Free Republic

Maine voters in November will consider a ballot question seeking to overturn a newly-minted state law that changes the funding method for the Dirigo Health Program.

The state is smoking out Ohio smokers who evaded cigarette taxes by shopping online between July and March. Nearly 5,500 buyers should expect a bill for unpaid excise and use taxes on cigarettes purchased during that nine-month period, the Ohio Department of Taxation announced Monday. The combined tab? More than $2.15 million, including nearly $370,000 owed to Cuyahoga County. The largest bill -- $2,700 -- belongs to a Huron County resident who bought 2,160 packs from out-of-state Internet vendors. Most bills are less than $600. They must be paid within 30 days, according to the department, which did not release...

Interview with Warren Buffett reveals an amazing stupidity on the choice for the next American president.

'Dry' counties are drying up in Texas Even more are putting the liquor option to voters since easing of law LUFKIN — Sarah Strinden is tired of what she calls the "pain-in-the-neck" drive she must take as a consequence of Texas' patchwork of local liquor laws. From her house it's a 10-mile jaunt to the metal-sided beer barns and package stores in either of two adjoining wet counties. ''We don't buy a lot and store it, so when we're planning a casual drink with friends it's a 40-minute trip," she said. ''It's just inconvenient." Strinden and others in Angelina County...

It’s the best part of two decades since Denys Arcand gave us The Decline And Fall Of The American Empire, a very Quebecois gloss on The Big Chill about a group of boozy, bed-hopping, bantering boomers connected one way or another to a university history department. They were in their prime, though they did not fully realize it. Eighteen years on, one of their number is now facing the biggest chill: death. In his mid-50s, Remy (Remy Girard), a self-described “sensual socialist”, is perforce heavy on the latter and lighter than he’d wish on the former. He’s no longer banging...

It is a familiar complaint that newspapers only report the bad news. But that applies to economic news, too -- particularly with a presidential year coming up. By all objective indicators, the news about the American economy has been remarkably good since the summer. But what is good news for ordinary people can be bad news for politicians, just as good health is bad news for morticians. For some strange reason, recent Democratic candidates have been looking for the dark cloud behind every silver lining. They seem to think voters always want to hear the U.S. economy is fundamentally rotten...

Your Tax Dollars At Work ... for Anti-Alcohol Activists Posted On August 19, 2003 The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) will soon release a major report on how to prevent underage drinking. Americans deserve a serious, science-based examination of this important topic, but the NAS report will almost certainly be a piece of anti-alcohol propaganda. It is expected to call for increased taxes on adult beverages and stricter regulations on marketing and advertising. Those recommendations target adult consumers, not just underage drinkers. Which is precisely the point. Nine of the 12 "experts" chosen to sit on the NAS panel are...

<p>Over this past weekend yet another virus/Trojan/worm/whatnot attack culminated in a lot of panic. Apparently, far too many systems were infected with this latest disease, and the Net was once again choking on the aftereffects. Probably the blackout in New York and much of the Northeast saved us because it simply took machines offline.</p>