International visitors flying to the United States through JFK Airport in New York will from now have to face identification by submitting all ten fingerprints — an increase from two. The system has already been in place in Washington, Boston, Atlanta, Chicago, and other major U.S. cities. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) argues that this heightened security procedure will identify potential terror suspects and visa fraud. Witnessing these developments, it is important to ask ourselves these two questions: 1) is it realistic to expect that terrorists or visa violators…

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A year after coming to power, the Democratic Congress must be getting pretty bored. Indeed, it is impressive that they have made it this long. After their triumphal procession down the Beltway and into D.C. last January, followed by a productive 100 hours fixing all the problems of government, they haven’t had much to do since. The troops are home, executive overreach of its constitutional powers was halted, and global warming has been forestalled by replacing all cars with unicorns, which are, needless to say, much more fuel efficient and…

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The Trademark Agency of the European Union denied Google's bid for the right to use within the EU the name of its popular e-mail program, “Gmail.” There is a German company, P1 Private, that offers a service that lets users send files and messages through a central e-mail system called “G-Mail.” The EU claims its aim is to protect the Europeans from a "likelihood of confusion," as the common element "Gmail" is so similar that people "will be misled into thinking that the marks indicate a shared commercial origin." Therefore, Gmail…

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Harvard made headlines late last year when it announced a sweeping reform of its financial aid disbursements, increasing assistance to middle class families which had previously been largely ignored by such elite institutions. The reform included a measure ensuring that all families earning less than $180,000/year would pay no more than 10% of their annual income, a transition from loans to grants, and the elimination of home equity as a factor in determining the aid a student will receive. The announcement has been a PR boon for Harvard, which has received…

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In the wake of the racially divisive “revelations” surrounding the Ron Paul rEVOLution, libertarians should reevaluate the methods by which they make themselves and, even more importantly, their ideas palatable both to the electorate as a whole and to black voters specifically. Selling libertarianism as a brand to the general population is a difficult enough proposition. To attempt to sell it to African-Americans is to buck seventy years of political socialization.  From FDR’s New Deal to LBJ’s signing of the Civil and Voting Rights Acts, the federal government has been viewed…

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