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[pharmmajor]

I'd recommend it to anyone who's interested in educating themselves and learning more about the illogical policies our country has.

I'd recommend you catch the new John Stossel special when it airs in a few weeks.

http://reason.tv/video/show/675.html

Double Update: Set your Tivos to stun! John Stossel's 20/20 special, Bullshit in America, will air on Friday, March 6 March 13 (the date is tentative; please consult your local listings). Based on six segments from Reason.tv and featuring Drew Carey, Stossel will take a long (and libertarian) look at immigration reform, medical marijuana, eminent domain abuse, and much more.

John Stossel is the best-known libertarian in the news media. As the co-anchor of the long-running and immensely popular ABC News program 20/20, auteur of a continuing series of specials on topics ranging from corporate welfare to educational waste to laws criminalizing consensual adult behavior, and author of best-selling books such as Myths, Lies, and Downright Stupidity, Stossel brings a consistent message of liberty to millions of viewers on a weekly basis.

It wasn’t always this way. Born in 1947, Stossel started out as a standard-issue consumer reporter, working in Oregon and New York before joining the staff of Good Morning America and, later, 20/20. He did scare stories about everything from pharmaceutical rip-offs to exploding coffee pots. Then, in the 1980s, he encountered reason, which radically changed his thinking about the benefits of laissez faire in economics and personal lifestyles.

"It was a revelation," he writes in his 2004 memoir, Give Me a Break. "Here were writers who analyzed the benefits of free markets that I witnessed as a reporter. They called themselves libertarians, and their slogan was ‘Free Minds and Free Markets.’ I wasn’t exactly sure what that meant, but what they wrote sure made sense."

Reason.tv caught up with Stossel in January in Los Angeles, where the newsman was filming a special episode of 20/20 based on six Reason.tv documentaries featuring Drew Carey. Among the topics: the desirability of open borders, the need to reform the nation’s drug laws, and the case against universal preschool. Ted Balaker, a Reason.tv producer, talked with Stossel about bailout mania, his hopes for the Obama years, and his attempt to educate a generation of school kids with a video series called Stossel in the Classroom.

For an edited transcript of this interview, go here.

For an audio podcast, go here.

[KvP]

Ah, Reason magazine. Your Ron Paul resource since 2008!

It's like the XFL to the Cato Institute's NFL - If you're not smart enough for Cato, Reason will gladly take you. Plus, Reason has celebrities.

[LucyStag]

Reason is not exactly Ron Paul central. Please turn that way and head towards Lew "Probably Wrote those Creepy Newsletters" Rockwell land.

"Reason" is actually very solid. I say that as a disgusting libertarian, but it's true. And Reason TV is so far doing a better job than Stossel did. Stossell turns off people I know, because he uses dubious interview methods.

Reason TV is the shit, though. And Radley Balko and other Reason writers have done good work pointing out giant failures of government.

[Ozymandias]

Pointing out the failures of a government is like shooting fish in a barrel made of fish and the gun shoots fish and is also made of fish.

It takes real balls to point out when it succeeds.

[pharmmajor]

Pointing out the failures of a government is like shooting fish in a barrel made of fish and the gun shoots fish and is also made of fish.

It takes real balls to point out when it succeeds.

I don't think any of us will still be alive when a government success finally (if ever) occurs. 

[Ozymandias]

I have never used this emoticon in my life.

But I have no choice now.

 

[LucyStag]

Pointing out the failures of a government is like shooting fish in a barrel made of fish and the gun shoots fish and is also made of fish.

It takes real balls to point out when it succeeds.

I don't think any of us will still be alive when a government success finally (if ever) occurs. 

I like your crust, sir or madam.

[LucyStag]

Pointing out the failures of a government is like shooting fish in a barrel made of fish and the gun shoots fish and is also made of fish.

It takes real balls to point out when it succeeds.

Seriously, that makes no sense. It doesn't take balls to point out when you think government has done well. People do that all the time, especially people in government.

How about pointing out horrible drug war crimes that get people killed but cops and DEA agents and Govt officals get away with it, yet nobody outside of wacky Reason magazine care? Or is that just too easy, in spite of the fact that it happens all the time? How about the assholes who think it's fine because they don't smoke, or they can get their pot, or the assholes who just call people that bring it up stoners? And all sorts of other shit that happens.

If this was shooting fish in a barrel, maybe people would stop fucking voting for the same big government assholes.

[Alex C]

People do bring this stuff up all the time. Americans are considerably more amenable to the decriminalization of marijuana now than at any point since legislation was first introduced. We're not completely there yet, but to act as if only Libertarians care about such things is patently false.

[benji]

Honestly, if you think Reason is the only place people are talking about the drug war, you really need to get out more.

Also, why are we talking about John Stossel? I don't care what his political philosophy is. He's a poor excuse for a journalist. I like how the bio implies that he stopped doing scare stories once he found the True Faith. Most of what I've seen him do over the years since 1980 would still qualify as scare stories, and usually pretty ill informed ones at that.

[LucyStag]

I try to get out more. But I assure you, I know tons of people that don't give a shit -- sometimes they smoke, sometimes they don't, but they don't think it's a big deal that it's a illegal (and other drugs too), never mind the tragic cost.

If yall come from magical everyone knows that drugs should be legal land, I am not complaining. I just don't live there.

And yeah, Stossel is somewhat...iffy.

[pharmmajor]

For anyone who's interested, here's a preview of what they'll be discussing in the upcoming special.

http://reason.org/bs/