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.
A Real Bet for the Tough Guy in a Bow Tie
Joe Bastardi, Patriot Post
Heartland Institute friend Joe Bastardi, a professional meteorologist and weather forecaster, is throwing down the gauntlet and challenging Bill Nye, “The Science Guy,” to a wager on global warming. Nye has recently proposed similar bets to prominent climate change skeptics. Bastardi is now betting that 2017, based on sun and ocean cycles, will be cooler than 2016. UPDATE: Bill Nye has accepted the challenge.READ MORE
ELPC Left Exposed: Chicago’s Partisan Front Group for a Radical Environmental Agenda
Ron Arnold, Somewhat Reasonable
The Environmental Law and Policy Center of the Midwest (ELPC), a left-leaning lobbying and litigating organization, fêted the regulatory victories of colleagues in the Obama administration with its “2016 Dinner and Celebration” at the Chicago Hilton on April 29, 2016. The group hosted two influential Democrat headliners, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) and U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Illinois). After the speakers left the dais and the dinner party had adjourned for chit-chat around the open bar, the celebration’s point had become crystal clear: “Regulatory statutes are the cornerstone of the progressive agenda.” READ MORE
Video: Nature Unbound: Bureaucracy vs. the Environment – Ryan Yonk
What if what we think we know about ecology and environmental policy is wrong? What if environmental laws actually make things worse? What if the very idea of nature has been hijacked by politics? Ryan Yonk answered those questions, and more, at a Heartland Institute presentation of his book Nature Unbound: Bureaucracy vs. the Environment. It’s long past time to rethink environmental objectives, align incentives with goals, and affirm the notion that human beings are an integral part of the natural order. If you missed the event, you can watch the presentation in full at Heartland’s YouTube page. WATCH IT HERE
Featured Podcast: Lennie Jarratt and Tim Benson: Strike Vouchers and SOS Accounts
As threats circulate about another possible Chicago Teachers Union strike, Lennie Jarratt, project manager for education at The Heartland Institute, and Heartland Policy Analyst Tim Benson responded with a Policy Briefproposing an innovative solution to keep students in a safe learning environment. Jarratt and Benson join the Heartland Daily Podcast to discuss “strike vouchers,” which would provide displaced students with funds to attend private schools or other learning institutions while the government’s teachers refuse to return to the classroom. LISTEN TO MORE
Heartland Library Book Shelf of the Week – Socialism and Soviet Studies
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Get Your Popcorn Ready: Heartland Movie Night – Atlas Shrugged Part 1
Join us and fellow lovers of liberty for this special series of Heartland Movie Nights, in which we’ll show each part of the trilogy on three Wednesdays in a row – May 18, May 25, and June 1. Based upon the enormously influential 1957 novel by Ayn Rand. Atlas Shrugged: Part 1 follows the struggles of Dagny Taggart, a railroad heiress trying to maintain her integrity and keep her family’s railroad alive in the midst of a rapidly decaying world. Doors to Heartland’s Andrew Breitbart Freedom Center open at 5:30 p.m. Film starts at 6:00 p.m.. Group discussion follows. SEE UPCOMING EVENTS HERE
Virgin Islands AG Expanding Climate Witch Hunt
H. Sterling Burnett, Climate Change Weekly
The attorney general of the U.S. Virgin Islands is targeting dozens of think tanks, businesses and consumer groups, and individual researchers in his widening probe of organizations that have written skeptically about purported human-caused climate change and policies proposed and implemented to fight it. His efforts are nothing less than a witch hunt – an assault on the First Amendment’s guarantee of free speech in an effort to silence political opponents. READ MORE
The Holy Grail of Health Insurance Alternatives
Michael Hamilton, Consumer Power Report
As health insurance costs continue to increase, a growing number of people are turning to a cost-effective alternative. Carved into Obamacare’s individual mandate is an exception for members of health care sharing ministries (HCSMs). While HCSMs operate similarly to insurers, they cost much less, accommodate members’ objections to Obamacare, and reduce health care inflation by placing patients directly in charge of their health care costs. READ MORE
Oh, the Places ESAs Can Go
Joy Pullmann, School Choice Weekly
Technology seemingly advances by the day. When this technological innovation is used to enhance school choice options, the possibilities are endless. A recent study by Jonathan Butcher explores the potential of combining education savings accounts with mobile payment technologies. Parents could pay for individual lessons from multiple small businesses and tutors with a simple click of a button. READ MORE
Bonus Podcast: James Wanliss: Climate Models Still Failing to Project Temperatures Accurately
Every few months, we hear about the latest projections from people like Al Gore and Paul Ehrlich saying the global warming tipping point is only a few years away. And when these dates come and go, the alarmists just point to a new date a few years further down the line. James Wanliss, senior fellow with The Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation, joins the Heartland Daily Podcast to talk about how and why we still can not trust climate models. READ MORE
Don’t Let the FDA Kill Vaping
Matthew Glans, Real Clear Policy
This week, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) unveiled new regulations placing electronic cigarettes under an avalanche of new rules requiring they be approved as a new type of tobacco product. These new regulations will force the vast majority of these products to go through a lengthy and expensive approval process. The hurdles will likely stop most of these innovative products from ever making it back onto store shelves. READ MORE
Help Us Stop Wikipedia’s Lies!
Joseph L. Bast, Somewhat Reasonable
Many people rely on our profile on Wikipedia to provide an objective description of our mission, programs, and accomplishments. Alas, the profile they find there is afake, filled with lies and libel about our funding, tactics, and the positions we take on controversial issues. Wikipedia refuses to make the changes we request. It even deletes and reverses all the changes made by others who know the profile is unreliable. We need your help! READ MORE
Donald Kendal is a graphic designer for The Heartland Institute, a research fellow for Heartland’s Socialism Research Center, and the host of Heartland’s In the Tank Podcast and Stopping Socialism TV.
