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Brink Lindsey’s Human Capitalism is now out
The subtitle is How Economic Growth Has Made us Smarter — and More Unequal, you can buy a copy here.
Is Kathleen Sebelius Barack Obama's Oliver North?
Michael F. Cannon
I blogged earlier about how HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is unethically, and possibly illegally, shaking down industries she regulates to get them to fund ObamaCare’s implementation.
Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN),Show More Summary
Jon Stewart on the IRS Targeting the Tea Party
Michael F. Cannon Last night, the Daily Show’s Jon Stewart said of reports the IRS singled out tea-party groups for extra scrutiny, “This seems like a genuine scandal.” Then he turned on the funny: “In their defense, there is a goodShow More Summary
Red Lights for Profit
TAMPA BAY, Florida — A subtle, but significant tweak to Florida’s rules regarding traffic signals has allowed local cities and counties to shorten yellow light intervals, resulting in millions of dollars in additional red light camera fines. Show More Summary
Assorted links
1. Google flu trends, and Google dengue trends. 2. Against empathy? 3. Kevin Drum on robots. 4. Japanese butter grater, and the standing restaurant (Japan also, coming to New York), and more Edward Hugh on Abenomics. 5. Italian designed sneakers. 6. The place names of Orkney and the Shetlands. 7. The wisdom of Steven Pearlstein, [...]
Some Empirical Evidence of IRS Political Manipulation
Tim Lynch This morning Politico reports that there are plans for some congressional hearings into the unfolding IRS scandal. According to that report, these hearings will “probe whether the targeting of right-leaning groups is systemic...Show More Summary
Markets in everything, the culture that is Manhattan
Some wealthy Manhattan moms have figured out a way to cut the long lines at Disney World — by hiring disabled people to pose as family members so they and their kids can jump to the front, The Post has learned. The “black-market Disney guides” run $130 an hour, or $1,040 for an eight-hour day. [...]
The Growth of Government, Updated
The news has been ripe with administration scandals as of late and will likely be for some time (Memo to BHO: There may be no better way to keep scandals in the news than to use the Justice Department to go after the Associated Press). But soon attention will turn to the issue of fiscal […]
Is This the Libertarian Moment?
David Boaz In 2008 Nick Gillespie and Matt Welch hailed a “libertarian moment,” encompassing everything from the Internet to the collapse of “legacy” industries and legacy entitlement programs. I’ve used the same term here, when NPRShow More Summary
The First Amendment Protects Both Political Donations and Campaign Spending
Ilya Shapiro The First Amendment broadly protects political speech and the use of resources (printing presses, the internet, money) to facilitate that speech. Yet when someone wants to engage in the most obvious kind of political speech — supporting election campaigns — the government is allowed to restrict this important constitutional right. Show More Summary
CO2: 400ppm and Growing
Paul C. "Chip" Knappenberger and Patrick J. Michaels The atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) has recently reached a “milestone” of 400 parts per million (ppm). In some circles, this announcement has been met with consternation and gnashing of teeth. Show More Summary
Stereotyping in Europe
Each column is interesting, for instance read down for “Most Compassionate.” It’s funny how many individuals do the same for themselves, I might add, in what has to be one of the simplest and most common of all intellectual mistakes. Those results are from the new Pew report, summarized by David Keohane here. The French [...]
Attempted fish markets in everything, economies of scope edition
The headline is: “Desperately Seeking Cichlid: Fish Species Down to Last 3 Males, No Known Females.” Once upon a time the Mangarahara cichlid (Ptychochromis insolitus) lived in a single habitat: a river in Madagascar from which the species gets its name. That river has now been dammed and the habitat has dried up. Today there [...]
The World Bank’s Doing Business report
Yesterday I received an email from Michael Klein: We are writing to you about the World Bank’s Doing Business report. Published since 2003 the report benchmarks 185 countries annually on key dimensions of the legal and regulatory environment for small businesses. It has supported numerous reforms all over the world helping small businesses and employment. [...]
Looking Back to Get Ahead: FEMA’s Strategic Foresight Initiative on Natural Disaster Preparedness
‘Toward Resilience’ is a series on the meaning of global resilience and vulnerability today. Natural disasters have dominated news coverage in the past several years, with many observers noting a distressing rise in the frequency and scale of disasters accompanied by rising costs. Despite these worrying trends, a critical mass of leadership and public support [...]
Kenneth Waltz, RIP
Sad to just learn that Kenneth Waltz, one of the most influential international relations scholars of the last 50 years (perhaps only rivaled by Sam Huntington), passed away today. More later once I finish my grading. But love or hate his work, it is impossible not to agree that he was a giant in the field who […]
Assorted links
1. What is the non-shared environment? 2. Why is New Jersey so corrupt? 3. John Gray on Mervyn Peake. 4. Nathan Heller on on-line education, including Amherst. 5. Are there literary novels which cannot be adapted to the screen? 6. Why bullfighting in Spain is dwindling; it has been a $3.3 billion sector yearly. 7. [...]
Jim Manzi on the Oregon Medicaid study
Via Megan, here is an excellent discussion of the study, here is one excerpt: In summary, based on statistically insignificant effects of coverage from the Oregon Experiment: (1) The effects that are closest to statistical significance are that coverage would increase the rate of smoking and damage the cardiovascular prognosis of sick people; (2) the [...]
Thailand book bleg
From Chris Acree: I’m planning a trip which will take me through Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam. I recently began selecting a few books about each country to read to cover the history, culture, or other interesting aspects of the area. In particular, my favorite books in this vein are Country Driving and China Airborne, both [...]
The WaPo Keeps Fighting on Food Aid
Simon Lester A few weeks ago, I blogged about how the U.S. government uses the idea of helping malnourished people abroad as a way to promote domestic agricultural interests. As I explained there, “Instead of simply giving money to people to buy food from the cheapest source, the U.S. Show More Summary
