The Return of Big Tobacco
by Dan Croak
The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act will authorize the FDA to regulate tobacco. However, it will not help "prevent smoking" nor it will "control tobacco" favorably for public health. Phillip Morris strongly supports the legislation and the head of the FDA opposes it. Something is wrong here.
Articles
Mike Gravel, Fiery Unknown
by Dan Croak
05.01.07 | The only Democratic candidate to receive much media attention after the South Carolina debates was former Senator Mike Gravel. In this video, he talks about political courage and excoriates current Senators and Congressmen, particularly Harry Reid for not doing enough to end the war in Iraq.
Criminalising the consumer
by Dan Croak
04.30.07 | It is trivial to download music and videos from iTunes and then transfer it to your iPod. Digital Rights Management is easy to manuever around and ineffective. How will copyright owners protect their intellectual property in coming years now that DRM has been proven to be more a hindrance than a help?
The Public Genome
by Dan Croak
04.30.07 | The Human Genome Project was a massive effort to determine the sequence of the human genome, now complete. What would be far more useful, however, is to know individual patients’ exact genomes.
The Right to Work
by Dan Croak
04.29.07 | How are 17 states, 276 cities and towns (including the District of Columbia) and 433 companies of the Fortune 500 more advanced - daresay, more civilized - than the federal government? They all prohibit employment discrimination based on sexual orientation. It's about time Congress allowed the nation to catch up - and maybe it will, now that the Employment Non-Discrimination Act has been reintroduced in the House.
Going the Way of the Polar Bear
by Devin Lavelle
01.04.07 | There is only one bear that will actively track and hunt humans. The polar bear tends to prefer fattier animals, though and the Americans who live in or travel to the Arctic tend to be the heartier sort, so they generally only go after humans when they are suffering from extreme hunger.
Rent Extraction
by Dan Croak
04.28.07 | Politicians often introduce legislation designed to scare wealthy industries into contributing to their campaigns. The process is called "rent extraction" and the bills introduced are alternatively called "milkers," "fetchers," or "cash cows."
Time to Double Down on Online Gambling
by Anna O'Leary
04.30.07 | If market expectations are any guide, the United States will likely end up allowing its citizens to gamble online. In the hours after a recent WTO ruling was announced, stocks in online gaming companies lifted. Investors clearly see the writing on the wall, even if the U.S. government does not.