Big Bird's Fuzzy Defenders March on Washington | Trevor Burrus | Cato Institute: Commentary

Big Bird's Fuzzy Defenders March on Washington | Trevor Burrus | Cato Institute: Commentary: "Big Bird, All Things Considered, or NOVA. Those things will almost assuredly continue to exist if federal funding, which is only 15% of public broadcasting's budget, is taken away."

"Nevertheless, if we cannot cut funding from something that doesn't even need federal funds to exist, then we are truly unprepared to meet the serious budget challenges that lie ahead."

"Each side has its sacred cows and, between the two, it seems that nearly all the federal government's budget is off-limits from serious cutting."

"Before the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, non-commercial broadcasting thrived. Because it took no federal money, National Educational Television was able to run hard-hitting documentaries that challenged the status quo with titles such as Who Invited US?, The Poor Pay More, Black Like Me and Inside North Vietnam."

"What would remain is a fully independent, non-commercial entity that depends on the generosity of people to keep going, which, save 15%, is essentially what we have now."

Drone-War Double-Think | Gene Healy | Cato Institute: Commentary

Drone-War Double-Think | Gene Healy | Cato Institute: Commentary: "as the death toll from drone warfare over Pakistan approaches 3,000, "the number of 'high-level' targets killed as a percentage of total casualties is extremely low — estimated at just 2 percent." "

"What's happening is that we're using the technology to target people we never would have bothered to capture."

The Coming Regulatory Tsunami | Richard W. Rahn | Cato Institute: Commentary

The Coming Regulatory Tsunami | Richard W. Rahn | Cato Institute: Commentary: "During the 13 quarters after the bottom of the recession Reagan inherited, the economy grew at an average annual rate of 5.7 percent. In the 13 quarters since the bottom of the recession Mr. Obama inherited, the economy has grown at just an average rate of 2.2 percent, or just a little more than a third of the Reagan recovery. Could it be that their different attitudes and actions toward regulatory burdens had anything to do with this difference in performance?"

Price Gouging Saves Lives in a Hurricane - David M. Brown - Mises Daily

Price Gouging Saves Lives in a Hurricane - David M. Brown - Mises Daily: "If we expect customers to be able to get what they need in an emergency, when demand zooms vendors must be allowed and encouraged to increase their prices. Supplies are then more likely to be sustained, and the people who most urgently need a particular good will more likely be able to get it. That is especially important during an emergency. Price gouging saves lives."

"If the price is kept at $4.39 a bag because the drugstore owner fears the wrath of State Attorney General Charlie Crist and the finger wagging of local news anchors, the first five people who want to buy ice might obtain the entire stock."

"Indeed, under this second scenario—the market scenario—vendors are scrambling to make ice available and to advertise that availability by whatever means available to them given the lack of power. Vendors who would have stayed home until power was generally restored might now go to heroic lengths to keep their stores open and make their surviving stocks available to consumers."

"Rationing of price-controlled ice would still maintain an artificially low price for ice, so the day after the storm hits there would still be no economic incentive for ice vendors to scramble to keep ice available given limited supplies that cannot be immediately replenished. And while it is true that rationing might prevent the person casually purchasing four bags of ice from obtaining all four of those bags (at least from one store with a particularly diligent clerk), the rationing would also prevent the person who desperately needs four bags of ice from getting it."

Mitt Romney vs. Barack Obama: Hawk vs. Hawk | Benjamin H. Friedman | Cato Institute: Commentary

Mitt Romney vs. Barack Obama: Hawk vs. Hawk | Benjamin H. Friedman | Cato Institute: Commentary: "Obama, as Dick Cheney gleefully notes, has mostly continued the Bush administration's counterterrorism policies. That goes for National Security Agency surveillance (legalized with Senator Obama's vote); the Guantanamo Bay prison (congressional opposition killed his efforts to close it and end the military tribunals); the PATRIOT Act; the state secrets doctrine; unwillingness to prosecute anyone for killing prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan seemingly with unsanctioned interrogation methods; and more."

"drone strikes, which this administration has massively increased."

"On the Iraq War, Obama reminded us in the debate that he opposed the war and he withdrew U.S. troops from Iraq (on a schedule negotiated by the Bush administration)."

Why Do We Fear the Harmless While Irrationally Putting Ourselves in Harm's Way? | Patrick J. Michaels | Cato Institute: Commentary

Why Do We Fear the Harmless While Irrationally Putting Ourselves in Harm's Way? | Patrick J. Michaels | Cato Institute: Commentary: "It doesn't help that our science journals appear to be increasingly lax about peer review. Andrew Wakefield's completely fraudulent study—since withdrawn by The Lancet—claimed (with a remarkably small sample size) that thiomersal-containing vaccines for measles cause autism. In retrospect, it should never have seen the light of day, and the potential harm it has caused is yet unknown."

"Yet BPA is now blamed—via the most primitive associational analysis—for obesity, impotence, early puberty, and you-name-it. In fact, fat people do have more BPA in their blood, perhaps because they eat more, which is why they weigh more.

Here the story gets better. Many plants produce estrogen-like substances that do the same thing as BPA, only the amount ingested is orders of magnitude greater than BPA."

"R-22, a chlorofluorocarbon that will probably leak out, taking to the sky, with the very slight chance that it will be wafted upward by a thunderstorm so powerful that it penetrates the stratosphere, depositing it where catalyzes the destruction of springtime ozone, especially over Antarctica." "Which creates a greater risk—a few percent of increasing ultraviolet radiation (that is equivalent to moving from Washington DC to Richmond, Virginia) or removing (at least) 90% of your clothes and lying in the sun on purpose?"

Disappointing Debates | Michael D. Tanner | Cato Institute: Commentary

Disappointing Debates | Michael D. Tanner | Cato Institute: Commentary: "His decision to impose tariff penalties on Chinese tires may or may not have saved 1,000 jobs in the tire-manufacturing industry, as the president claims, but it also cost American consumers more than $1.1 billion in higher tire prices — Americans ended up paying more than $1 million for each tire-factory worker's job saved. Further, because Americans had to pay more for tires, they had less to spend on other goods and services, meaning fewer jobs in other industries. Studies suggest that on net, the president's tire protectionism actually resulted in a loss of more than 2,500 jobs. And if that wasn't bad enough, the Chinese retaliated by imposing penalties on U.S. chicken products, costing that industry at least $1 billion in sales. "

Unsafe at Any Blood Pressure - Christopher Westley - Mises Daily

Unsafe at Any Blood Pressure - Christopher Westley - Mises Daily: "new round of unintended consequences. Just three that come to mind are

an upward pressure on prices for all other hospital services to compensate hospitals for readmittance fines,
the outright rejection of patients that hospitals consider likely readmittance threats, and
increased tendencies to simply let patients die when healing them is likely to result in readmittance fines."

Details of Dianne Feinstein's Upcoming Assault Weapons Ban Proposal Begin Leaking | The Truth About Guns

Details of Dianne Feinstein's Upcoming Assault Weapons Ban Proposal Begin Leaking | The Truth About Guns: "In short, while its scary, Senator Feinstein’s assault weapons ban proposal is probably going to be a wet squib in terms of gun control. However (and this is what I LOVE about this situation) the mere specter of an assault weapons ban will do more for “assault weapons” sales in the United States and ammunition sales than any other force known to man. Her efforts to ban guns will put them in the hands of more Americans than ever.
Dianne Feinstein: Firearms saleswoman extraordinaire."

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."