Outside the Beltway

When it comes to thinks like Mike Bloomberg’s large-sized soda ban, most Americans prefer to just say no.

For veterans who get in trouble with the law, *when* they commit a crime can have profound implications on their future. Does this make sense?

Some 2000 veterans of World War II were lobotomized by the VA. That’s awful but not outrageous.

Thanks to current patent and drug regulation laws, we’re paying up to $2,000 for a drug when there’s a drug that does the same thing for orders of magnitude less.

Another government mandate that doesn’t address a real problem.

President Obama has apologized for breaking his “If you like your plan, you can keep it” pledge. Does he have anything to be sorry about?

A 500 pound French man was denied a return flight by British Airways.

Some century-old Pacific Beer beer ads are “nothing short of brilliant, absurd, and offensive.”

Another legal setback for Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s crusade to regulate what New York City residents can eat and drink.

People who drink more coffee are less likely to kill themselves.

Two thirds of us are overweight but we still think fat people are pigs.

Getting the courts involved in the organ transplant issue could end up being a huge mistake.

Thanks to the Supreme Court, your DNA cannot be patented.

Thanks to those new electronic cigarettes, ads for cigarettes are back on television for the first time since the Nixon Administration.

Scientists have known for years that large quantities of supplemental vitamins can be quite harmful. Yet, the FDA is prohibited by law from telling the public.

Finland gives all parents of newborns a cardboard box for their babies to sleep in. No, they’re not homeless.

NYU’s Geoffrey Miller has done a groundbreaking study connecting obesity, and particularly the consumption of simple carbohydrates, with failure to complete doctoral dissertations.

Shouldn’t medical advances available in Germany be available in the United States and vice-versa?

Kids born to over-35 mothers tend to be taller and thinner.

Homicide rates are on pace to be lower than they were at the start of the 20th Century.

We rely on death certificates for epidemiology studies. But they’re incredibly unreliable.

Recent comments from an FDA official raise the prospect that the agency is considering minor’s access to caffeinated beverages.

Pfizer will soon start selling Viagra direct to customers online. Given how much Viagra spam OTB has gotten over the years, I assumed it has always been available online.

The FDA has modified it’s rules on the availability of a politically controversial form of birth control.

A McDonald’s hamburger has been in a man’s car trunk since 1999. It still looks and smells the same as the day he bought it, minus the pickle.

Famous people may die sooner than the rest of us. Then again, they may not.

Southerners lie about their weight–but not as much as those lyin’ Yankees.

Are we heading toward an era where a diagnosis of mental illness becomes an instrument for state oppression?

A mix of media and abortion politics.

Keeping guns out of the hands of dangerous people while protecting individual liberty isn’t easy.

A Federal Judge has stepped into a Culture War minefield, but that doesn’t mean he’s wrong.

Ian Ayres argues that we would virtually eliminate the spread of sexually transmitted disease if men would wear a condom the first three times they had sex with a new partner.

The good people of Montana may soon have expanded dining options.

Frustrated Republican health care staffers are leaving the Hill for lucrative positions on K Street.

A baby born with AIDS eighteen months ago has reportedly been cured.

Bullheadedness is a virtue?

Coffee makes you smarter, burns fat, and is good for your liver.

A diet rich in olive oil, nuts, beans, fish, fruits and vegetables, and wine is good for your heart.