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Post-Punk Icon Joe Jackson on The Nanny State, Smoking Bans, & His Next Musical Adventure

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 11:30:00 EST

"A smoking ban in bars is saying that adult citizens are not allowed to use a legal substance even though they're very highly taxed for doing so in a place that is private property," explains Joe Jackson, the hitmeister behind indelible tunes such as "Look Sharp!," "Is She Really Going Out With Him?," and, yes, "(Everything Gives You) Cancer."

Jackson's not a smoker himself but he insists that smoking bans and other for-your-own-good restrictions infantalize us all and challenge basic concepts of freedom. "You're throwing out the window the property right of the owner of that establishment, freedom of choice, a lot of things, compared to a health risk [from second- and third-hand smoke] that is really unproven."

Jackson's antipathy for the creeping nanny state in his native England and his longtime home of New York City led him to write a meticulously researched essay called "Smoking, Lies and The Nanny State." It also led him to finally flee New York and London, setting up residence in Berlin because there he at least feels like he is relatively "free" and "treated like an adult."

Jackson sat down with Reason.tv's Nick Gillespie and talked about his frustrations as an anti-smoking ban activist, the "gathering storm of prohibitionism," and the bold and risky evolutions of his signature musical style over the years.

Runs about 7.30 minutes.

Shot by Meredith Bragg, Jim Epstein and Anthony L. Fisher. Edited by Anthony L. Fisher.

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Michael Moynihan Discusses this Week's News on The Alyona Show's Happy Hour

Thu, 24 Mar 2011 00:00:00 EDT

Senior editor of Reason, Michael Moynihan appeared on The Alyona Show's Happy Hour segment to discuss the media's focus on Prince William's wedding, Americans failing citizen tests, and the military's airstrikes in Libya. Air date: March 22, 2011.

Approximately 7.07 minutes.

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Katherine Mangu-Ward Discusses UK Plans to Censor Pornographic Websites on Russia Today

Tue, 21 Dec 2010 00:00:00 EST

Reason Senior Editor Katherine Mangu-Ward appears on Russia Today's The Alyona Show to discuss the British government's plans to regulate Internet pornography in the name of child protection and how critics challenge the regulation as censorship. Airdate: December 20, 2010.

About 8 minutes.

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Matthew Elliot on Britain's Burgeoning Tax Revolt

Thu, 09 Dec 2010 00:00:00 EST

Americans have more of a penchant for tax revolts than the British, but that may be changing. After thirty years of unchallenged tax increases, The Taxpayers’ Alliance formed in 2004 to advocate for lower taxes across the United Kingdom.

Co-founder and Chief Executive of The Taxpayers’ Alliance Matthew Elliott sat down with Reason.tv to discuss the rising frustration with taxes in Britain and how TPA grew from a small group that met in coffee shops to a national media player.

Approximately 5.43 minutes.

Interviewed by June Arunga. Camera by Jim Epstein and Josh Swain. Editing by Swain.

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Michael McMenamin: How Churchill Became Churchill

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 10:00:00 EDT

Reason.tv's Nick Gillespie recently sat down with Reason contributing editor Michael McMenamin, co-author with Curt Zoller of 2007's Becoming Winston Churchill, now out in a paperback edition from Enigma Books. The volume promises "the untold story of Young Winston and his American mentor."

Churchill's mentor was the Irish-born New York orator and politician Bourke Cockran (1854-1923), who served in Congress and advised President Grover Cleveland. Recognized as the one of the greatest public speakers of his day (William Jennings Bryan refused to appear on the same stage with him), the classical liberal Cockran introduced Churchill to the benefits of free trade, anti-imperialism, soaring oratory, and, even more important, says McMenamin, the idea that "government is not the source of wealth...[Cockran] gave Churchill a healthy distrust of government and other organizations (like the Church of England) that could hold power over people."

Approximately 7.15 minutes. Shot by Roger M. Richards and Alex Manning; edited by Roger M. Richards.

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Return to the Gulag

Thu, 26 Feb 2009 00:00:00 EST

Jon Utley was two years old in Moscow when his father, Arcadi Berdichevsky, a Russian trade official, was sent to a labor camp by the Soviet secret police. His mother, Freda Utley, escaped with Jon to England and then to America.

In 2004 and 2006, Utley, a well-known journalist, embarked upon a search to learn of his father's fate. This documentary traces Utley's journey through former labor camps and cities in northern Russia and his final uncovering of the horrible truth at the dreaded camp city of Vorkuta within the Artic Circle.

Directed by John J. Michalczyk, Return to the Gulag is a small but revealing window into Russia's turbulent 1930s.

Reason.tv is proud to present this Etoile Production, which was funded by The Freda Utley Foundation and the Jacques Salmanowitz Program For Moral Courage in Film at Boston College. Thanks also to the Fitzgerald Griffin Foundation.

For more information about the documentary, visit http://fredautley.com/Berdichevsky.htm.

For a DVD version of this program ($15 donation, plus shipping), please go to the website of The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation or email vocmemorial@aim.com.

War, Wine, and Taxes

gillespie@reason.com (Nick Gillespie) — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 16:04:00 EDT

Why do the British drink beer and the French drink wine? In his new book, War, Wine, and Taxes, George Mason University economist John V.C. Nye debunks the myth that Britain was a free-trading nation during and after the Industrial Revolution by revealing how the British used tariffs—especially on French wine—as a mercantilist tool to weaken France and to appease domestic brewers and other politically connected special interests. It's a boldly revisionist account of economic history and one whose relevance to contemporary trade policy is all too troubling.

Nye spoke with Reason Editor-in-Chief Nick Gillespie at a reception in Reason's Washington office on October 9.