Whoa, I’ve fallen behind on keeping this site updated. Here’s a round-up of what I’ve been writing for the past few months…

Most recently, my latest Substack features an essay on how my sense of what to emphasize and whom to ally with in politics has changed during the Trump years. It’s been well-received by other thoughtful libertarians alarmed by the anti-democratic tendencies taking hold on the right:

Personally, this isn’t a renunciation of the libertarian label so much as it is a change in emphasis. Emphasizing a libertarian identity as a contrast to mainstream Democrats and Republicans makes sense when the worst that can happen is ending up with someone like Barack Obama or Mitt Romney as president. Right now it feels more important to emphasize the longer, wider tradition of liberalism relative to the narrower libertarian movement, even though I situate my own views within both of them. For now, I’m putting liberalism first.

For Arc Digital, I made the liberal case against expansive smoking bans:

While defending bodily autonomy and personal choice in many other contexts, much of the progressive left has adopted an insufferably illiberal prudishness when it comes to tobacco. Their attitude brings to mind judge Robert Bork’s defense of laws forbidding sexual behaviors: “Knowledge that an activity is taking place is a harm to those who find it profoundly immoral.”

For Reason, I explained why bans on menthol cigarettes are likely to lead to more confrontations with police:

Ban advocates gloss over these concerns by emphasizing that the law would be enforced against sellers, not consumers, of menthol cigarettes. But big tobacco companies have too much on the line to defy the FDA; illicit markets for menthol cigarettes would most likely be run by people within the communities the ban is intended to protect.

For Slate, I looked at what we do and don’t know about vaping and COVID, and how activists and media have pushed an alarmist narrative unjustified by the evidence:

Did you hear about the big new study on vaping and COVID-19? If you didn’t, that’s not surprising. The study didn’t find any association between the two—that is, it found no evidence suggesting that people who vape are more likely to be diagnosed with the disease. Research that leads to null results rarely gets much coverage in the media. In this instance, however, it upends the flood of stories throughout the pandemic that reported that vapers are at greater risk. 

Also for Reason, I examined how rigid adherence to COVID metrics can lead to absurd policy outcomes, like air conditioned restaurants in Portland being forced to turn away patrons in our historic heatwave two days before the state fully reopened:

That’s hotter than has ever been recorded in Atlanta or Houston, cities where buildings are designed for that kind of heat. The handful of Portland bars and restaurants with air conditioning up to the task would have been rewarded with booming business on these days if not for one thing: the state’s COVID restrictions, due to expire today, were still limiting their indoor spaces to half capacity. Few industries have been as hard hit by rigid and often-nonsensical pandemic policies over the last year as the service sector. This week’s failure to adjust at a time when it might have helped both businesses and patrons is just one more blow to the state’s struggling bar and restaurant scene.

Finally, I have a whole bunch of new lifestyle writing, mostly at Inside Hook. Click through for an introduction to genever, an interview about Texas whiskey, an exploration of spirits made with animal dung, an investigation into why non-alcoholic spirits cost so much, and the first cocktail sold as an NFT.