An open field? Terry Rainwaters’ fence, posted with a ‘No Trespassing’ sign. Image courtesy of the Institute for Justice. By Joshua Windham Terry Rainwaters was at home on his 136-acre farm in Camden, Tennessee, when his son walked in, distressed. “Dad, there are cameras in our trees.” Two cameras, to be exact: one pointed at Terry’s crops, the other pointed at the back of a tenant’s house. This unsettling discovery came just a few weeks after seeing a game warden sneak onto his land in a ghillie suit, and after years of game wardens prowling around farms in Terry’s neighborhood without cons ..read more

Top of the world: A U.S. Patriot air-defense missile launcher deployed during Exercise Arctic Edge, Alaska, 2022. Image credit: Air Force Senior Airman Joseph P. LeVeille. The Arctic is one of the most inhospitable places on Earth, yet it is of immense strategic importance. The northern frontiers of eight countries—Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the United States, inclusive of possessions and territorial waters—extend above the Arctic Circle. For the most part, these neighbors have formed a relatively cooperative relationship in recent decades dealing with ..read more

Image Credit: Neil Webb/Debut Art We live in an era of poisonous political conflict, to the point where it became necessary for someone to make a movie about a second U.S. civil war to show us all what a horrible thing this would be. Yet this polarization is largely geographic. It is often described as being about the coasts versus the heartland, but it is more accurate to say that the divide is urban and suburban versus rural. Missouri and Nebraska may be “red” states—isn’t it amusing that the conservatives are the “reds” now?—but not St. Louis or Omaha. New York and Virginia may be “blue ..read more

In policy-making as well as driving, overcorrection leads to mistakes. Image Credit: Chris Graythen/Getty Images Several years ago, I blew out a tire while I was driving at about 60 miles per hour. At such a moment, it’s amazing how quickly your driver’s ed training kicks in: Adjust your driving to get control of your car. Steer into the way your car is pulling. Don’t try to overcorrect and turn the steering wheel the other way, or you’ll spin out. Fortunately, I can attest that driver’s ed classes actually do make a difference—I was able to pull the car over to the shoulder of the road, tha ..read more

Worldwide phenomenon: “Star Wars” characters Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader battle it out at Madame Tussaud’s. Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons By Ryan Carver “Star Wars” is one of the most popular sci-fi franchises worldwide, with box office revenues topping out at more than $10 billion and a total franchise worth of around $66 billion. Since George Lucas’ release of what is now known as “Episode IV: A New Hope” in 1977, the “Star Wars” universe has morphed and expanded to become a widely acclaimed phenomenon that resonates with the mass market of moviegoers, television bingers, gaming fanat ..read more

To encourage expressive freedom and decrease self-censorship, students should be taught the skills they need to engage well with opposing viewpoints. Image Credit: Vladimir Vladimirov/Getty Images In this installment of a series on liberalism, Benjamin Klutsey, the director of the Program on Pluralism and Civil Exchange at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, talks with Lara Hope Schwartz, a senior professional lecturer at American University’s School of Public Affairs, about different forms of self-censorship, why freedom of speech must be supplemented by the right skills and sta ..read more

I’ll take over now. Advisors to former President Trump have recently proposed limiting the Federal Reserve's independence. Trump and Fed Chairman Jerome Powell in 2017. Image Credit:AFP By Patrick Horan This is the first of two articles on reforming the Federal Reserve. This first essay in this series concerns monetary policy. A second piece will address ideas for limiting Fed “mission creep” into issues outside its mandate. Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that advisers to former President Trump are drafting a proposal to limit Federal Reserve independence should Trump win a seco ..read more

While illegal immigration through the U.S.'s southern border is clearly a problem, concerns about potential terrorists coming across the border aren't backed up by evidence. Image Credit: Suzanne Cordeiro/AFP/Getty Images Recent major attacks in Israel, Iran and Russia suggest Islamic-inspired terror might be making a global comeback. So in the United States, we’d be foolish to believe we are immune to attempts to attack us. This month FBI Director Christopher Wray told Congress that he’s never seen “so many threats to our public safety and national security” at once. Where are these threats ..read more

Top of the world. Taylor Swift in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 2023, during her record-breaking Eras Tour. Image Credit: TAS2023/Getty Images Taylor Swift is one of the most famous, most successful women in the world, with a hot Super Bowl-winning boyfriend and an even hotter tour that’s made her into a billionaire. But the mixed reactions, so far, to her much-awaited new album “The Tortured Poets Department” last week may be exposing a vulnerability in the Swift colossus—and in doing so, highlighting a fundamental question about the relationship between artists and their fans. What does Taylor ..read more

What are manners really all about? Image Credit: hobo_018/Getty Images What are “manners”? Informal habits based on being considerate to other people? Indicators of class, meant to stratify or exclude? Arbitrary rules intended to impose discomfort, replacing religion’s “offer it up” with mom’s “Y is a crooked letter”? That last one was always what I had assumed as a kid: that the discomfort, and not the considerateness, was the point. For example, I always believed a tie was designed to be uncomfortable, that it had no real point otherwise. I thought the buttons on a suit jacket—button this ..read more