Someone had to write it and I am happy to be that guy. New today at Liberal Currents, read the whole thing: As a longtime affiliate of the libertarian movement, I’ve often shared such pox-on-both-their-houses disdain for the major parties. In the current circumstances, I find it hopelessly dated and out of touch. The threats ..read more

Shake the aquavit and juices. Strain into a collins glass. Fill with ice and top with a float of Galliano and garnish with an orange twist ..read more

For the past few years I’ve been putting together a summer playlist to highlight recent music I’ve been digging. Here’s this year’s: lots of new music, a few covers, and quite a bit from bands I’ve been fortunate to catch live. Enjoy ..read more

Australia is often lauded as a world leader in mainstream tobacco control. But on the ground, things are descending into chaos. New from me at Reason: Since March of last year, the Australian state of Victoria has been rocked by a series of arsons and firebombings. Some of the targets are victims of extortion; others are caught in an escalating turf war between rival gangs. Two men with links to organized crime have been publicly murdered, one in a broad-daylight shooting at a shopping mall in a Melbourne suburb. Violent conflict is not unexpected in organized crime, but what i ..read more

Brett Adams and I had so much fun writing our first book together that we’ve signed on to do a second! From Publishers Marketplace: In The Bartender’s Library we’ll be taking a much deeper dive into spirits and cocktails inspired by the Multnomah Whiskey Library, the incredible bar in Portland where we first met and where Brett is now the full-time curator and education manager. Save a spot on your shelf for this one, it’s going to be a big project for us. In the meantime, pick up our first book Raising the Bar if you haven’t already. If you’re in Portland, you can pick up a signed copy from ..read more

For the Washington Examiner, I reviewed Fuchsia Dunlop’s excellent new book on Chinese food, Invitation to a Banquet: At first, I lamented the lack of recipes, but many of these dishes would be wildly impractical to cook at home. Bear’s paw, an archaic dish chosen to illustrate interest in the rare and exotic, is not something you’re going to find in the butcher’s counter at Whole Foods. You could perhaps obtain enough duck tongues to prepare a meal, but cooking them for yourself somewhat misses the point. The appeal of duck tongue lies less in its particular culinary qualities than in the bl ..read more

Last week the Massachusetts Multi-Agency Illegal Tobacco Task Force released its annual report. That probably isn’t exciting reading for most of you, but it’s a really useful document for understanding the impact of prohibitionist tobacco policies. In 2019, Massachusetts became the first state to pass a comprehensive ban on flavored nicotine and tobacco products. Flavor bans are studied by health academics for how they affect consumer behavior, but this annual report is one of the few sources that reveals how these policies affect law enforcement. Advocates for flavor bans portray them as simp ..read more

What do you call a cocktail with a split base of apple brandy and banana rum? If you grew up with the songs of a certain children’s singer, a tune by Raffi is probably one of the first things to come to mind. The title of this post is a bit long for a cocktail name, but for our February menu at the Multnomah Whiskey Library we went with Raffi’s Daiquiri. This drink came about from trying the new red banana oleo from Ron Colon. This is my favorite spirit in their line, which I started working with recently in Oregon. In brief, it’s a blend of Salvadoran and Jamaican rums flavored with red banan ..read more

I’ve published a couple recent articles on new wave nicotine products. First up in Reason, I looked at how heated tobacco (such as IQOS) is transforming the market in Japan: Japan provides an unlikely model for tobacco policy. The country tends to be more tolerant of smoking than its Western peers; it has high rates of smoking among men, and its government participates directly in the cigarette trade through its partial ownership of Japan Tobacco, the country’s largest manufacturer of cigarettes. It therefore comes as a surprise that Japan is experiencing a dramatic and sustained decline in c ..read more

I always write an annual post with my favorite books from the past year. Sometimes I even get it done before the year ends. This is not one of those times, but better late than never. As always, these are books I read in 2023, not necessarily ones that were published during the year. Non-fiction The Individualists, Matt Zwolinski and John Tomasi — This is now the first book I’d recommend to anyone seeking to understand libertarianism. While it’s not primarily about elucidating Matt and John’s own views, they also hint at a positive vision of what libertarianism could become. Read my review her ..read more