CSR: A Cloak for Crooks | Swaminathan S. Anklesaria Aiyar | Cato Institute: Commentary

CSR: A Cloak for Crooks | Swaminathan S. Anklesaria Aiyar | Cato Institute: Commentary: "If a company cheats its stakeholders, fiddles its accounts and ignores hazards, then it is grossly irresponsible whether or not it spends 2% of profits on some list of government-approved social activities."

"Raju was India's biggest self-confessed crook. Yet he was much celebrated for CSR and won several awards."

Mom guilty of disorderly conduct; berated TSA officers for daughter's Tenn. airport pat-down | Fox News

Mom guilty of disorderly conduct; berated TSA officers for daughter's Tenn. airport pat-down | Fox News: "A woman was found guilty Tuesday of disorderly conduct for berating security officers trying to pat down her teenage daughter and then refusing to submit to the procedure herself at a Tennessee airport."

"The prosecution said Abbott's behavior "prevented others from carrying out their lawful activities," which is part of the definition of disorderly conduct under state law. Abbott testified during the first day of the trial on Monday that she was not unruly but did yell at officers. She said she was "irritated, but not arguing." "

Ohio woman accused of breaking into home, cleaning it and leaving $75 bill pleads guilty | Fox News

Ohio woman accused of breaking into home, cleaning it and leaving $75 bill pleads guilty | Fox News: "The 53-year-old Warren told authorities that she was driving by the house and "wanted something to do." She broke in, washed some coffee cups, took out the trash, vacuumed and dusted inside the house. Then she left a bill written on a napkin that included her phone number.

Warren says that she owns a cleaning business and sometimes enters homes, cleans them and leaves a bill."

Scoring Romney & Obama's Disappointing Energy Debate | Jerry Taylor and Peter Van Doren | Cato Institute: Commentary

Scoring Romney & Obama's Disappointing Energy Debate | Jerry Taylor and Peter Van Doren | Cato Institute: Commentary: "While it's true that oil production on federal lands was down last year, that's largely due to the fallout from the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf. Even so, oil production on federal lands is 11 percent greater this year than it was during the last year of the Bush administration. Permitting is down under Obama, but it's not because the administration has been rejecting permit applications. Over the entire course of the Obama administration, 93 percent of all permit applications have been approved. During the entire course of the Bush administration, 75 percent were approved. The drop in applications to drill on federal land is mainly driven by the fact that shale oil and gas is primarily found on private and state lands, not federal lands, and that's where all the action is at present."

"While his campaign documents claim that finishing the Keystone Pipeline would create 100,000 jobs, the only independent analysis of job creation persuasively finds that the actual totals are 4,650 temporary jobs and 50 permanent ones."

Strategic Insolvency on Defense | Ted Galen Carpenter | Cato Institute: Commentary

Strategic Insolvency on Defense | Ted Galen Carpenter | Cato Institute: Commentary: "Is the program important enough, Romney asked, to borrow money from China to fund it?"

"No American should want the U.S. government to be in a position where it must defer to Beijing on an important issue merely because it is imprudent to annoy one's banker."

"Unfortunately, Romney does not apply his own standard to a crucial part of the federal budget: military spending. That is not a trivial matter, since military spending makes up some 20 percent of federal spending."

Romney's Economic Plan Has the Edge | Jeffrey A. Miron | Cato Institute: Commentary

Romney's Economic Plan Has the Edge | Jeffrey A. Miron | Cato Institute: Commentary: "Obama errs in believing that federal expenditure is mainly "investment." In reality, huge chunks — such as drug prohibition, the National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, NASA, earmarks, the Postal Service, Amtrak, foreign aid, agricultural subsidies, the Small Business Administration, along with bridges to nowhere, the Big Dig, and high-speed rail — are wasteful.

Romney makes a similar mistake for military spending. Many defense and national security activities, such as the ongoing war in Afghanistan, provision of national security for nations in Western Europe and other parts of the globe, not to mention unnecessary weapons systems, redundant military bases, and more, are difficult to justify."

"Both approaches, therefore, aim to "save Medicare," but in fundamentally different ways: The IPAB relies on government to decide what health care is valuable, while the voucher approach lets individuals make those choices."

Does Puerto Rico really want to become the 51st US state? - CSMonitor.com

Does Puerto Rico really want to become the 51st US state? - CSMonitor.com: "However, one third of the voters who answered the first question didn't bother answering the second question, meaning none of the options reached a majority."

Soak the Rich? - Henry Hazlitt - Mises Daily

Soak the Rich? - Henry Hazlitt - Mises Daily: "The legal requirement of time-and-a-half wage rates for overtime is based on the assumption that progressive incentives are necessary to get people to work longer and that progressive rewards are justified as the workload increases. But the present income tax is based on precisely the opposite principle of decreasing rewards for increasing work."

"The progressive income tax skims off precisely the funds most likely to go into new investment — into building the new tools and equipment that increase the productivity of the country and lift the living standards of the workers. It slows down the rate of economic progress."

After Obama win, say goodbye to neocons - CSMonitor.com

After Obama win, say goodbye to neocons - CSMonitor.com: "But while there will be fewer boots on the ground, that doesn't mean Obama doesn't have an aggressive foreign policy of his own. It's just of a different style. The president seems as fond of using drones to kill America's alleged enemies abroad as ever, for instance. Obama has ordered alleged Al Qaeda-style militants killed by the hundreds on his watch in Pakistan and Yemen.

This undeclared drone war probably won't abate, with reports from Washington that Obama officials have been working on ways to justify the killings as legal, even when they involve the assassination of American citizens. "

The Myth of "Surgical Strikes" on Iran | David Isenberg | Cato Institute: Commentary

The Myth of "Surgical Strikes" on Iran | David Isenberg | Cato Institute: Commentary: "between 3,500 and 5,500 people would be present at the time of the strikes, most of whom would be killed or injured"

"Iran has built its nuclear facilities in major urban centers making it impossible to carry out surgical strikes without killing large number of civilians."

"attacks at Isfahan and Natanz would release existing stocks of fluorine and fluorine compounds which would turn into hydrofluoric acid"
"these toxic plumes could kill virtually all life forms in their path."

"If we assume a conservative casualty rate of 5 to 20% among these populations, we can expect casualties in the range of 12,000-70,000 people."