Outside the Beltway

According to some surveys, Americans are getting a lot more sleep than they think they are. Really?

The Texas GOP wants to “pray away the gay.”

Genetics.

A supposed conservative calls for massive increases in taxes on alcohol.

Pseudoscience and hysteria have damaged public health.

According to the New York City Public Schools, this girl is fat.

The last known case of smallpox happened in 1977. Is it time to destroy the virus?

The anti-vaccination movement has earned a dubious achievement, the return of a disease that was effectively eradicated 15 years ago.

On screen body objectification is now equal opportunity.

Portland, Oregon government officials and USA Today headline writers are innumerate.

The law of unintended consequences strikes again.

Once again the Affordable Care Act meets the Law Of Unintended Consequences

After many ballyhooed glitches, 7 million Americans have signed up for ObamaCare. Now what?

A CBO report on the Affordable Care Act is getting a polarized reading.

Marlise Munoz is finally at peace, but the law that kept her hooked up to machines for two months remains on the books.

A brain dead woman in Texas is being kept alive while a fetus that is still not viable grows inside of her.

Developments overnight in a small but controversial issue raised by the PPACA.

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.