Clowns or Killers in al Qaeda | Gene Healy | Cato Institute: Commentary

Clowns or Killers in al Qaeda | Gene Healy | Cato Institute: Commentary: "The notion of 'savvy and sophisticated' Islamist supervillains is 'wildly off the mark,' Brookings' Daniel Byman and Christine Fair write in Atlantic magazine.

Many Afghan suicide bombers 'never even make it out of their training camp,' thanks to the jihadi tradition of the pre-martyrdom 'manly embrace': 'the pressure from these group hugs triggers the explosives in suicide vests.' (Theological question: Do you get fewer virgins for an own-goal?)

On the American home front, al Qaeda and its sympathizers often don't look much brighter:

• In 2006, an FBI sting rolled up the 'Liberty City Seven,' whose ringleader, the Washington Post reported, 'wanted to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago, which would then fall into a nearby prison, freeing Muslim prisoners who would become the core of his Moorish army. With them, he would establish his own country.' Sounds like a plan!
  
• 2007 saw the arrest of six Islamists who planned to launch an armed attack on New Jersey's Fort Dix, but were rounded up after they 'asked a store clerk to copy a video of them firing assault weapons and screaming about jihad.'
  
• In 2003, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed associate Iyman Faris went to jail on charges involving a plan to topple the Brooklyn Bridge by severing its suspension cables with a blowtorch.
  
• The 2005 Jose Padilla indictment revealed that some Islamic terrorists haven't quite mastered speaking in code. One of Padilla's co-defendants insisted he was just talking about sporting goods on the surveillance tapes, but couldn't explain why he'd asked his co-conspirator if he had enough 'soccer equipment' to 'launch an attack on the enemy.'"

Abolish State Income Taxes | Richard W. Rahn | Cato Institute: Commentary

Abolish State Income Taxes | Richard W. Rahn | Cato Institute: Commentary: "Why is it that some of the states with the biggest fiscal problems have the highest individual state income tax rates, such as New York and California, while some of the states with the least fiscal problems have no state income tax at all?"

"On average, schools, health and safety, roads, etc. are no better in states with income taxes than those without income taxes."

"the high-tax-rate states also, on average, have much higher per capita debt levels than states without income taxes."

"those states whose government workers are less than 40 percent unionized have median per capita state debt of $2,238, while those states where unionization rates are over 60 percent have a median per capita state debt of $6,380."

"Jurisdictions that imposed an income tax to generate a given level of revenue experienced lower rates of economic growth relative to jurisdictions that relied on alternative taxes to generate the same revenue."

"Income taxes, as contrasted with consumption (i.e., sales) taxes and modest property tax rates, are far more costly to administer and do far more economic damage (by discouraging work, saving and investment) and are far more intrusive on individual liberty. The states without state income taxes overall have had far better economic performance for most of the past several decades than have the income tax states — particularly those with high marginal taxes."

FOXNews.com - German court sentences priest to a 10-month suspended sentence for sexually abusing girls

FOXNews.com - German court sentences priest to a 10-month suspended sentence for sexually abusing girls: "A court in southern Germany has convicted a Roman Catholic priest of sexually abusing three underage girls and handed him a suspended sentence of 10 months.

The state court in Weiden said Tuesday it found the cleric guilty of unduly touching young girls below the waist during religious education classes in an elementary school in four cases last year.

The court also fined him €4,000 ($5,200)."

That doesn't sound like justice.

The Myth That Without Gov't Monopolies Or Subsidies, Discoveries Will Be Hidden By Secrets | Techdirt

The Myth That Without Gov't Monopolies Or Subsidies, Discoveries Will Be Hidden By Secrets | Techdirt: "contrary to what most people think, 'science' is not a public good, and that government-funded science actually tends to do more damage than good for global economies:"

Ron Paul: The People Can Handle The Truth About Unemployment and Inflation | Ron Paul .com

Ron Paul: The People Can Handle The Truth About Unemployment and Inflation | Ron Paul .com: "Ron Paul tells the Joint Economic Committee that the people can handle the truth about unemployment and inflation numbers. Real unemployment is at 22% and real inflation is at 6% according to the original method of measuring the CPI."

Stephen Colbert’s going on a hot, sweaty field trip | Grist

Stephen Colbert’s going on a hot, sweaty field trip | Grist: "Because all the posturing and gasbaggery about 'illegals taking American jobs' avoids one simple, difficult fact: 'Americans do not want to work in the fields. It's very difficult work that requires a lot of expertise, and the conditions are horrid! I was in the field on Tuesday with great workers out in Delano, Calif., in the San Joaquin Valley, and it was 110 degrees!' as Arturo Rodriguez, president of the UFW, told Stephen Colbert last night."

FOXNews.com - The Tea Party 'Not a Racist Organization,' Biden Says

FOXNews.com - The Tea Party 'Not a Racist Organization,' Biden Says: "Biden, speaking on ABC's 'This Week,' said both members and those on the 'periphery' of the movement have expressed 'racist views' which he described as 'really unfortunate.'

But despite the differences the administration has with Tea Partiers, Biden says he does not think that certain behavior by some members accurately portrays the movement as a whole.�

'I wouldn't characterize the Tea Party as racist,' Biden said. 'I don't believe, the president doesn't believe, that the Tea Party is a racist organization. I don't believe that -- very conservative, very different views on government and a whole lot of things, but it is not a racist organization.'�"

Buffett and Gates Are Wrong about What Schools Need | Andrew J. Coulson | Cato Institute: Commentary

Buffett and Gates Are Wrong about What Schools Need | Andrew J. Coulson | Cato Institute: Commentary: "education is perhaps the only field in which America's top performers don't enjoy tremendous financial success. This fact has profound implications for school quality, but Buffett is wrong about its cause.

Brilliant teachers aren't excluded from the billionaire's club due to any 'capriciousness' of our market economy. They're excluded because public schooling exists outside that economy. It has no prices set by supply and demand, no meaningful competition, little professional freedom for educators, negligible choice for consumers, and no system for rewarding successful education entrepreneurs with profits or of penalizing failure with losses."

"our schools have swallowed many trillions of additional dollars in recent decades without improvement. So even if they donate every penny to this cause, it might not do the slightest bit of good. Unless, that is, they recognize that the system itself is the problem — that monopolies cannot be tweaked into self-perpetuating excellence."

FOXNews.com - Feds to Monitor Obesity as White House Promotes Obama Cook to Senior Position

FOXNews.com - Feds to Monitor Obesity as White House Promotes Obama Cook to Senior Position: "Health and Human Services announced this week that under the stimulus law, health care providers must establish 'meaningful use' of electronic health records to qualify for federal subsidies or risk seeing their Medicare and Medicaid payments slashed. The electronic health records must include Americans' body mass index, or BMI, height and weight."

Climategate: Beyond Inquiry Panels | Swaminathan S. Anklesaria Aiyar | Cato Institute: Commentary

Climategate: Beyond Inquiry Panels | Swaminathan S. Anklesaria Aiyar | Cato Institute: Commentary: "t the end of it all, two things are clear. First, it is fantasy for crusaders to claim that catastrophic global warming is established science: the emails reveal doubts and caveats even among true believers in CRU. Second, the International Panel on Climate Change must disavow its claim made first in 2001 — based on the 'hockey stick' graph of Michael Mann using historical tree-ring data — that the world is warmer today than ever before.

Tree-ring data after 1961 indicate cooling, but actual temperatures show warming. So, Jones resorted to the 'trick' of splicing tree-ring data up to 1961 with actual temperatures after 1961, thus manufacturing a steadily-rising temperature trend in the 20th century. The splicing was dishonest and an insult to science. Yet, the independent inquiry did not condemn it, showing how easily crusader-inquirers forgive transgressions that promote their private agenda.

The IPCC needs to revert to the earlier scientific consensus — maintained from its first report in 1990 to 2001 — that the medieval warm period of 800-1,300 AD — well before fossil fuels were extracted — was warmer than it is today."