Why 1930s style social programs won't work

Hollywood, Babble On | National Review Online: "In the 1960s, the average lifespan of a Fortune 500 company was 75 years, whereas today it is only 15 years, and that number is declining. "

This mentioned in an article on the decline of Hollywood as a focus for the film industry, but the point is of more general applicability. Tying health care and retirement to firms rather than individuals is an invitation to routine disaster.

Obama proving the tenants of classical realism the hard way

Barack Obama is proving an embarrassing amateur on the world stage compared to George W. Bush – Telegraph Blogs: You help your friends, not your enemies. Losing Great Britain: quite an accomplishment, Barak.

Scientists join ranks of science deniers

World Federation of Scientists changes its policy: “Climate change in itself is not a planetary emergency.”  When will the media declare it safe to dissent from the tenants of the environmentalist religion without being declared an enemy of reason?

Civil Rights

Gender pay gap: The familiar line that “women make 77 cents to every man’s dollar” simply isn’t accurate. - Slate Magazine: How much can or should the government do to change the choices people make? Are those choices truly voluntary? Are they necessarily bad?

Presidential action

The Thomas Jefferson Papers - America and the Barbary Pirates - (American Memory from the Library of Congress): "to effect a peace thro' the medium of war." " Thomas Jefferson's way of dealing with pirates has lessons for us in our war against terrorists. Note that it took the raising of a land force by Eaton to finally compel Tripoli to behave.

An immense tutelary power...

The Weekend Interview with Craig Zucker: What Happens When a Man Takes on the Feds - WSJ.com: Do people really need the government to tell them not to put pieces of metal in their mouth?

Good news

The Weirdest Things About America - Business Insider: An Indian exchange student shares his mostly pleasant surprises about the US.

All you need to know

Guantanamo Legal Proceedings Get Ever-Weirder and Increasingly Unjust - Hit & Run : Reason.com: "True, the defendants aren't necessarily nice people."

That is their description of the members of al Qaeda held at Gitmo. Is anything else needed to demonstrate the fatuous and hypocritical morality of those who are so concerned that the terrorists who conspired to murder our citizens and impose Islamist dictatorship on so many helpless citizens of other countries receive the full benefits of the constitutional protections normally reserved for citizens.

Liberal Hypocrisy

Is It Evil to Send Your Kids to Private School?  - Bloomberg: "This is nominally public schooling, but in fact, as I once remarked, parents who think that they are supporting public schooling by moving to a pricey district with good schools are actually supporting private schooling. They’re just confused because the tuition payment comes bundled with hardwood floors and granite countertops."

If you send your children to private schools you are obligated to advocate vouchers.

That is the essence of the difference between conservatives and liberals. Conservatives want the same things for the poor that they want for themselves, including the right to choose what schools they send their children to and safe streets. The  liberal wants one thing for the objects of his supposed beneficence--the poor--and another for himself. He wants the poor to be in state run schools while he himself can send his to private schools--though to protect his moral vanity he prefers the fees 'bundled' with the price of local real estate, just as he wants the civil liberties and rights of criminals protected as they prey upon the residents of poor neighborhoods while he, himself, dwells in a safely gated community or security building.

Sad and Cruel

What ‘The Butler’ gets wrong about Ronald Reagan and race - The Washington Post: It is revealing how the left feels compelled to lie about Ronald Reagan. They cannot conceive of a principled opponent. The anecdote about a young Reagan brining two visiting black students that had been refused lodging in the local hotel to his home for a night's sleep and breakfast is revealing. And I had never known that Reagan's father had forbid him to see "Birth of a Nation" because he considered it racist propaganda.

Government helps insiders, installment 900000...

Big Fines Won't Solve Too Big to Fail  - Bloomberg: The one good thing that might come from prosecuting banks for past failures is that it would give newer, smaller banks a chance to grab some business and expand while their legacy competitors are weighed down with litigation and settlements. But the Obama administration has managed to short rob us of even that compensation as its regulations crush the ability of smaller banks to expand. The love affair between big business and the self-righteous advocates of bigger government continues apace.

McArdle taks Ezra Klein to School

Why Do Education and Health Care Cost So Much? - Bloomberg: It is sad that the affairs of this great nation require the explanation of such elementary concepts to one of our supposedly most educated and informed commentators.

McArdle taks Ezra Klein to School

Why Do Education and Health Care Cost So Much? - Bloomberg: It is sad that the affairs of this great nation require the explanation of such elementary concepts to one of our supposedly most educated and informed commentators.

Original Intent

Stop privileges for government officials:

Glenn Reynolds explains why the Constitutional prohibition against granting 'titles of nobility' in articles 9 and 10 should be revived and applied to end the special privileges, such as the immunity granted to judges (by judges) and the special, non-traceable license plates granted to California state officials.

Original Intent

Stop privileges for government officials:

Glenn Reynolds explains why the Constitutional prohibition against granting 'titles of nobility' in articles 9 and 10 should be revived and applied to end the special privileges, such as the immunity granted to judges (by judges) and the special, non-traceable license plates granted to California state officials.

Roots of Terrorism

Article | British Rioters The Spawn Of A Bankrupt Ruling Elite: "Talleyrand said that no one knew how sweet life could be who had not lived under the Ancien regime; one might add that no one has known unalloyed joy who has not heard the tinkle of plate glass, or seen flames lick up a building, in the alleged furtherance of a cause. Incidentally, part of the sweetness of life under the Ancien regime was the knowledge that it was far from sweet for everyone; and the imagined distress of the owners of the property that rioters destroy is part of the joy of rioting."

Sadly I think that Dalrymple is on to something here. How much political violence, from above or below, is motivated by the sheer joy the human heart takes in destruction for its own sake?

From the other Lott

Obama’s Racial Imbalance | National Review Online: A trenchant analysis of President Obama's handling of race in the aftermath of the Travon Martin case. Since Obama has taken office the proportion of Americans, both black and white, that report race relations are getting worse appears to have doubled.

Breaking the Rules

PJ Lifestyle » 5 Reasons Why Duck Dynasty Is a Great All-American Show: This is a nice summary of why I like them but don't really watch the show: they are in on their own joke. The thing that makes a reality show work is that the subject of the show does not realize how they are perceived. But on the Duck Dynasty I get the feeling that they are aware of the way they come off and play it up for laughs. The audience is supposed to laugh at them, not with them. They are too hip for their own show.

How dangerous is it to be a cop

Police Officer Deaths in the United States, 1980-2007: Most of the deaths come from accidents. The death rate of police in crimes of violence is lower than the homicide rate for plain old ordinary citizens in Chicago. Hey, maybe we should be allowed to have M-16s and body armor?

A country the founders wouldn't recognize

SWAT Cop Says American Neighborhoods Are 'Battlefields,' Claims Cops Face Same Dangers As Soldiers In Afghanistan: A lesson in bad statistics and a disturbing example of how our police have come to view themselves as soldiers and citizens as the enemy.

Don't make me shut down the governemnt

The Movement to Defund Obamacare, Explained - Molly Ball - The Atlantic: It is amazing how the press and even many Republicans have bought into the Administration's preferred construction of the movement to defund Obamacare. The headline asks, "Will They Shut Down the Government?" And yet, just a couple of sentences later, gives away the game by stating that the "Democrats and  President Obama are unlikely to agree to gut the president's signature domestic achievement. President Obama are unlikely to agree to gut the president's signature domestic achievement." So, if the Congress, particularly the House, exercises its Constitutional prerogative to not fund the President's program the President will refuse to sign it and shut down the government and it will be the Republicans' fault because they should know that Obama would shut down the government unless he gets the money he wants? How does that even make sense? How do they get away with that spin? 

Generation Sucker: Healthcare Edition

Obamacare Is Really, Really Bad For You, Especially If You're Young - Forbes: "“[T]oday’s young people will be tomorrow’s old people,” says Matthew Yglesias of Slate, so while this arrangement may not benefit the young now, it will eventually do so. A senior official at the AARP echoes this sentiment, insisting, “If a younger, healthier person is spending a little more now, it’s okay because at some point they’re going to be a less healthy, older person too.”"

Wonderful! Another inter-generational contract. So that tomorrow's old people will have an incentive to make sure that tomorrow's young people will have the same lousy deal that they had when they were young. All the inefficiencies of government plus inter-generational warfare! Hopey-Changey!

Getting your money's worth?

PJ Media » Who Benefits from the Public Schools?: The article discusses a disagreement over how much money NYC spends per student in its public schools. The city's accounting suggests that it is about 18 k per year while the CATO Institute calculates it is about $26,000 per year.

But whatever the number the situation is absurd: schools are having bake sales to buy pencils and telling students to bring their own toilet paper. The real question is what could individual parents do with that money. Instead of arguing about redistribution we should be arguing about getting our money's worth.

...Shall take care that the laws be enforced

Kimberley Strassel: Behind an Ethanol Special Favor - WSJ.com: "Republican Sen. David Vitter's office acknowledged on Tuesday that he had joined other Louisiana politicians in sending a letter to President Obama supporting the Krotz Springs exemption. Sen. Vitter's co-signers were Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu, and Republican Reps. Charles Boustany and Rodney Alexander. Mr. Vitter's spokesman said the office had not been approached by other refineries for support, and noted that the senator has been pushing to waive the 2014 ethanol mandate for every refinery."

At least when it comes to doing special favors for their influential constituents the Republicans are no better than Democrats. The electoral and financial incentives to help you friends in politics is too strong and acts upon all politicians regardless of party. That is why the solution is not to elect Republicans to but to reduce the size, scope and discretion of government. Meat axe, please.

...Shall take care that the laws be enforced

Kimberley Strassel: Behind an Ethanol Special Favor - WSJ.com: "Republican Sen. David Vitter's office acknowledged on Tuesday that he had joined other Louisiana politicians in sending a letter to President Obama supporting the Krotz Springs exemption. Sen. Vitter's co-signers were Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu, and Republican Reps. Charles Boustany and Rodney Alexander. Mr. Vitter's spokesman said the office had not been approached by other refineries for support, and noted that the senator has been pushing to waive the 2014 ethanol mandate for every refinery."

At least when it comes to doing special favors for their influential constituents the Republicans are no better than Democrats. The electoral and financial incentives to help you friends in politics is too strong and acts upon all politicians regardless of party. That is why the solution is not to elect Republicans to but to reduce the size, scope and discretion of government. Meat axe, please.

Its the things we do know that an't so....

Arrogance: WaPo won’t correct dubious claim about Nixon ‘secret plan’ for Vietnam | Media Myth Alert: I had always taken the 'secret plan' story to be true without question. Think about this the next time you see someone say the words 'journalism' and 'profession' together with a straight face.

Good thing she is a Democrat

Smartest Woman in the World Pays Tribute to ‘Medgar Evans’ | Jammie Wearing Fools: At least she didn't use her fake Southern accent.

Sarah Stillman: The Use and Abuse of Civil Forfeiture : The New Yorker

Sarah Stillman: The Use and Abuse of Civil Forfeiture : The New Yorker: Civil Asset forfeiture racket getting another well-deserved thumping. The connection to Citizen's United should be made explicit by conservatives, though. You cannot punish a piece of property, you can only punish its owner, whether that property is a car or a corporation. The cause of corporate rights property rights should both be seen as what they are: the protection of individuals.

Government is for the Insiders

Ben Chavis's Last Stand by Ben Boychuk, City Journal Summer 2013: The party of government moves to destroy a successful competitor through trumped up charges. When will people learn? Human beings don't change their nature because they get a paycheck from the government, they merely acquire a new way to destroy their competitors. Private businesses have no choice to but compete on the basis of creating a good or service that more people are willing to pay for than those of their competitors. Government simply uses the power of the state to destroy their competitors. Offer a better product at a lower price in the private marker and your competitors try to emulate you. Offer a better product at a lower price in a state controlled market and your competitor (note the singular noun) marks you for destruction. The more you out compete the government the greater the incentive for the state to destroy you.

Why I hate lawyers

The Untouchables: America's Misbehaving Prosecutors, And The System That Protects Them: America's prosecutors are out of control. The essence of tyranny is a power that does not have to abide by the rules it imposes on others. The American legal system imposes extraordinary and unattainable standards on everyone else but lets its own walk away from the most egregious and malicious acts without so much as a stern talking to. The article linked to details the judicial systems attempt to execute an innocent man. Though the man's was eventually save, the prosecutors who broke the law to convict him and who shamelessly stood behind the conviction have suffered no consequences.