Archive for 2010

NICK GILLESPIE TO JONATHAN CHAIT: Yes, Trimming Spending Every Year Means Reduced Expenditures in the Future. It’s so simple, like the jitterbug, it plumb evaded him. (Apologies to Lord Buckley . . . ) From Nick: “If you’re interested in catching up on the cyber-brouhaha, start with Chait’s latest bit, in which he accuses me of innumeracy, ‘tonal posturing,’ and certifiable delusions. To be fair to Chait, he pretty much talks this way about everyone.”

NOT-SO-FREE SPEECH at Syracuse Law School: “A Law student at Syracuse University is facing possible expulsion for ‘harassment,’ but he doesn’t know who his accusers are or even why he’s in trouble.”

HMM: Yale Law Professors Establish Website To Encourage Tax Cut Givebacks.

UPDATE: Hanah Volokh emails:

You linked to the Yale profs’ page to give your tax cut money to charity. They don’t list the U.S. Treasury as a recipient option. For a true give-back, shouldn’t the only option be to send the money to the U.S. treasury? Government bureaucrats know how to spend your money better than you (or Habitat for Humanity, Salvation Army, Children’s Aid Society, or Nurse Family Partnership) do!

Also, they’ve named the program Give it Back for Jobs. While those four charities might be worthy causes, do any of them create jobs? Wouldn’t the number of jobs in America grow more quickly if we all spent our tax cut money on consumer goods or home remodeling? Or by hiring someone to mow our lawns instead of doing it ourselves?

Excellent points.

A SCIENTIFIC THEORY is judged by its predictive powers. Bah. Comrades, we must distinguish between mere bourgeois science, which is concerned with sterile facts and predictions, and Revolutionary Science, which is concerned with what will promote the Revolution.