The good news on this side of the Pond is that Britain could soon grow genetically modified crops commercially.  This is a victory for common sense over irrational opportunism, and also for the environment over pollution.

Under pressure from the European Union's health and consumer commissioner, Tonio Borg, and Britain's environment secretary, Owen Paterson, the EU is on the brink of ceding control of the issue to national governments. That suits countries such as France and Austria, who are implacably opposed to GM crops -- and Britain, which thankfully is not.

It is now clear that the opposition to GM crops has been counter-productive for the environment as well as harmful to the economy and the consumer.

Remember, "organic" bean sprouts killed 51 people in one E coli outbreak in Germany in 2011. GM food has killed nobody. There's now simply no way to argue with a straight face, after billions of GM meals have been eaten all round the world, that the technology is a threat to our health. The reverse is actually the case.

So this is a technology that is safe for human health, better for the environment, more effective than the alternative and economically beneficial to consumers and farmers. Let the French ban it if they want to.

What do you think the minimum wage per hour should be? How did you come up with that number?

The federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour, and the Obama administration proposed raising it to $10.10 per hour last Thursday (11/08).  Last week, the voters in New Jersey passed a $8.25 per hour minimum wage, while the voters in the town of SeaTac, Wash., passed a $15 per hour minimum wage.

A noted labor economist, Walter Williams, has written: "Among academic economists, there is little or no debate over the unemployment effects of minimum wages. Our only debate is the magnitude of unemployment."

In 1977, Mr. Williams authored a classic paper showing that one of the major reasons for the original federal minimum wage back in 1938 was the desire of racist, white-only unions to keep skilled black tradesmen from getting jobs owing to their willingness to work for less than the union rate.

It should be no surprise that those who argue most strongly for higher minimum wages are unions, seeking protection from those who need the work and would be willing to work for less, and members of the political class who spout lofty slogans about how they are out to protect the working poor. Do both these groups want more unemployment?

It was back in October 2004, in Porter At The Pass, that we first discussed the true nature of the CIA:

Most folks think the CIA is a right-wing outfit. It is not. The CIA has been dominated by incompetent left-wing hyper-liberals for years.

Do you think the government is too big, taxes too much and regulates your lives more than it should?

Polls consistently show that most Americans think there is too much government. Nevertheless, those in the majority who say they want smaller government continue to vote for people who ultimately give them larger government.

All too many are willing to vote for those politicians who promise more benefits to some to be paid for by others, without understanding that they will eventually become the "others." The American Founders clearly understood the danger. As Thomas Jefferson said, "When the people realize they can vote themselves benefits, all is lost."

What has gone wrong and why? In an incisive, new book, "Terms of Engagement: How Our Courts Should Enforce the Constitution's Promise of Limited Government," Clark Neily lays much of the blame at the feet of the judiciary.   

Mr. Neily is the senior attorney for the Institute for Justice, and is perhaps best known for success in the Heller case, where the Supreme Court held that the Second Amendment protects an individual's right to own guns.