If you don’t visit Somewhat Reasonable and the Heartlander digital magazine every day, you’re missing out on some of the best news and commentary on liberty and free markets you can find. But worry not, freedom lovers! The Heartland Weekly Email is here for you every Friday with a highlight show. Subscribe to the email today, and read this week’s edition below.
LeftExposed.org: Michael E. Mann Profile
Michael E. Mann is an atmospheric science professor at Penn State University, a climate catastrophe alarmist, and a militant campaigner against scientists who disagree with him. Most famous for creating the discredited “hockey stick graph” misrepresenting the globe’s historical temperature record, Mann is probably the most controversial global warming alarmist in the world. Heartland’s Ron Arnold has written a carefully researched profile of Mann that is a must-use reference for journalists and researchers. READ MORE
Peter Ferrara On the Air: Worst Recovery Since the Great Depression
Senior Fellow Peter Ferrara’s new Policy Brief titled “Why the U.S. Has Suffered the Worst Economic Recovery Since the Great Depression” has been garnering a lot of attention. Listen as Ferrara joins the Made In America radio show to explain how President Barack Obama’s economic policies have been a disaster for American workers, small businesses, and industry. Even if this was an “average” economic recovery, Ferrara explains, millions more people would be working, incomes would be on the rise, and poverty would be in decline. Obama has done the exact opposite of President Ronald Reagan, who pulled us out of a worse recession than Obama inherited. LISTEN TO MORE
A Brief Assessment of the Proposed Convention Rules Adopted By the Assembly of State Legislatures
Rob Natelson, Heartland Policy Brief
The Assembly of State Legislatures (ASL) in June issued its “Rules for an Article V Convention for Proposing Amendments.” In this new Heartland Institute Policy Brief, constitutional scholar Rob Natelson gives the document two cheers, praising them for filling a genuine need though recommending that legislators refer as well to “to the solid experience of prior conventions.” If you are actively engaged in efforts in support of an Article V convention – and we hope you are! – you owe it to yourself to devote a few minutes to reading Natelson’s analysis. LEARN MORE
Featured Podcast: Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH): Subpoenaing Environmental Groups
If climate realist organizations can be investigated for promoting sound science, than surely climate alarmist groups can be subpoenaed for colluding with state attorneys general to persecute skeptics and deny them First Amendment rights. Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH) joins The Heartland Daily Podcast to talk about what actions the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee is taking to defend climate skeptics and oppose President Obama’s policies on green fuels, which are undermining military readiness and effectiveness. LISTEN TO MORE
Come See P.J. O’Rourke at the Heartland Institute’s 32nd Anniversary Benefit Dinner!
On Thursday, September 15, The Heartland Institute will celebrate its 32nd anniversary with a reception and dinner at The Cotillion, a fine banquet hall in Palatine, Illinois. Our keynote speaker will be political satirist and author P.J. O’Rourke, who will deliver an incisive and funny address about the 2016 election and the state of politics and culture in America today. Morton Blackwell, founder and president of The Leadership Institute, will accept this year’s Heartland Liberty Prize. Seats are filling up fast, so don’t hesitate. Reserve your table or tickets today! READ MORE
Celebrating 20 Years of Successful Welfare Reform
Logan Pike, The Hill
August 22 marks the 20-year anniversary of the bipartisan Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act – a major welfare reform law that substantially changed the U.S. welfare system. Logan Pike, co-author of the 2015 Welfare Reform Report Card, discusses the impact of this overhaul and explains how it was able to lift people out of government dependency and into self-sufficiency. LEARN MORE
On Climate, Ad Hominem Attacks, Funding, and Facts
H. Sterling Burnett, Climate Change Weekly
Another day, another ad hominem attack on those who would defend free speech and progress in science. In a July 29 op-ed in theSan Antonio Express News, columnist Rich Casey launched a broadside attack against U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), his fellow Republicans on the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee, Exxon, and The Heartland Institute. Never fear, we’re tough, we can handle it. Our supposed crime? Battling attempts by several Democratic state attorneys general to squash free speech and suppress scientific discovery and debate regarding purported human-caused climate change. LEARN MORE
Who Has Time for Health Care, Anyway?
Michael Hamilton, Consumer Power Report
Have you ever wondered whether your eight minutes of face time with your doctor is worth the one or two hours you spend in waiting rooms, driving to and from appointments, or supplying information for digital data entry? Your doctor has probably wondered the same thing. Most likely, the culprit isn’t your doctor, but a dastardly duo: federal reporting requirements and the industry’s entrenched health insurance model. LEARN MORE
Bonus Podcast: Jason Sorens: Freedom in the 50 States, a Ranking
The Cato Institute has just released the fourth edition of “Freedom in the 50 States,” a ranking of the states based on their fiscal policy, regulatory policy, and personal freedom. Jason Sorens, a co-author of the report, joins The Heartland Daily Podcast to discuss how the ranking was determined, the study’s results, and why the findings are so important. LISTEN TO MORE
Rethinking Education ‘Accountability’
Joy Pullmann, School Choice Weekly
The latest installment of Greg Forster’s series on rethinking what accountability should mean for schools, teachers, and students takes us back to the basics. He says before we get to technical details about tests, testing systems, rating systems, penalties, and so forth, we need to discuss why we do any of this in the first place. What’s the purpose of accountability? If we don’t know what we want schools to do, we can’t hold them accountable. LEARN MORE
Help Us Stop Wikipedia’s Lies!
Joseph L. Bast, Somewhat Reasonable
Have you visited Heartland’s Wikipedia page recently? The good news is that it is more complete than it was just a couple months ago, after leftists took it over and trashed it. Most of the new information is accurate and unbiased. But the lies and libel about our positions on smoking and climate change remain. Other conservative and free-market sites suffer, too. Wikipedia refuses to make many of the changes we request and deletes and reverses the changes made by others. We need your help! READ MORE
Donald Kendal is Director of The Heartland Institute’s Socialism Research Center. Kendal is also the host of Heartland’s In the Tank Podcast.
