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Thursday, April 08, 2010
Sheriff wants inmates to pedal for TV rights | Green Tech - CNET News
Sheriff wants inmates to pedal for TV rights | Green Tech - CNET News: "Arpaio installed an energy-generating stationary bike (PDF) attached to a TV when he found that 50 percent of the inmates were overweight, many morbidly so. As long as an inmate is pedaling, the bike will produce 12 volts of energy--just enough to power a 19-inch tube TV. But if an inmate stops pedaling at a moderate speed, the TV shuts off."
Wednesday, April 07, 2010
Court: FCC has no power to regulate Net neutrality | Politics and Law - CNET News
Court: FCC has no power to regulate Net neutrality | Politics and Law - CNET News: "The Federal Communications Commission does not have the legal authority to slap Net neutrality regulations on Internet providers, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday."
This is a win for the Internet. Federal regulation of the Internet might look good at first but it will almost certainly morph into something bad.
This is a win for the Internet. Federal regulation of the Internet might look good at first but it will almost certainly morph into something bad.
FOXNews.com - Federal Government Jobs Far Outpace Private Sector Counterparts in Pay, Benefits
FOXNews.com - Federal Government Jobs Far Outpace Private Sector Counterparts in Pay, Benefits: "According to information from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, federal jobs outpay their private sector counterparts 83 percent of the time."
Monday, April 05, 2010
Learning from What Works | Richard W. Rahn | Cato Institute: Commentary
Learning from What Works | Richard W. Rahn | Cato Institute: Commentary: "Economists, political scientists, reporters and pundits spend too much of their time looking at dysfunctional societies and trying to explain why there are poverty, joblessness and hopelessness. In many ways, Haiti is easy to explain - no rule of law and 200 years of corrupt and incompetent governments. Switzerland is the polar opposite. It has almost no corruption and has the rule of law with honest, competent judges and government administrators. The question should be, 'What can we learn from the Switzerlands of the world about how to do things right' rather than, 'What is wrong with the Haitis of the world?' Switzerland manages to run a smaller government as a share of gross domestic product than the United States and most other countries while providing a higher level of service, security, prosperity and freedom. How does it do that?"
"Health care insurance is subsidized, and everyone has access regardless of income, but there is no 'public option.'"
"In the U.S., roughly two-thirds of government is at the federal level, and one third is at the state and local level. Switzerland is just the opposite, with roughly two-thirds of government being at the state (canton) and local level."
"Health care insurance is subsidized, and everyone has access regardless of income, but there is no 'public option.'"
"In the U.S., roughly two-thirds of government is at the federal level, and one third is at the state and local level. Switzerland is just the opposite, with roughly two-thirds of government being at the state (canton) and local level."
Get Rid of Vague Laws | Timothy Sandefur | Cato Institute: Commentary
Get Rid of Vague Laws | Timothy Sandefur | Cato Institute: Commentary: "There's probably nothing more dangerous to individual rights than vaguely written laws. They give prosecutors and judges undue power to decide whether or not to punish conduct that people did not know was illegal at the time. Vagueness turns the law into a sword dangling over citizens' heads — and because government officials can choose when and how to enforce their own interpretations of the law, vagueness gives them power to make their decisions from unfair or discriminatory motives."
"Last year Justice Antonin Scalia pointed out that if taken literally the honest services law would make it a crime to call in sick to work and go to a ball game instead. Other federal courts have tried to improvise: In 2003 a team of seven judges wrote a long decision patching together a complicated test for determining whether a person is in violation. But six judges on that same court dissented. How can average Americans be expected to understand the law if even federal appellate judges are divided on its meaning?"
"Last year Justice Antonin Scalia pointed out that if taken literally the honest services law would make it a crime to call in sick to work and go to a ball game instead. Other federal courts have tried to improvise: In 2003 a team of seven judges wrote a long decision patching together a complicated test for determining whether a person is in violation. But six judges on that same court dissented. How can average Americans be expected to understand the law if even federal appellate judges are divided on its meaning?"
FOXNews.com - GOP: End Public Lifeline for Large Financial Institutions
FOXNews.com - GOP: End Public Lifeline for Large Financial Institutions: "End the public lifeline for large financial institutions, Republicans are demanding as they push back against Democratic efforts to set new rules for the financial industry."
Maybe the Republicans shouldn't have started the bailouts if they didn't what the Democrats to continue them.
Maybe the Republicans shouldn't have started the bailouts if they didn't what the Democrats to continue them.
Friday, April 02, 2010
Report: More Than 70 Million Doses of H1N1 Vaccine May Have to Be Discarded - H1N1 - FOXNews.com
Report: More Than 70 Million Doses of H1N1 Vaccine May Have to Be Discarded - H1N1 - FOXNews.com: "According to a report in the Washington Post, less than half of the 229 million doses of the vaccine the government bought to fight the virus have been administered, which leaves an estimated 71.5 million doses that will have to be discarded if they are not used before they expire.
Still, government officials said they are “satisfied with the effort.”"
Only the government would be satisfied with 31% waste.
Still, government officials said they are “satisfied with the effort.”"
Only the government would be satisfied with 31% waste.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
From the Nanny State to the Bully State | Patrick Basham | Cato Institute: Commentary
From the Nanny State to the Bully State | Patrick Basham | Cato Institute: Commentary: "Providing health information has not failed. What has failed is the state's expensive attempt to instill fear in the minds of its citizens about many of their dietary and recreational choices. Serious health warnings are diluted when consumers are deluged by 'warnings' about every imaginable item, ingredient, and eventuality. There is already evidence that consumers are confused by warning labels, for example. Clearly, most of these labels should come with their own warning: 'Caution: Bureaucrats at Work'.
Prevention has failed to ward off lifestyle illnesses for the fundamental reason that such illnesses are multifactoral and, therefore, it is clinically impossible to identify the sole cause of a disease. Consider, for instance, the multiplicity of risk factors for both lung cancer and heart disease-thirty for the former and over three hundred for the latter."
"The standards of scientific evidence required to justify public health interventions are far, far higher than those employed by policymakers. Evidence-light, photo-op policymaking often makes for good media coverage and, at times, good politicking, but it rarely makes for good public health."
Prevention has failed to ward off lifestyle illnesses for the fundamental reason that such illnesses are multifactoral and, therefore, it is clinically impossible to identify the sole cause of a disease. Consider, for instance, the multiplicity of risk factors for both lung cancer and heart disease-thirty for the former and over three hundred for the latter."
"The standards of scientific evidence required to justify public health interventions are far, far higher than those employed by policymakers. Evidence-light, photo-op policymaking often makes for good media coverage and, at times, good politicking, but it rarely makes for good public health."
The Rich Can't Pay for ObamaCare | Alan Reynolds | Cato Institute: Commentary
The Rich Can't Pay for ObamaCare | Alan Reynolds | Cato Institute: Commentary: "From past experience, these are just a few of the ways that taxpayers will react to the Obama administration's tax plans:
* Professionals and companies who currently file under the individual income tax as partnerships, LLCs or Subchapter S corporations would form C-corporations to shelter income, because the corporate tax rate would then be lower with fewer arbitrary limits on deductions for costs of earning income.
* Investors who jumped into dividend-paying stocks after 2003 when the tax rate fell to 15% would dump many of those shares in favor of tax-free municipal bonds if the dividend tax went up to 23.8% as planned.
* Faced with a 23.8% capital gains tax, high-income investors would avoid realizing gains in taxable accounts unless they had offsetting losses.
* Faced with a rapid phase-out of deductions and exemptions for reported income above $250,000, any two-earner family in a high-tax state could keep their income below that pain threshold by increasing 401(k) contributions, switching investments into tax-free bond funds, and avoiding the realization of capital gains.
* Faced with numerous tax penalties on added income in general, many two-earner couples would become one-earner couples, early retirement would become far more popular, executives would substitute perks for taxable paychecks, physicians would play more golf, etc.
In short, the evidence is clear that when marginal tax rates go up, the amount of reported incomes goes down."
"If an accurate ETI estimate for the highest incomes is closer to 1.0 than 0.5, as such studies suggest, the administration's intended tax hikes on high-income families will raise virtually no revenue at all. Yet the higher tax rates will harm economic growth through reduced labor effort, thwarted entrepreneurship, and diminished investments in physical and human capital. And that, in turn, means a smaller tax base and less revenue in the future."
* Professionals and companies who currently file under the individual income tax as partnerships, LLCs or Subchapter S corporations would form C-corporations to shelter income, because the corporate tax rate would then be lower with fewer arbitrary limits on deductions for costs of earning income.
* Investors who jumped into dividend-paying stocks after 2003 when the tax rate fell to 15% would dump many of those shares in favor of tax-free municipal bonds if the dividend tax went up to 23.8% as planned.
* Faced with a 23.8% capital gains tax, high-income investors would avoid realizing gains in taxable accounts unless they had offsetting losses.
* Faced with a rapid phase-out of deductions and exemptions for reported income above $250,000, any two-earner family in a high-tax state could keep their income below that pain threshold by increasing 401(k) contributions, switching investments into tax-free bond funds, and avoiding the realization of capital gains.
* Faced with numerous tax penalties on added income in general, many two-earner couples would become one-earner couples, early retirement would become far more popular, executives would substitute perks for taxable paychecks, physicians would play more golf, etc.
In short, the evidence is clear that when marginal tax rates go up, the amount of reported incomes goes down."
"If an accurate ETI estimate for the highest incomes is closer to 1.0 than 0.5, as such studies suggest, the administration's intended tax hikes on high-income families will raise virtually no revenue at all. Yet the higher tax rates will harm economic growth through reduced labor effort, thwarted entrepreneurship, and diminished investments in physical and human capital. And that, in turn, means a smaller tax base and less revenue in the future."
South Korea Needs Better Defense | Doug Bandow | Cato Institute: Commentary
South Korea Needs Better Defense | Doug Bandow | Cato Institute: Commentary: "As long as 27,000 American personnel remain on station in the ROK, the South is not doing enough militarily."
"Yet the South is capable of defending itself. Over the last 60 years it has been transformed from an authoritarian wreck into a prosperous democratic leader internationally. The ROK's economy ranks 13th in the world. South Korea's GDP is roughly 40 times that of the North. Should it desire to do so, Seoul could spend more than the entire North Korean GDP on defense alone."
"Yet the South is capable of defending itself. Over the last 60 years it has been transformed from an authoritarian wreck into a prosperous democratic leader internationally. The ROK's economy ranks 13th in the world. South Korea's GDP is roughly 40 times that of the North. Should it desire to do so, Seoul could spend more than the entire North Korean GDP on defense alone."
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