Mitt Romney vs. Barack Obama: Hawk vs. Hawk | Benjamin H. Friedman | Cato Institute: Commentary

Mitt Romney vs. Barack Obama: Hawk vs. Hawk | Benjamin H. Friedman | Cato Institute: Commentary: "Obama, as Dick Cheney gleefully notes, has mostly continued the Bush administration's counterterrorism policies. That goes for National Security Agency surveillance (legalized with Senator Obama's vote); the Guantanamo Bay prison (congressional opposition killed his efforts to close it and end the military tribunals); the PATRIOT Act; the state secrets doctrine; unwillingness to prosecute anyone for killing prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan seemingly with unsanctioned interrogation methods; and more."

"drone strikes, which this administration has massively increased."

"On the Iraq War, Obama reminded us in the debate that he opposed the war and he withdrew U.S. troops from Iraq (on a schedule negotiated by the Bush administration)."

Why Do We Fear the Harmless While Irrationally Putting Ourselves in Harm's Way? | Patrick J. Michaels | Cato Institute: Commentary

Why Do We Fear the Harmless While Irrationally Putting Ourselves in Harm's Way? | Patrick J. Michaels | Cato Institute: Commentary: "It doesn't help that our science journals appear to be increasingly lax about peer review. Andrew Wakefield's completely fraudulent study—since withdrawn by The Lancet—claimed (with a remarkably small sample size) that thiomersal-containing vaccines for measles cause autism. In retrospect, it should never have seen the light of day, and the potential harm it has caused is yet unknown."

"Yet BPA is now blamed—via the most primitive associational analysis—for obesity, impotence, early puberty, and you-name-it. In fact, fat people do have more BPA in their blood, perhaps because they eat more, which is why they weigh more.

Here the story gets better. Many plants produce estrogen-like substances that do the same thing as BPA, only the amount ingested is orders of magnitude greater than BPA."

"R-22, a chlorofluorocarbon that will probably leak out, taking to the sky, with the very slight chance that it will be wafted upward by a thunderstorm so powerful that it penetrates the stratosphere, depositing it where catalyzes the destruction of springtime ozone, especially over Antarctica." "Which creates a greater risk—a few percent of increasing ultraviolet radiation (that is equivalent to moving from Washington DC to Richmond, Virginia) or removing (at least) 90% of your clothes and lying in the sun on purpose?"

Disappointing Debates | Michael D. Tanner | Cato Institute: Commentary

Disappointing Debates | Michael D. Tanner | Cato Institute: Commentary: "His decision to impose tariff penalties on Chinese tires may or may not have saved 1,000 jobs in the tire-manufacturing industry, as the president claims, but it also cost American consumers more than $1.1 billion in higher tire prices — Americans ended up paying more than $1 million for each tire-factory worker's job saved. Further, because Americans had to pay more for tires, they had less to spend on other goods and services, meaning fewer jobs in other industries. Studies suggest that on net, the president's tire protectionism actually resulted in a loss of more than 2,500 jobs. And if that wasn't bad enough, the Chinese retaliated by imposing penalties on U.S. chicken products, costing that industry at least $1 billion in sales. "

Unsafe at Any Blood Pressure - Christopher Westley - Mises Daily

Unsafe at Any Blood Pressure - Christopher Westley - Mises Daily: "new round of unintended consequences. Just three that come to mind are

an upward pressure on prices for all other hospital services to compensate hospitals for readmittance fines,
the outright rejection of patients that hospitals consider likely readmittance threats, and
increased tendencies to simply let patients die when healing them is likely to result in readmittance fines."