The Urgency of It All

Back when there was all that big argument about the efficacy of stimulus spending to mitigate the effects of a recession one argument is that we have to spend the money fairly quickly, at least by Washington DC standards. Otherwise there is the likelihood that the spending will occur when the recession is already over. I've also noted ...

Does the FCC Get A SWAT Team?

You may not know it, but if you have a wireless router, a cordless phone, remote car-door opener, baby monitor or cell phone in your house, the FCC claims the right to enter your home without a warrant at any time of the day or night in order to inspect it. Neat, huh? There you are putting your baby to ...

Rummaging Through Underage Girls’ Panties

Apparently, the Supreme Court is leaning towards letting school administrators do just that. The case in question is a about a girl who was strip searched by school officials when she was 13 years old in eighth grade. The school officials were acting on a tip from another girl who had been caught with prescription strength ibuprofen. ...

Research Grants: We Need Yet More PhD’s

Recently-minted PhD Thoreau discusses the difference between research grants offered by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and those backed by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) thusly: NSF wants to see more Americans in grad school, because they believe that the only way to maintain America’s competitive edge is to continue to over-produce Ph.D.’s. If I do a research project with ...

Snow In DC Brings Jokes, Questions

WaPo federal beat reporter Ed O'Keefe helpfully notes that, Washington, D.C.-area federal offices will operate today under "liberal leave" or "unscheduled leave" and delayed arrival status, meaning employees who cannot make it to work can request off, or should otherwise arrive to work no more than two hours later than normal, according to the Office of Personnel Management. In addition to perennially ...

Alexandria Sex Shop Revenge for Zoning Controls

Despite my being local and getting the Sunday Washington Post delivered to my driveway, I just encountered this story about an Alexandria shop owner's renting his space to a sex shop to spit city planners on memeorandum. [caption id="attachment_32396" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Le Tache, at 210 King St. in Old Town Alexandria, has "caused a lot of buzz" with its racy displays ...

The Lies of Henry Paulson

Buried in the article that James linked in his earlier post about the loophole that essentially eliminates the executive pay limitations of the TARP program is this fun little tidbit:Lawmakers agreed to the Treasury's request that the measure apply only to executives at companies whose assets were bought by the government through auctions. In the executive-compensation tax section, a new ...

Health Care Tradeoffs (Updated)

Ezra Klein wrote an interesting post Wednesday arguing that extending life through medical intervention is expensive and that tradeoffs and rationing have to be made.  The only question, then, is how much value is placed on that extra unit of health care and who's making the valuation. The inverse of the American health care system is the British health care system. ...

Zombie Attack and Terrorist Threats

Radley Balko links to a story about a high school student, William Poole, being arrested for, as the Poole says, writing a story about zombies. Yes, zombies. A good round-up of the story can be found here. The police contend the story was much more. About how Poole wanted to start a gang called the "No Limits Soldiers" ...

States Illegally Take ‘Tens of Thousands’ off Voters Off Rolls

Responding to the implication that Democrats are trying to steal the election with fraudulent voter registration, a correspondent sent along this NYT report from yesterday's edition: States’ Actions to Block Voters Appear Illegal Tens of thousands of eligible voters in at least six swing states have been removed from the rolls or have been blocked from registering in ways that appear ...

What Caused Our Economic Crisis Video

This video, called "Burning Down the House: What Caused Our Economic Crisis" (although, oddly, set to the tune of "Money for Nothing") is apparently all the rage (at least in my wife's office). It traces the subprime crisis to the Jimmy Carter era Community Reinvestment Act. To the extent this view is correct (and I suspect, like anything else complex, ...

Airport Security Lines

Seth Godin has a number of "random travel thoughts," several of which relate to airport security: When I go through security, why do I need to remove a cardigan sweater but the woman standing next to me can keep her cashmere blouse on? Are certain kinds of wool inherently risky? What would happen if Imagineers from Disney designed the security line? Why ...

More Financial Market Regulations

Both candidates have been railing against the financial market crisis. Both have been calling for more regulations. Really? We are going to let the spendthrift jackanapes who have saddled us with $36 trillion to $63 trillion (or more, it really depends on how you count it) in unfunded future liabilities? No problems there. And of course, past ...

When you try to control both price and quantity

(Thanks to James Joyner for a chance to post a few stories here while he is in Quebec.) A few weeks ago I read a story on air (it's at the end of this podcast) that the idea of the gas tax holiday had not only foundered in Congress but that they were contemplating instead a gas tax increase.  Today's Wall ...

D.C. Bans Guns with Red Tape

The District of Columbia has made it legal for residents to own a handgun after being so ordered by the United States Supreme Court.  But they're not making it easy. The plaintiff in the Supreme Court case that overturned Washington's strict 32-year-old handgun ban was among the first to arrive as the city started registering firearms.  Dick Heller showed up early ...