Robert Soave

President Obama made clear his support for gay marriage Wednesday, announcing, “I favor legalizing same-sex marriages, and would fight efforts to prohibit such marriages.” (more)

One year has elapsed since a brooding psychopath named Jared Lee Loughner killed six people in Tucson, Arizona and injured 18 others. His intended target, U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, suffered major injuries but survived the shooting. Her presence at a memorial this weekend demonstrated that although the healing process is a long and difficult one, she is recovering. (more)

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie may have waffled on whether he wanted to run for president, but on the subject of whether taxpayers should foot the bill for the MTV reality show “Jersey Shore,” Christie issued a resolute no. The governor vetoed the so-called “Snooki subsidy” last week. This is welcome news to any New Jersey taxpayer uncomfortable with the idea of financing a show that features stereotypical Italian-American characters engaging in embarrassing and idiotic behavior. (more)

Many taxpayers object to government welfare programs. But so long as the state is in the business of confiscating some people’s wealth and awarding it to others, most would agree that welfare payments should be given only to the truly poor. (more)

What happened in Tucson, Arizona on Saturday was a national tragedy. It was not, however, the work of inflammatory rhetoric from the right, left, or anywhere else. Nor would it have been prevented if Arizona had harsher gun laws. Drawing on these false sources of blame, two congressmen have proposed separate pieces of legislation—one against speech, the other against guns—that will curtail constitutionally protected freedoms without deterring future attacks. (more)

Concerned parents across the country are no doubt still celebrating the demise of Four Loko, the infamous alcoholic energy drink marketed directly to college students — who are somewhat less thrilled to see it go, if Facebook’s News Feed is any indication. Still, hostility to such products, which recently prompted the Federal Drug Administration to ban them, is entirely misplaced. Instead of worrying about whether college kids are going to ingest risky substances (short answer: they will, no matter what the government does), people should take issue with the baseless hysteria that prompted unelected bureaucrats to force dozens of products off the market. (more)

National Public Radio’s decision yesterday to fire Juan Williams is stirring up considerable animosity toward the partly publicly-funded news organization, and rightly so. Williams’ firing is as maddening as it is unjustified. (more)

In their film about the history of Facebook, David Fincher and Aaron Sorkin found a way to make computer programming a little sexier: play up the rivalries, the parties, the relentless pursuit of fame and fortune, and add Justin Timberlake to the cast. But “The Social Network” should also be celebrated for casting an intellectual property dispute as its central conflict -- and in doing so, chipping away at the legitimacy of modern intellectual property protections. (more)