Obama Reveals Himself as a Champion of the Surveillance State | Cato Institute

Obama Reveals Himself as a Champion of the Surveillance State | Cato Institute: "his review group on NSA surveillance ... [didn't] find any evidence that the program had been particularly useful. As the group’s report, issued in December, put it, information derived from bulk collection “was not essential to preventing attacks and could readily have been obtained in a timely manner” through other means."

MILLER: D.C. trial for one shotgun shell but no gun, not given NBC David Gregory offer - Washington Times

MILLER: D.C. trial for one shotgun shell but no gun, not given NBC David Gregory offer - Washington Times: "A hunter and gun owner, Mr. Witaschek has always kept his firearms at his sister’s house in Virginia. If convicted, he faces a year in jail and a $1,000 fine for having a single, inoperable shotgun shell in his home. "

Five overlooked costs of the NSA surveillance flap - CSMonitor.com

Five overlooked costs of the NSA surveillance flap - CSMonitor.com: "The NSA-Snowden episode has undermined US arguments on the international stage in favor of wide access to information via the Internet and against censorship and government surveillance of citizens, experts in the US say."

If Snowden didn't bring it to light someone else would have (especially given NSA's lax security standards) so including Snowden in the cause is like blaming the last straw for breaking the camel's back.

Desert Tech, Utah gunmaker, turns down $15 million deal with Pakistan | Fox News

Desert Tech, Utah gunmaker, turns down $15 million deal with Pakistan | Fox News: "Mike Davis, sales manager at Desert Tech, said the company was on a short list for a contract with Pakistan, but spurned the opportunity because of unrest in Pakistan and ethical concerns.

It was a difficult decision because of the amount of money involved, he said, and the sale of rifles to Pakistan would have been legal."

Putting Headlines Ahead of Science | Cato Institute

Putting Headlines Ahead of Science | Cato Institute: "So, if Science and Nature differentially publish flashy research, and publishing there will deliver funding and tenure, scientists are naturally going to gravitate toward trendy topics and produce flashy research. It’s a cycle that perpetuates Armageddon-style headlines that compel politicians to disburse more money, for more research, ultimately buying a beach house for the doom-saying scientists."

Pope Francis, Income Equality, Poverty, and Capitalism :: The Circle Bastiat

Pope Francis, Income Equality, Poverty, and Capitalism :: The Circle Bastiat: "The graph shows that the poorest 10 percent receive, on average, the same percentage of total income in more and less free market countries.  Where there is a major difference, however, is in the amount of income. If you are part of the poorest 10 percent, it does not matter if you live in one of the least free countries or in one of the freest countries, your group will receive about 2.6 % of total income. However, if you live in one of the less free countries you will have to live with 932USD per year, while doing so in a free country you will have an annual income of 10,556USD. This is not a minor detail."

"As can be seen, on average, the freest economies have a better distribution of income"

"The “poor” sector in the United States, for example, has an income above 60 % of the world’s population."

"the lower income quintiles are, on average, increasing their income at a higher pace than the higher quintiles"

"The freest countries on average have less child labor and lower levels of pollution. The third graph shows that the least free countries, on average, produce deforestation while freer, on average, are reforesting their lands."

"First, advocates of free market do not hold that such an economic system is perfect. But it does not help wealth creation and poverty reduction to promote market interventions with worse results than free markets because free markets are not perfect."

Is Justice Only for Those Defendants Who Can Pay for It? | Cato Institute

Is Justice Only for Those Defendants Who Can Pay for It? | Cato Institute: "Prosecutors “have a power that no other litigant has: the ability to reward witnesses for providing information or testimony by granting immunity from prosecution, dismissing or reducing charges, or informing sentencing judges of cooperation.”"

U.S. Prisons Thriving on Jim Crow Marijuana Arrests | Cato Institute

U.S. Prisons Thriving on Jim Crow Marijuana Arrests | Cato Institute: "“Between 2001 and 2010, there were over 8 million pot arrests in the U.S. That’s one bust every 37 seconds and hundreds of thousands ensnared in the criminal justice system … Marijuana use is roughly equal among blacks and whites, yet blacks are 3.73 times as likely to be arrested for marijuana possession”"

“For years, police in New York and Chicago have arrested more young blacks and Latinos for simple marijuana possession than for any other criminal offense whatsoever.”

"Such dramatic and widespread racial disparities are clearly not the product of personal prejudice or racism on the part of individual police officers. This is not a problem of training or supervision or rogue squads or bad apples."

No 'A' for Effort | Cato Institute

No 'A' for Effort | Cato Institute: "So many defenses of big government in the face of repeated failure seem to boil down this: Don’t judge us by results, judge us by our good intentions."

Oh, SNAP: Congress Hasn't Gone Far Enough to Cut Food Stamps | Cato Institute

Oh, SNAP: Congress Hasn't Gone Far Enough to Cut Food Stamps | Cato Institute: "as recently as 2000, this program cost just $18 billion annually and covered just 17 million Americans. Today, roughly 48 million Americans receive food stamps at a cost of almost $83 billion per year.

That amount already is scheduled to decline to roughly $73 billion by 2023, in part because increases included in the 2009 stimulus bill expired last month. The reported compromise would reduce this spending by an additional 1.3 percent, which still would leave total food-stamp spending at $72 billion in 2023. That’s roughly the same level as it was in 2011, not a year known as “the Great American Famine.”"

"the vast majority of the proposed cuts come from closing the so-called Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or LIHEAP, loophole, which allows states to increase benefits for individuals who also receive utilities assistance. Approximately 16 states have used this loophole to leverage nominal (as little as $1) LIHEAP payments into an increase in a household’s SNAP benefits. Reports indicate that the congressional compromise would require states to provide LIHEAP benefits of at least $20 in order to qualify for the exemption, preventing them from manipulating the system to increase federal payments."

"Currently, 44 states have waivers that allow them to forgo the program’s requirements that food-stamp participants work, or at least be actively looking for work. As a result, in 2011, the most recent year for which data is available, only 27.7 percent of nonelderly adult participants were employed, while another 28 percent reported that they were looking for work."

"In fact, the Government Accountability Office found that “the literature is inconclusive regarding whether SNAP alleviates hunger and malnutrition for low-income households.” Similarly, a study for the U.S. Department of Agriculture found for nearly all vitamins, minerals and macronutrients assessed, the dietary intake among SNAP participants was comparable to that of nonparticipants."