Yes, We Can Wait | Michael D. Tanner | Cato Institute: Commentary

Yes, We Can Wait | Michael D. Tanner | Cato Institute: Commentary: 'The genius of the American system is that we are a government of laws and not of men. That often makes for a messy and slow process. But it is far better than the alternative. That’s true even when a president believes “we can’t wait.”'

Seth's Blog: Making big decisions about money

Seth's Blog: Making big decisions about money: 'Here's one reason we mess up: Money is just a number.'

'Here's how to undo the self-marketing. Stop using numbers.

You can have the stereo if you give up going to Starbucks every workday for the next year and a half. Worth it?'

'Suddenly, you're not comparing "this is my dream," with a number that means very little. You're comparing one version of your dream with another version.'

Busybodies of the World, Unite! | Gene Healy | Cato Institute: Commentary

Busybodies of the World, Unite! | Gene Healy | Cato Institute: Commentary: "Obama's CDC head, who used to be Mayor Bloomberg's health adviser, declared in 2006 that "When anyone dies at an early age from a preventable cause in New York City, it's my fault." Now he cares about you on a national scale."

'via Blog this'

The War on the Working Class | Randal O'Toole | Cato Institute: Commentary

The War on the Working Class | Randal O'Toole | Cato Institute: Commentary: "Intentionally or not, the War on Sprawl is a war on the working class. To curb sprawl, planners use urban-growth boundaries and other limits on suburban development, making housing unaffordable for working-class families. To reduce driving, planners deliberately increase traffic congestion, limit parking, and put other restrictions on driving. This hits working-class commuters, whose jobs are less amenable to flex time, telecommuting, or relocation to suburban offices, the hardest."

"cities adopted zoning codes that often banned non-family residents, backyard livestock, in-home businesses, and other features found in working-class homes."

Columns - Newsroom - Ron Johnson, United States Senator for Wisconsin

Columns - Newsroom - Ron Johnson, United States Senator for Wisconsin: "Yet proposals in Congress, advocated by the White House, would give the federal government, namely the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), power to dictate cyber-

regulations to the private sector. Such regulations would create a maze of assessments, audits and standards that must be obeyed by companies deemed by DHS to be “covered critical infrastructure.”

I do not believe this is the right strategy because I have little faith in the ability of the federal government to be the leader on cybersecurity."

"Even DHS has been the victim of high-profile hackings. Yet businesses are now supposed to trust government regulators to tell them how to do their security better?"

"I questioned Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano on whether DHS had analyzed the cost of the proposed regulations. She wasn’t even willing to admit they were creating new regulations, much less analyze the costs."

"The federal bureaucracy simply cannot keep pace with technology. Cyberexperts have said it could take eight to 10 years for DHS to develop cyber-regulations. Ten years is a millennium in technological terms; 10 years ago, there was no iPad, no Wii, and most Americans had never heard of “the cloud.”

New cyber-regulations could even make us less secure. Forcing industry to focus on checklists and audits rather than creating innovative solutions to threats might only provide a false sense of security. The correct strategy will recognize that industry is already the leader on cybersecurity. It is in business’ best interest to keep their networks secure."

No More GOP Whining about Overregulation | Richard W. Rahn | Cato Institute: Commentary

No More GOP Whining about Overregulation | Richard W. Rahn | Cato Institute: Commentary: "We are used to various government agencies overreaching and then seeing members of Congress go on TV and complain about what the government agencies are doing. The fact is, Congress (both parties are guilty) has failed in its oversight responsibilities and continues to fund agencies that ignore both the Constitution and the law.

Republicans whine that they cannot control spending because they only control one half of Congress. But the plain fact is that the Constitution is very specific. Any spending bill must be passed by both houses of Congress and signed into law by the president. Setting aside for the moment the budget agreements that House Republicans, Senate Democrats and the president made about the overall level of spending and funding of the entitlements, there is still much House Republicans can do through the appropriations process to prevent many of the excesses of government.

For instance, there is nothing to prevent the House Republicans from refusing to fund the EPA’s desired budget until the agency puts procedures in place to guarantee the basic constitutional rights of all Americans, including independent judicial review, before any fines or criminal charges are levied. These same rules also should apply to the Securities and Exchange Commission (well-known for its incompetence and overreaching), the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and other agencies that have a record of abusing citizens."

"Many Republicans continue to vote for appropriations for international outfits such as the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, which has an anti-tax competition agenda and global minimum-tax agenda, and the International Monetary Fund, which indirectly helped fund the Greek bailout. Both organizations damage American interests. Members of Congress, please explain why U.S. taxpayers should have some of their hard-earned money spent to help the Greeks. The administration and members of Congress argue that no U.S. taxpayer money was directly used, but money is fungible. Just because it goes through several pockets does not mean that U.S. taxpayers did not contribute."

On the Watch for Religious Persecutors | Doug Bandow | Cato Institute: Commentary

On the Watch for Religious Persecutors | Doug Bandow | Cato Institute: Commentary: '"While members of all faiths are sometimes at risk somewhere, Christians are constantly victimized almost everywhere. And in many of these cases the threat is violence, imprisonment, and even death. Martyrdom apparently is more common today than during Roman times.

The California-based group Open Doors has released its latestWorld Watch List of the 50 worst persecutors of Christians around the globe. A Baker's Dozen are communist or former communist states, led by North Korea. An incredible 38 are Muslim, including several of Washington's allies. (Seven are both communist/former communist and Islamic, truly a toxic combination.) The other six are a potpourri — Hindu India, Buddhist Burma and Bhutan, conflict-ridden Colombia, and Eritrea and Ethiopia, which are both repressive and religiously divided."'

Obamacare Both Unnecessary And Improper | Trevor Burrus | Cato Institute: Commentary

Obamacare Both Unnecessary And Improper | Trevor Burrus | Cato Institute: Commentary: 'The power to force someone to give businesses money is incredibly attractive and dangerous. Rather than suffering the political liability of raising taxes, Congress can force citizens to cross-subsidize each other. This is precisely what Congress did here: It avoided the above-the-board taxation and clear budgeting in order to hide the true costs of the law.'

iPad 3 Resolution

An iPad 3 starts at $500. In order to get a normal monitor with that many pixels you need to spend $850!

The Seven Rules of Bureaucracy - Loyd S. Pettegrew - Mises Daily

The Seven Rules of Bureaucracy - Loyd S. Pettegrew - Mises Daily: 'US Census figures show that in 1964, the year this "war" began, the poverty rate was 15 percent and in 2010 it was 15.1 percent. Any fifth-grader can see that there hasn't been much progress on the poverty front, especially given the trillions of dollars spent since then. Not surprisingly, once started, most of these programs have never gone away and demand an ever-increasing amount of taxpayer dollars.'

'Unemployment data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (2012) do not include retirees reentering the workforce, new college graduates looking for a job, nondeployed military personnel, or people who have been out of work for five months or more. It is instructive that the Department of Labor's little-known measure of unemployment, U-6, is ignored by the president, Congress, and the media in favor of the rate presented monthly. The U-6 unemployment rate is currently 16 percent.'

'In the House of Representatives on June 25, 2007, Congressman Frank stated,

We have, I think, an excessive degree of concern right now about home ownership and its role in the economy. Obviously speculation is never a good thing. But those who argue that housing prices are now at the point of a bubble seem to me to be missing a very important point. Unlike previous examples we have had where substantial excessive inflation of prices later caused some problems, we are talking here about an entity, home ownership, homes, where there is not the degree of leverage that we have seen elsewhere. This is not the dot com situation.… Homes that are occupied may see an ebb and flow in the price at a certain percentage level but you're not going to see a collapse that you see when people talk about a bubble. So those of us on our committee in particular will continue to push toward home ownership.'

'Send all newly elected officials to the state capitol or Washington with the specific goal to reduce legislation. America's bureaucracies have forgotten that resources are scarce, and most legislation builds bigger government and demands more tax dollars.'