Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Legislation Watch

2011: Texas Legislative Session
d
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Friday, May 27, 2011

Inflation Issues

Some light reading:
http://www.economist.com/research/Economics/alphabetic.cfm?letter=I#inflation
http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/Inflation.html
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/27/us-usa-economy-idUSTRE7492P720110527
http://ideas.repec.org/a/fip/fedder/y1994iqivp27-39.html
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Friday, May 20, 2011

The self-defense "gag"

It's funny, the way some things seem to disappear off the web.

It's also funny, how, with enough detective work, you find that they don't disappear all the way...

Such was the case this morning, when I attempted to find information about the (to my mind) "well-known" advice issued to the women of Illinois by the IL State Police (similar to our DPS here in Texas).




Resources:
d
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Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Eminent Domain Abuse

http://reason.com/blog/2011/03/01/why-progressives-should-suppor
http://reason.com/blog/2010/04/15/detailing-columbia-universitys
http://reason.com/blog/2010/06/24/new-yorks-highest-court-uphold
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Torture and the War on Terror

http://reason.com/blog/2011/05/04/rumsfeld-vs-panetta-on-the-val
http://reason.com/archives/2011/05/09/tortured-logic

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,460944,00.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/matthew-alexander

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/05/senate-intel-chair-torture-did-not-lead-to-bin-laden-in-any-way.php

http://reason.com/archives/2011/05/06/blowback
http://reason.com/archives/2011/05/10/end-the-war-on-terror
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Monday, May 9, 2011

Other Myths and Fallacies

Torture Works:
[alexander]



Jesus was a peacenik:
Al Qaeda was an existential threat:
x
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Economic Myths and Fallacies

First off, I have three books to recommend:

  1. Geoffrey E Wood (2002). "Fifty Economic Fallacies Exposed," Institute of Economic Affairs (UK).
  2. Hazlitt (1946). "Economics In One Lesson," [various publishers].
  3. Bastiat (1850). "The Law," [various publishers].


Reading List

Trade:

Corporate Income Tax:

Manufacturing:
Income Inequality, or "We're worse off than we were before":

The Laffer Curve, tax cuts, "paying for tax cuts," tax hikes, and federal revenue:

Whether tax "cuts" even truly exist:

Stimulus:

Monopoly & inflation-adjusted prices of goods:
Labor is fungible:

Capitalism, in general:
Robber Barons:

Railway Barons:

World War II (WWII) helped get (spend) us out of the Great Depression:

Is Social Security a Ponzi Scheme?

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Friday, May 6, 2011

The Myth of The Death of American Manufacturing


Matt Welch (2008:Dec.05). "U.S. Manufacturing Is Dead, Right?" Reason Magazine.
Far from dead, our manufacturing sector is the world's largest, with 5% of the world's population producing five times their share in industrial goods.
States like Alabama, with the second-largest per capita concentration of auto-related jobs, as well as South Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia and Mississippi, have been growing these high-wage jobs for a new generation. In the process, they have brought unprecedented opportunity to some of the nation's historically poorest regions.


Don Boudreaux (2009:Aug.12). "Manufacturing Error," Cafe Hayek.
Harold Meyerson’s argument that America no longer “makes things” is specious.  It’s true, as Mr. Meyerson says, that “Since 1987, manufacturing as a share of our gross domestic product has declined 30 percent.”

In fact, according to the 2009 Economic Report of the President, total manufacturing output in the U.S. – measured by an industrial-production index – hit an all-time high in 2007 (the latest full year for which data are available).*  In 2007, American manufacturing output was eight percent higher than it was in 2000, 69 percent higher than in 1990, 81 percent higher than in 1987, 184 percent higher than in 1980, and 213 percent higher than in 1967 – one of the years that Mr. Meyerson singles out as a glorious one when America “still made things.”



Don Boudreaux (2009:Apr.20). "The State of Manufacturing in the United States," Cafe Hayek.
The facts contradict those who insist that freer trade condemns high-wage countries, such as the United States, to suffer net losses of highly productive enterprises



Don Boudreaux (2007:Sep.15). "The State of Manufacturing in the U.S." Cafe Hayek.
I have never believed that making things is inherently better — inherently more likely to produce widespread prosperity, inherently more noble, inherently more meaningful — than is the supplying of services.  And until I notice a widespread pattern of parents hoping that their children grow up to become factory workers rather than to become doctors, lawyers, and bank presidents, I’ll continue to believe that, whether they know it or not, most Americans value jobs in the service sector pretty darn highly.



Primarily about trade, but addresses manufacturing; specifically, manufacturing jobs:
Don Boudreaux (2007:Nov.11). "Keeping Straight the Facts About Trade," Cafe Hayek.
Contrary to what Adrian Boutureira writes in "The hidden costs of free trade" (Op-ed, Nov. 5), the loss of manufacturing jobs in Massachusetts has nothing to do with the North American Free Trade Agreement. In the four years prior to the implementation of NAFTA (1990-1993), Massachusetts lost 80,000 manufacturing jobs, while in the 13 years since 1994, the loss has been 120,000.

The loss of manufacturing jobs is mainly due to technological progress. The long-term growth of manufacturing jobs in the United States came to a halt in 1969, and the decline started in 1979. While between 1993 and 2006 the number of manufacturing jobs in this country has declined by about 2.7 million, the index of industrial production has risen by 62 percent, and the value of manufacturing output in constant prices has increased by 54 percent.


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Thursday, May 5, 2011

Jared Loughner and the 2011 Tucson Shooting

Date: January 8, 2011 @ 10:10 am MST (UTC-7)

Name: 2011 Tucson Shooting
  • aka Tucson Safeway Shooting
  • aka Tucson Supermarket Shooting

Gunman: Jared Lee Loughner

Location: A Safeway supermarket in Casas Adobes, AZ (an unincorporated area north of Tucson)

Body Count: 6 dead, 14 wounded (13 by gunfire)

Victims:
Dead:
a
b
c
d
e
Wounded:
f
g
h
i
j
k


Original:
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:American_assassins
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Failed_assassins_of_United_States_presidents
  • http://chicagoboyz.net/archives/18954.html
  • http://washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/2011/01/instapundits-reynolds-wsj
  • http://reason.com/blog/2011/01/10/loughner-explanation-watch-bad
  • http://www.slate.com/id/2280616/pagenum/all/
  • http://reason.com/archives/2009/09/15/the-paranoid-center
  • http://reason.com/blog/2011/01/09/probably-influenced-by-that-ma
  • Jon Stewart (2011:Jan.10). "Daily Show: Oliver - Arizona Shootings Reaction," The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
  • http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-january-10-2011/arizona-shootings-reaction
  • Karl Denninger (2011:Jan.10). "Gotcha Sheriff Clarence 'Jackass' Dupnik," MarketTicker.
  • http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?singlepost=2350851
  • http://reason.com/blog/2011/01/11/cartoon-self-hatred-and-viciou
  • http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/10/AR2011011003685.html
  • http://www.doublex.com/blog/xxfactor/amy-and-randy-loughner-and-susan-klebold
  • http://www.slate.com/id/2280794?nav=wp
  • http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/2011/01/on-violent-metaphors.html
  • http://chicagoboyz.net/archives/19028.html
  • http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2011/01/never-waste-a-crisis.html
  • http://blogs.forbes.com/warrenmeyer/2011/01/11/never-waste-a-crisis/
  • http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/the-giffords-tragedy-is-the-media-partly-at-fault-20110110
  • http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703791904576075941558881006.html
  • http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703779704576073973345594508.html?mod=WSJ_newsreel_opinion
  • http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703791904576075733042225382.html?mod=WSJ_newsreel_opinion
  • The Jared Loughner Problem
  • Remedies exist short of locking up troubled people based on their personalities.
  • BY HOLMAN W. JENKINS, JR.
  • http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=12695
  • http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2011/01/11/more-guns-less-crime/the-case-for-arming-yourself
  • http://michellemalkin.com/2011/01/10/the-progressive-climate-of-hate-an-illustrated-primer-2000-2010/
  • http://www.binscorner.com/pages/d/death-threats-against-bush-at-protests-i.html
  • http://www.myfoxtwincities.com/dpp/news/Loose-Gun-Laws-the-Cause-of-AZ-Shooting-jan-11-2011
  • http://reason.com/archives/2011/01/12/the-lone-gunman-theory-of-legi
  • http://reason.com/blog/2011/01/12/heavy-metal-and-the-tucson-sho
  • http://reason.com/blog/2011/01/10/loughner-explanation-watch-bad
  • http://thehill.com/homenews/house/137393-speaker-boehner-says-no-to-new-gun-controls
  • http://www.slate.com/id/2280964
  • http://reason.com/blog/2011/01/12/la-times-loughners-ramblings-a
  • http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2011/01/12/galston
  • http://www.binscorner.com/pages/d/death-threats-against-bush-at-protests-i.html
  • http://michellemalkin.com/2011/01/10/the-progressive-climate-of-hate-an-illustrated-primer-2000-2010/
  • https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUu41vR7HV5Pdr1h8okYwkb4siZiV8xgLcsKk4lkcgkcUkek2GpksYNCwW8eG6QG2tnslcj1L0hco_dSNdweffs_4GhSMtcsOf-aTllXjhm02gOQ0ZKO3QrRLfU4JxFghYWdBwN7aVe6NR/s1600/thanks+for+blam+ing+the+black+guy.jpg
  • http://reason.com/blog/2011/01/10/father-of-slain-9-year-old-spe
  • http://reason.com/archives/2011/01/13/why-gun-control-still-wont-wor
  • http://reason.com/archives/2011/01/12/this-conversation-is-a-set-up
  • http://reason.com/archives/2011/01/11/just-your-typical-would-be
  • http://reason.com/blog/2011/01/11/reasontv-5-rules-for-coping-wi
  • http://reason.com/archives/2011/01/12/the-lone-gunman-theory-of-legi
  • http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/14/AR2011011403205.html



Update1:
  • http://reason.com/blog/2011/01/12/gun-owner-who-shows-restraint
  • http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-st-louis/tucson-shooting-victim-and-widower-speaks-to-nra-board


Update2:
  • http://www.npr.org/2011/01/14/132909487/fame-through-assassination-a-secret-service-study
  • http://blogs.plos.org/neuroanthropology/2011/01/09/jared-lee-loughner-is-mental-illness-the-explanation-for-what-he-did/
  • http://www.slate.com/id/2280619
  • http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/01/14/60minutes/main7246233.shtml
  • http://boingboing.net/2011/01/13/what-one-study-says.html
  • http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/09/gop-senator-rhetoric-need_n_806462.html
  • http://www.secretservice.gov/ntac/ntac_jfs.pdf
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Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Killing Bin Laden

http://crooksandliars.com/jon-perr/republicans-rush-rewrite-history-bush-and-bin-laden
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2011/05/03/crediting-the-proper-president/
http://reason.com/archives/2011/05/04/the-cost-of-getting-bin-laden
http://reason.com/blog/2011/05/05/about-the-osama-pictures-congr
http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/what-not-to-learn-from-bin-laden%E2%80%99s-killing/


This will probably turn out to not be true:
http://www.latina.com/lifestyle/news/navy-seal-son-mexican-immigrants-helped-kill-osama-bin-laden

Siobhan Gorman & Julian E. Barnes (2011:May 23). "Spy, Military Ties Aided bin Laden Raid," Wall Street Journal.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704083904576334160172068344.html
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704083904576334160172068344.html

http://volokh.com/2011/05/24/wsj-reports-on-the-lead-up-to-obl-raid/



Update1:
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