FEMA Is Asking Mississippi to Do the Impossible ... Or Lose Disaster Aid | Cato Institute

FEMA Is Asking Mississippi to Do the Impossible ... Or Lose Disaster Aid | Cato Institute: "For example, in its most recent compendium on climate change the United Nations uses 107 different versions, all of which predict slightly different futures and none of which have been correct about the climate of the past two decades.

In those last two decades, according to the global satellite-sensed temperature record environmentalists used to love, there has been no net global surface warming whatsoever. Is it realistic to think we could use these same models to reliably predict how many tornados will hit Mississippi in 2050?

It simply can’t be done. Not only have these models failed to accurately predict global temperatures, but tornadoes are too small to be captured by them."

Real Progressives Should Support Indiana's Law | Cato Institute

Real Progressives Should Support Indiana's Law | Cato Institute: "would you want Unitarians to work the audio equipment at a Southern Baptist revival? Would you force a Jewish printer to produce anti-Semitic flyers? Would you require Muslim butchers to serve pork ribs?"



"We’re all born free and equal under the law. That means that we may associate with anyone who wishes to associate with us, and also to decline to associate. While governments must treat everyone equally, individuals should be able to make their own decisions on whom to do business with and how — on religious grounds or otherwise. Those who disagree with those choices can take their custom elsewhere and encourage others to do the same."



"gay photographers shouldn’t be forced to work fundamentalist celebrations, blacks shouldn’t be forced to work KKK rallies, and environmentalists shouldn’t be forced to work job fairs in logging communities. This isn’t the Jim Crow South; there are plenty of wedding vendors who would be willing to do business regardless of sexual orientation, and no state is enforcing segregation laws."

Earth Hour Celebrates Ignorance | Cato Institute

Earth Hour Celebrates Ignorance | Cato Institute: "I abhor Earth Hour. Abundant, cheap electricity has been the greatest source of human liberation in the 20th century. Every material social advance in the 20th century depended on the proliferation of inexpensive and reliable electricity.

Giving women the freedom to work outside the home depended on the availability of electrical appliances that free up time from domestic chores. Getting children out of menial labour and into schools depended on the same thing, as well as on the ability to provide safe indoor lighting for reading.

“
Its ideas would send the West back 100 years and keep poor nations impoverished and wretched.”
Development and provision of modern health care without electricity is absolutely impossible. The expansion of our food supply, and the promotion of hygiene and nutrition, depended on being able to irrigate fields, cook and refrigerate foods, and have a steady indoor supply of safe hot water.

Many of the world’s poor suffer brutal environmental conditions in their own homes because of the necessity of cooking over indoor fires that burn twigs and dung. This causes local deforestation and the proliferation of smoke- and parasite-related lung diseases."

Has Freedom of Association Become a Crime? | Cato Institute

Has Freedom of Association Become a Crime? | Cato Institute: "No one likes to feel the sting of discrimination, of rejection. But neither do we want to lose our right to choose our own associations, to be forced into associations we’d rather not be in. But to choose just is to discriminate. Indeed, we think of a “discriminating” person as one who chooses wisely. Notice, however, that such a person has his own reasons for so choosing—they’re not imposed on him by others. And that’s pretty much the way the common law struck the balance when it held that, absent the exceptions just noted, the often complex and always subjective reasons for choosing whether or not to associate with another were your business and yours alone. It was not the business of government to second-guess you, to try to discern the “real” reason why you chose to discriminate as you did."

Man who committed no crime serves 900 days in jail; he's to testify in Oregon murder case | Fox News

Man who committed no crime serves 900 days in jail; he's to testify in Oregon murder case | Fox News: "The 59-year-old man has been incarcerated at the Washington County Jail for 897 days, or just shy of two and half years. His bail was set at $500,000.

Prosecutors say Vasquez-Hernandez's testimony is essential to their case, and he probably wouldn't show up to court if released."

The Export-Import Bank's Hidden Tax on America's Companies | Cato Institute

The Export-Import Bank's Hidden Tax on America's Companies | Cato Institute: "Despite the Bank’s claims that it primarily serves small and medium enterprises and that it provides financing for transactions that the private sector won’t service, in 2013 about 75 percent of Ex-Im largesse was dispensed to the benefit of ten large, creditworthy companies"



"Ex-Im’s transactions benefit two parties: the U.S. exporter and the foreign customer. And, accordingly, those transactions tax two sets of parties: the U.S. competitors of the lucky U.S. exporter (the intra-industry cost) and the U.S. competitors of the lucky foreign customer (the downstream industry cost)."

Watchdog.Org: Heavy-Handed Police Bring ‘Minority Report’ to Life | The Federalist Papers

Watchdog.Org: Heavy-Handed Police Bring ‘Minority Report’ to Life | The Federalist Papers: " In 2013, a college student named Monica Jones was arrested for the crime of “manifesting an intent to commit or solicit an act of prostitution,” which can mean up to six months in jail.

MANIFEST DESTINY: Once someone is suspected of being a sex worker, anything that person does can be construed as “manifesting an intent” to commit prostitution. Even asking a police officer to identify himself as a police officer is grounds for an arrest.

She was arrested after an undercover cop offered to give her a ride, then propositioned her for sex and refused to let her leave the vehicle when she declined, according to court documents.

She then asked if the cop was a cop — probably because she was trying to determine if she was being set-up or if she was being kidnapped — which is grounds for an arrest because inquiring “whether a potential patron, procurer or prostitute is a police officer or searches for articles that would identify a police officer” counts as manifestating an intent to commit prostitution, under Phoenix law."

Officials: Houston clears backlog of 6,600 untested rape kits, hundreds of matches in database | Fox News

Officials: Houston clears backlog of 6,600 untested rape kits, hundreds of matches in database | Fox News: "the city launched an effort in 2013 to test 6,663 rape kits — some of which dated back nearly three decades"



"More than 12,000 kits went untested for years in Memphis, Tennessee, which is facing a lawsuit from rape victims as it tries to test the kits. In Detroit, prosecutors discovered more than 11,000 rape kits in an abandoned police warehouse in 2009, and Cleveland prosecutors have sent their entire 4,700-kit backlog for testing."



Waiting that long is unbelievable, a travesty of injustice, and gross misconduct!

Rand Paul: Republicans should be a party of “second chances” | Rare

Rand Paul: Republicans should be a party of “second chances” | Rare: "“Many of us are Christians, we believe in a second chance in our religion. Anybody here who’s not a sinner, raise their hand,” he said.

“We believe in redemption should the law allow people a second chance. I think if we’ll be more of a compassionate party who believes in that and believes that people in poverty needs a second chance, maybe we can do something for Detroit.”

“[S]how that we do care about people who are poor, who live in bad circumstances,” he added."

Detroit dad saves a whole neighborhood | Rare

Detroit dad saves a whole neighborhood | Rare: "The 50-year-old born-and-bred Detroiter has turned his block into a safe place for kids to have fun and parents to relax. In the lot next to his house, Davis has set up a place to work out, a swing set for kids to play on, and a homemade movie screen for families to watch movies at night.

In a field across the street, Davis built a go-kart track for kids where he also teaches them how to fix go-karts and mini bikes."



"The father of two wasn’t always a do-gooder. When he was younger, Davis was arrested several times on theft charges. He has since turned his life around and has even received a certificate of appreciation from his church."