Free Republic

Gasoline costs in the U.S. could fall as much as 30 cents a gallon if lawmakers would repeal a controversial shipping law, industry experts say. The longstanding Jones Act—a section of The Merchant Marine Act of 1920—which requires any ship that carries goods or commodities in U.S. waters be American made, owned, operated and carry a U.S. flag, is being highlighted by one oil CEO as a reason behind the high price of gasoline in the U.S. and particularly in Florida.

Probably the most bracing aspect of Ira Katznelson's new history of the New Deal, Fear Itself, is his portrait of the marriage of progressive domestic policy and white supremacy. I knew the outlines of this stuff, but for a flaming commie like me, the extent of the embrace is hard to take: Far more enduring was the New Deal's intimate partnership with those in the South who preached white supremacy. For this whole period -- the last in American history when public racism was legitimate in speech and action -- southern representatives acted not on the fringes but as an...