There has been vigorous debate about whether the U.S. Senate should ratify the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS, also known as the Law of the Sea Treaty, or LOST by its critics). The treaty has a wide-range of supporters in the United States. These reportedly include elements within the Pentagon who believe that UNCLOS would prevent foreign states from adopting arbitrary policies that interrupt normal naval operations. A primary objection of opponents is that UNCLOS would establish a dangerous precedent by authorizing the U.N.'s International Seabed Authority to collect taxes.

There are those who say that the housing market is just one segment of our overall economy and bad loans are just a fraction of the housing market, so there is nothing to worry about. This viewpoint is wrong, because the housing market is not sealed off from the rest of the economy. On the contrary, clever Wall Street financiers have managed to convert a serious housing bust into a potentially cataclysmic financial crisis.

Illegal immigration is one of our country's most divisive, intractable issues. The Simpson-Mazzoli Act of 1986 was supposed to solve it, but illegal immigration has continued to increase. This year's attempt to craft comprehensive immigration-reform legislation blew up in Congress. Given the record of failure for effective comprehensive reform, perhaps it is time to address the problem in incremental, piecemeal proposals.

First, full disclosure: In my youth, I engaged in some serious substance abuse. Today I am a teetotaler, but I do not object to other people consuming alcohol. I hate smoke, but I defend the right of others to smoke. I disdain illegal drugs, but I don't feel that I have the right to impose that judgment on others. Also, while I am a free-market economist and believe that government has gotten way too big, I am not (for a variety of reasons) a card-carrying Libertarian. That having been said, I find much of the libertarian argument in favor of legalizing recreational drugs to be persuasive, although I strongly dissent from one of the major implications of the libertarian position.