How about that. I wonder why ….
Archives for January 2013
If You Think Voters Are Clueless…
…you don’t know the half of it, concludes a new study in the American Political Science Review . Voter biases of various kinds, the study finds, impede their ability to evaluate the performance of politicians dispassionately. In a series of experiments, researchers from Yale, UC San Diego, and UC Berkeley found that voters “are… Read More
Senate: We Don’t Even Want to Know the Extent of Federal Eavesdropping
Last week the U.S. Senate overwhelmingly voted to continue Bush-era warrantless wiretapping when it reauthorized expiring provisions of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). No real surprise there. What’s particularly deranged about the vote is that when amendments were proposed that would simply have tried… Read More
The Survival Podcast Likes My Video
Thanks to the Survival Podcast for the nice reference and for highlighting my video about Rep. Cynthia Chase, the native Rhode Islander who wants to keep libertarians out of “our state” of New Hampshire. The mention comes around 58:00.
Value of Technical Degrees on the Rise
We’ve all heard the horror stories about students with college debt and who can’t find jobs to lift themselves out of that debt. But understandably, many people conclude that they still have to go through the traditional liberal-arts degree routine, because what else can they… Read More
Even When Business Insider Is Right, It’s Wrong
Joe Weisenthal, the political maven who thought Paul Ryan was on the verge of returning the gold standard to the United States , has an article pointing out various pork-barrel provisions that got inserted into the fiscal cliff bill. But at the end, he can’t help assuring us that the system really works just fine, in spite of all the things he just told… Read More
Fiscal Cliff Deal: An Overview
Scott Sumner breaks down the key points: Almost all of the press reports on the tax increases are wildly inaccurate. Tax rates will rise much more than advertised, and not just on those making over $400,000. Here are some problems with the agreement: 1. The tax code… Read More
Government and Inequality
USA Today , reporting on inequality in Washington, D.C., writes: “Part of the inequality comes from high-paid federal employees. Reuters notes: ‘Today there are 320,000 federal jobs in the Washington area. Within the District of Columbia, 55% pay $100,000 or more.’ But even more of the inequality… Read More
Best Restaurant in Town
Let’s Abandon the Constitution, Says Professor
No, not because it cedes too much power to the federal government. Surely that opinion would not be allowed in the New York Times. Anticipating objections, I agree with the Spoonerite criticism of the Constitution, but in what follows I am acting as a historian and a… Read More