A "Winn" for Education and Freedom of Conscience | Andrew J. Coulson | Cato Institute: Commentary

A "Winn" for Education and Freedom of Conscience | Andrew J. Coulson | Cato Institute: Commentary: "In the generations since, we have fought over school prayer, sex education and the teaching of everything from human origins to multiplication tables. The reason we have been plagued by these public school wars is that we have compelled all taxpayers to support a single official organ of education. It is impossible for such a monolithic system to reflect the diversity of values of our pluralistic society. In our attempt to build unity we have instead compelled conformity, which has, in turn, fomented conflict."

Congress Has Become the Least Dangerous Branch | Gene Healy | Cato Institute: Commentary

Congress Has Become the Least Dangerous Branch | Gene Healy | Cato Institute: Commentary: "constitutional scholar Charles Black once commented, 'My classes think I am trying to be funny when I say that, by simple majorities,' Congress could shrink the White House staff to one secretary, and that, with a two-thirds vote, 'Congress could put the White House up at auction.' (I sometimes find myself wishing they would.)

But Professor Black wasn't trying to be funny: it's in Congress' power to do that. And if Congress can sell the White House, surely it can defund an illegal war and rein in a runaway bureaucracy.

If they don't, it's because they like the current system. And why wouldn't they? It lets them take credit for passing high-minded, vaguely worded statutes, and take it again by railing against the bureaucracy when it imposes costs in the course of deciding what those statutes mean.

But it's our fault as well. In the shell game of modern American governance, we've let ourselves become easy marks. Unless and until voters wise up and demand accountability, Congress will continue to take our money and shirk its duty."

Tax Inequity | Richard W. Rahn | Cato Institute: Commentary

Tax Inequity | Richard W. Rahn | Cato Institute: Commentary: "But for those who think a progressive system is equitable, please explain the equity in taxing one person at a higher rate on each extra hour he or she works to make life better for his family while taxing the less responsible and less industrious person at a lower rate."

The Tyranny of Government Courts and Prisons - Murray N. Rothbard - Mises Daily

The Tyranny of Government Courts and Prisons - Murray N. Rothbard - Mises Daily: "Even the accused criminal or tortfeasor should not be forced to attend his own trial, since he has not yet been convicted. If he is indeed — according to the excellent and libertarian principle of Anglo-Saxon law — innocent until proven guilty, then the courts have no right to compel the defendant to attend his trial. For remember, the only exemption to the Thirteenth Amendment's prohibition of involuntary servitude is 'except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted.' An accused party has not yet been convicted."

"Instead of incarcerating, say, a man who had robbed a farmer in the district, the criminal was coercively indentured out to the farmer — in effect, 'enslaved' for a term — there to work for the farmer until his debt was repaid. Indeed, during the Middle Ages, restitution to the victim was the dominant concept of punishment. Only as the State grew more powerful did the governmental authorities — the kings and the barons — encroach more and more into the compensation process, increasingly confiscating more of the criminal's property for themselves and neglecting the hapless victim. And as the emphasis shifted from restitution to punishment for abstract crimes 'committed against the State,' the punishments exacted by the State upon the wrongdoer became more severe.

Guerrilla Hoarding - Wendy McElroy - Mises Daily

Guerrilla Hoarding - Wendy McElroy - Mises Daily: "in 1933 when President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 6102, ostensibly as a measure to combat the Great Depression. The order commanded the American people (with a few exceptions) to relinquish all but a still-permitted $100 worth of gold coins, bullion, and certificates to the Federal Reserve in exchange for a payment of $20.67 per troy ounce. Less than a year later, the government raised the trade rate to $35 per troy ounce. Thus, the government reaped huge profits at the expense of private investors and savers — a.k.a. hoarders of gold."

The Green Jobs Myth | Jerry Taylor and Peter Van Doren | Cato Institute: Commentary

The Green Jobs Myth | Jerry Taylor and Peter Van Doren | Cato Institute: Commentary: "President Obama's own Energy Information Administration estimates, for instance, that for new facilities coming on-line in 2016, biomass will cost 34% more than electricity produced by combined cycle, natural gas-fired power plants; geothermal will cost 39% more; onshore wind will cost 80% more, offshore wind 2.3 times as much, thermal solar 3.1 times as much, and photovoltaic solar a whopping 4.8 times as much."

"Economist Gabriel Calzada examined green energy mandates in Spain and found that 2.2 jobs were lost for every green job that was created in that country."

"First, new government employees hired to oversee this green energy shift are counted as 'new jobs created.' Second, existing jobs are recategorized from brown to green if employers meet some bureaucratically dictated definitional shift to 'greenness,' and those jobs are misleadingly tallied as 'new jobs created.' Third, most new manufacturing jobs created to build the equipment necessary for new green power plants are assumed to come from U.S. manufacturers, a highly unlikely prospect given that most of the manufacturers at issue are overseas. Hence, the tallies of job creation from policies designed to promote green energy are about as reliable as Enron balance sheets."

Medicare CPR | Michael D. Tanner | Cato Institute: Commentary

Medicare CPR | Michael D. Tanner | Cato Institute: Commentary: "Will it mean that in the future seniors will have to pay more of their own money or settle for a plan with fewer benefits, as Democrats have charged? Quite probably.

But here's the dirty little secret: That is going to happen with or without Ryan's plan. Even if you accept the Obama administration's most rosy scenario, Medicare is facing unfunded liabilities in excess of $45 trillion. More objective estimates suggest that Medicare's shortfall could top $89 trillion. Medicare simply cannot continue to pay all the benefits that it has promised."

"But rather than have the government impose rationing from the top down, he shifts those decisions to individuals."

Business Success Is Easier | Neal McCluskey | Cato Institute: Commentary

Business Success Is Easier | Neal McCluskey | Cato Institute: Commentary: "There is a huge difference between running a business and running a school district, and it points to what is arguably public schooling's most crippling flaw: in business, you don't need public consensus to get things done. In something run by democratic government, you do."

" The collective is always an agglomeration of individuals, with their own needs, values, and goals. Trying to force all people into a single box, as a result, is a recipe for conflict, ending with either paralysis, domination by one group over all others, or lowest-common-denominator compromises that leave few people fuming but little improvement in the schools."

"Businesses, in contrast to school districts, deal with individual, free-thinking customers. They don't need to move the masses, they only need to satisfy relatively small groups. Their leaders don't need to be popular. Their products don't have to be acceptable to all. They just have to satisfy enough individuals to make a profit. And if they can't produce something that does that? They are held accountable: unlike public schools, which despite tough budgetary times are in no danger of going away, failed businesses cease to exist."

When Intervention Is Easy | Harvey Sapolsky and Benjamin H. Friedman | Cato Institute: Commentary

When Intervention Is Easy | Harvey Sapolsky and Benjamin H. Friedman | Cato Institute: Commentary: "cycle of U.S. military intervention since the end of the Cold War: Success brings hubris, hubris causes overreach and failure, and failure breeds caution - though not necessarily restraint. Once another cautious intervention seems to succeed, the cycle begins anew."

The Case for Frugality - Wendy McElroy - Mises Daily

The Case for Frugality - Wendy McElroy - Mises Daily: "my lifestyle changed dramatically due to a single realization: material possessions cost money; money is time; time is, in a literal sense, life. The foregoing sounds ludicrously obvious, but I had never before looked at my possessions as representing units of time taken from my life. If X cost $100 and I made $25 an hour, then X cost me four hours of life. Or, rather, it cost four hours plus whatever time was consumed by the transaction costs of making money, such as the time, unpleasantness, and expense of a commute. When I made that paradigm shift, I realized the cost of my possessions was not merely an amount of money but also and more importantly the amount of my life it took to earn them.

I looked at a pair of expensive shoes that I had worn only once because they were uncomfortable. The money to buy those shoes had cost three hours of my life, which cannot be replaced or reclaimed. Without a hint of morbidity, I wondered, When I confront death, how much would I give to gain back the hours I squandered on useless shoes?"

Are Lax U.S. Gun Laws Fueling Mexico's Drug Violence? | Ted Galen Carpenter | Cato Institute: Commentary

Are Lax U.S. Gun Laws Fueling Mexico's Drug Violence? | Ted Galen Carpenter | Cato Institute: Commentary: "Although some of the weapons the drug cartels use do have their origins in the United States, the sources are not sporting goods stores or gun shows. Many of those weapons come from military depots that the United States government helped fill for friendly Central American regimes during the Cold War. Washington was so concerned about Soviet penetration of that region during the 1980s that it sent shipment after shipment of high-powered weapons to the governments of such countries as El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala to use against left-wing insurgents. Records indicate that in addition to rifles, at least 300,000 grenades were sent to the region during the administrations of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. Many of those grenades found their way to the drug cartels through a lucrative black market. Tighter U.S. firearms laws have no relevance to that problem."

House prepares to vote on $6T spending cut plan - Yahoo! News

House prepares to vote on $6T spending cut plan - Yahoo! News: "expected to be voted on Friday, promises more than $6 trillion in spending cuts over the next decade compared with the budget that President Barack Obama offered in February, relying on stiff cuts to domestic agency accounts, food stamps and the Medicaid health care program for the poor and disabled."

So it would apparently cut about $600B per year of the $1.6T deficit. Cutting the deficit 37% is significant but still leaves us spending more than we have. Most politicians will call that draconian and yet will not offer up an alternative plan that is significant. Don't believe any politician who says he wants to cut the deficit if he doesn't have a significant plan to do so.

Spillionaires | Cranach: The Blog of Veith

Spillionaires | Cranach: The Blog of Veith: "companies with ties to parish insiders got lucrative contracts and then charged BP for every possible expense. The prime cleanup company submitted bills with little or no documentation. A subcontractor billed BP $15,400 per month to rent a generator that usually cost $1,500 a month. Another company charged BP more than a $1 million a month for land it had been renting for less than $1,700 a month. Assignments for individual fishermen also fell under the control of political leaders.

“This parish raped BP,” said Wayne Landry, chairman of the St. Bernard Parish Council"