Archive for 2011
March 16, 2011
INSTAVISION: The Reason Roundtable: Is Libertarianism a New Trend or a Passing Fad? I talk with Tim Cavanaugh and Brian Doherty about where things are going.
A COMMON DISASTER-PREP SCENARIO: Certainties of Modern Life Upended in Japan. “In a nation where you can set your watch by a train’s arrival and a conductor apologizes for even a one-minute delay, rolling blackouts have forced commuters to leave early so they will not be stranded when the trains stop running. Some stores have been stripped bare of essentials like rice and milk, leading the prime minister to publicly call for calm. All the while, aftershocks small and large rattle windows and fray nerves.”
JERRY POURNELLE on Japanese Reactors and the Worst Case. Lots of interesting stuff, plus this: “The important lesson from Japan is that we took obsolete reactors with old designs and safety features, and subjected them to a 9.0 quake and a very large tsunami, and the damage to the planet is an unfortunate but hardly decisive event. It is now time to stop worrying about this mess until things settle and we can see precisely what we have learned, and factor that into the next generation designs. Note that almost everywhere in the world we are building reactors with much better design and far better safety features than those being destroyed now. Concentration on how awful is the nuclear mess takes our attention off the economic and human disasters from the earthquake and tsunami.”
MEGAN MCARDLE: “A friend whose son has autism sent me this absolutely horrific tale of abuse and neglect by New York State workers who are supposed to care for the cognitively disabled. These are unionized workers who are, like most of New York’s civil service, very hard to fire. Naturally, the union fought as hard for them as it could. And so rather than fire them, many of their supervisors simply transferred them to other homes, even though offenses included punching their charges, throwing them against the wall, and sexually abusing them. The man who was caught standing between the legs of his disabled charge with his pants down and her diaper off describes himself as just waiting until he can collect his state pension.”
These are the people that the Democrats depend on. But I think unions should be liable for their members’ misconduct under respondeat superior, as employers are. That would discourage them from protecting the jobs of the incompetent and abusive.
FIRING A PROFESSOR for her night job at a burlesque show. “At about the same time that she started working at JFK, she started performing under a pseudonym, Professor Shimmy, at the Hubba Hubba Revue, a burlesque show in San Francisco.”
PUBLIC EMPLOYEES IN WISCONSIN DON’T SEE THE IRONY: “The protests have been on behalf of well-paid people with excellent jobs — better jobs than the average Wisconsinite’s. And the protesters got massive extra doses of freedom to express themselves in the state capitol for over a month, without any threats of violence or even arrest for the crimes they committed in full view of the police. I mean, I know they have their complaints, but they are not even the bottom sector of the Wisconsin economy. If there were to be a class struggle here, they would be taken aback to find themselves in the role they actually have in this economy: the oppressors!”
Plus, from the comments: “The only class struggle in WI is the one between those with class and those without it.”
ARE CHRISTIANS OBSESSED with gays and abortion?
March 15, 2011
FIRST JOE BIDEN, NOW THIS: California Democrat Fiona Ma wants to ban raves. “Why would someone want to make it illegal to hold a private party that features pre-recorded music and lasts over 3.5 hours?” Idiotic, and possibly unconstitutional (I worked with the ACLU on their successful lawsuit against New Orleans’ anti-rave prosecutions). But for a stroll down memory lane, here’s a piece on Joe Biden’s dumb RAVE Act.
THE INTOLERANCE of the avant-garde. “That helps to explain why the ideas of the avant garde have been the same for more than a century, and why, today, avant garde means defending the statist status quo.”
And that’s a good excuse for linking this piece.
LARRY RIBSTEIN ON INSIDER TRADING BY MEMBERS OF CONGRESS: “With all of the attention being given to insider trading by hedge funds and malfeasance by corporate executives, it’s worth reminding ourselves that the politicians who seek to impose discipline are themselves no angels. An important study published seven years ago revealed that U.S. senators were reaping returns from stock trading that strongly suggested they were trading on an informational advantage. Profits depended on their seniority, and therefore, presumably, power to influence legislation.”
INDEED: Normal Interest Rates Would Be A Disaster For U.S. Debt. “And that’s why the Federal Reserve is buying U.S. Treasuries. If they didn’t, the U.S. would have to pay higher interest rates on its debt, and we can’t afford to. None of this can go on forever.” Something that can’t go on forever, won’t.
AT AMAZON, it’s the big DVD sale.
A UNION-SKEPTIC CAUCUS growing within the California Democratic party.
HACKING INTO CARS wirelessly.
ILYA SOMIN on Democracy, Natural Disasters, and Political Ignorance. “The massive destruction and tragic loss of life in the recent earthquake in Japan will surely rekindle debates over how well democratic governments handle natural disaster. The good news is that democracies handle natural disasters much better than nondemocratic nations. On the other hand, the quality of democratic disaster policy is still negatively affected by widespread political ignorance.”
HACKING INTO CARS wirelessly.
REVIEWING THE REVIEWERS: A roundup of book reviews from all over.
DON SURBER: Hope. Change. Nixon.
RUSH LIMBAUGH: I wish Marco Rubio would run for President.
FEDS LAUNCH CIVIL RIGHTS INVESTIGATION into charges of anti-semitism at U.C. Santa Cruz.
RAND SIMBERG: Space Isn’t A Jobs Program.