YOU’RE GONNA NEED A BIGGER DIP NET: Fisherman Describes Reeling In 482-Pound Halibut.
Archive for 2014
July 15, 2014
WELL, IT’S AN UPPER-CLASS AFFECTATION, SO THAT MAKES SENSE: People Who Claim To Worry About Climate Change Use More Electricity.
Related: Greenpeace executive flies 250 miles to work: Environmental group campaigns to curb growth in air travel but defends paying a senior executive to commute 250 miles to work by plane. I’ll believe it’s a crisis when the people who keep telling me it’s a crisis start acting like it’s a crisis.
CULTURE OF CORRUPTION: VA Office Tried To Bug Congressional Investigators.
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, LEGAL EDUCATION EDITION: Law Schools And The Lost Generation.
MY USA TODAY COLUMN: Five Questions With Zephyr Teachout.
RICHARD EPSTEIN: When Government Violates Contracts.
IN THE MAIL: Game Changers: Energy on the Move.
Plus, today only at Amazon: Certified Refurbished Kindle Paperwhite (Current Generation), $85.00 (22% off).
TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 432.
WHAT WILL CROOKS DO WHEN CRIME DOESN’T PAY?
Obviously, the bright e-future is not going to make crime impossible. Some late-model cars do still get stolen. And of course, the Internet has created new ways to commit crimes like credit card theft.
The teenagers who used to boost cars, however, won’t simply segue into new forms of crime. Hacking a credit card network is a different skillset from hot-wiring a car; the person who does one can’t necessarily transition easily to the other. The low-skilled young men who choose crime as an alternative to low-wage work may simply find themselves with fewer viable ways to make money through criminal activity. So what happens to them? . . .
As I say, I’m all for it.
I still wonder, though: Are the criminals better or worse off?
I can tell the story either way. Crime doesn’t pay very well, but for teenagers who don’t see much in the way of life prospects, it may seem more enticing (and attractive to the opposite sex) than popping chicken tenders into the deep fry at Popeyes, even if the earnings are the same. Over the long run, of course, working steadily at a low-skilled job probably offers a better payoff than stealing cars until you get sent to jail. But since when have teenagers been good at considering the long run?
Reducing the monetary rewards of crime might force more teenagers to focus on jobs that deliver a steady, legal paycheck. That ultimately means fewer people struggling to find steady employment while dragging a felony conviction behind them.
Of course, that assumes that those at-risk teenagers will choose the fast-food job. They might just turn to another form of crime.
I’m planning to organize a Fight-Club-like cult that will absorb many and direct their energies toward productive tasks like destroying my enemies and ensuring world domination.
IT’S MOSTLY OTHER PEOPLE’S POVERTY THAT’S ROMANTIC: When Teachers Romanticize Their Students’ Poverty.
AT AMAZON it’s the Kindle Daily Deal.
MY USA TODAY COLUMN: Five Questions With Zephyr Teachout.
VIDEO: Jon Karl lists all the things going wrong with Obama’s foreign policy. It’s not a short list. “Good news, though. The White House’s action item on the above list is to … consider a principle.”
MICHAEL TOTTEN: Year Four: The Arab Spring Proved Everyone Wrong.
POINTS AND FIGURES: Who Is Right — Santelli or Liesman?
IMMIGRATION BECOMING A BLUE STATE ELECTION ISSUE: Charlie Baker faults Gov. Deval Patrick on immigration crisis.
WELL, WHAT’S THERE TO APPROVE OF, REALLY? WaPo Poll: Obama, Republicans face broad disapproval over handling of migrant crisis. Though in the Republicans’ case it’s fair to ask, Handling? What handling?
UPDATE: Leaked Intel Report: Violence in Central America Not Primary Factor in Border Crisis. Nope. Just a compassion-exploiting talking point.
WHAT LIBERTARIANISM ISN’T: “Journalists cover complex things they don’t know about all the time, and this is usually okay because they research and talk to people who do know about it. Unless, of course, they’re writing about libertarians. Not only do you not have to know the first thing about libertarianism to cover it for major news outlets, it is perfectly fine to a) decline to ask anybody who does know, b) make up your own version of what it is, and then c) lament the terribleness of this terrible philosophy or people you have just created. Cases in point: approximately every 10th article published by Salon, this piece by Damon Linker at The Week.”
SOME STATISTICS on marriage.
ERIC HOLDER’S REAL RECORD: “Animus” Toward His Critics.
A SHOCKING TURN OF EVENTS, AND THE NEW YORK TIMES IS ON IT! NY Times: Obama ‘weary of the obligations of the White House and less concerned about the appearance of partying.’
MICKEY KAUS: The Lie at Heart of “Immigration Reform” Exposed.
“Trust” is for Con Men: The reaction to the border chaos in Texas has accomplished one thing: It has exploded the lie at the heart of current “comprehensive” immigration reform plans. The basic structure of those plans is a swap of a) near-immediate legalization for b) increased border security in the future. The appealing idea is to let current illegals stay while taking the steps necessary to prevent further waves. The lie is the assumption that, once current illegals get their legalization, pro-immigrant activists in both parties will continue to support the second half of the bargain, the increased security.
The chaos in Texas shows they won’t. Faced with a clear hole in the border — with a wave of tens of thousands of undocumented Central Americans crossing into the U.S. in order to get in line for hearings years from now, which they likely won’t attend while they continue to live here – pro-reform activists have scrambled, not to show their border security bona fides, but to generate arguments and outbursts designed to let the new wave stay. As National Journal‘s Major Garrett reported, when President Obama, met with activists at the White House, he proposed that he make it clear that new migrants who don’t qualify for humanitarian relief won’t get in. The activists would have none of it.
Of course not.