 | | Reason.tv: Free the 'Shine! Why It's Finally Time to Legalize Liquor
If drinking makes us healthier and wealthier, why is America's liquor policy so screwy?
Jimmy Carter legalized home brewing in 1978, and that newfound freedom fueled the craft beer movement that continues to lavish beer lovers with endless choices. But in many ways, laws that govern whiskey, gin, and other distilled spirits are stuck in the 1920s.
Federal agents still raid distilleries much like they did during Prohibition, and making any amount of moonshine at home is not only illegal, it's a felony that can carry up to five years in prison. The result is a market dominated by a few big names, where would-be craftsmen are forced to hide their work.
And yet, despite the danger, America is in the midst of "moonshine renaissance," in which a new wave of hipster hobbyists has joined with old-time 'shiners to flout the law and do what they love to do.
Click here to watch.
The State of Iraq: Nation building might work, but it's not worth it.
Can nation building work in Iraq? It probably can, writes David Harsanyi. But the real question is whether it is worth it.
http://reason.com/archives/2010/09/01/the-state-of-iraq
Join Nick Gillespie, Matt Welch, Ron Bailey, and Jacob Sullum on Reason's weeklong Caribbean cruise in February 2011. Sign up today!
http://www.reasoncruise.com
Simpson and the Sacred Cow: The reaction to the former senator's comments on Social Security shows he's right.
Alan Simpson violated a taboo last week when he likened Social Security to "a milk cow with 310 million tits." But contrary to the critics who accused him of sexist vulgarity, Senior Editor Jacob Sullum says the former Wyoming senator's transgression had nothing to do with his use of a perfectly acceptable synonym for teat. Simpson's real sin, Sullum argues, was "belittling a bedrock program," as the AARP put it-i.e., showing insufficient reverence for a sacred cow.
http://reason.com/archives/2010/09/01/simpson-and-the-sacred-cow
Hit & Run, Reason's Staff Blog
War Is Over (If Obama Wants It) or, Mission Accomplished Redux
As President Barack Obama helpfully explained last night on the TV, the Iraq War is over. "Time to turn the page" and end "the American combat mission in Iraq." Except for the 50,000 or so troops still there, who will no longer be "combat troops" but advisors, traffic cops, social workers, and bake-sale overseers. Who will stay there until the end of 2011 (or longer, if you believe folks such as Washington Times' national security correspondent Eli Lake, or the thousands of U.S. troops sending emails from the Korean peninsula).
Iraq was not just an elective war, a non sequitur in what used to be called the "global war on terror," it's been a war filled with obfuscations, misdirections, and bogus claims that have never been fully accounted for. Obama's speech last night simply continues that sorry tradition, thus extending not simply the fog of war generally but disrespecting the more than 4,000 American soldiers whose blood has been spilled in a misbegotten adventure in hubris straight out of the Shelley poem, Ozymandias...
Read the rest here.
Posted by Nick Gillespie
http://reason.com/blog/2010/09/01/war-is-over-if-obama-wants-it
Daily Brickbat
Defending Our Freedoms
The U.S. Army is investigating claims that between 80 and 100 soldiers at Fort Eustis were confined to their barracks after they declined to attend a concert by a Christian band. The concert was part of the "Commanding General's Spiritual Fitness Concerts" series, which features only evangelical Christian acts.
http://www.reason.com/brickbat/
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