate pledging to be as tough on national crime as he was tough on New York crime as mayor. And before he was mayor of New York? He was prosecuting the mob. And they didn’t like that: “The ...

On this post I made mention of the proposed change to porn laws which would require anyone who appears in an adult online video clip or photograph to submit identification and other information to the websites who host the content and the government. (This would effectively end many adult enterprises ...

I almost missed this. The Guardian’s online section has expanded to provide a new service, Guardian America, for the many American readers of The Guardian. I’ve noticed the increasing fascination with America among particularly leftwing Brits: it stands for much of what they despise, much of what they think is ...

I’d never heard the term ‘Prince Albert’ used in the way I heard it recently. Sitting around with company and red wine and peach cobbler, pontificating about a variety of inspirational topics, somehow I uttered the term “clitoral stud” in the conversation, which prompted another cobbler-eater to say, “Prince Albert”. ...

Near me in Southern California there is one of the most sought-after locations to live in the world. The climate is great, the sun is shining, the landscape is beautiful, the neighbourhoods aesthetic, the opportunities plenty, the infrastructure rich, the people attractive, the food exceptional. That’s why these wildfires are ...

I like Richard Dawkins. He’s a prolific atheist, and I’m a theist, but desipte this fundamental difference I like his rational approach and commitment to good science and entertaining polemics. On my fondness for Dawkins, fellow blogger Stephen Graham and I disagree. But today I saw a piece in the ...

Strange question, you might say. Most female mammals behave differently during their most fertile time: it’s called oestrus, or ‘heat’. According to traditional belief, women do not experience this in this way: “Humans, unlike some other species, do not have any obvious external signs to signal receptivity at ovulation.” (Wikipedia). ...

Here’s what some commentators are talking about today: Joe Conason says “To avoid war, Bush should engage in direct negotiations with Iran – and restore America’s commitment to its own disarmament.” I agree. It’s too important an issue to screw up, and the last thing we need is another war. ...

It’s my sixth wedding anniversary today. Last night, to commemorate our anniversary, my wife Melissa and I wrote our lists of the top 5 celebrities who we have agreed henceforth to be the exceptions from the norms of our agreed monogamy: if we ever get the chance to hook up ...

For a long time now I’ve held to the position that the energy crisis and the problems of climate change will not be solved by government sanctions on our activities but by technological advances in the free market. People like recent Nobel-Prize winner Al Gore don’t like not knowing exactly ...