Day II: The Sun

It is quite common, in winter, in Chile to see the sun only ... well... not.

But today: Wow.

The sunset lighting up the foothills, the view out the apartment deck (first rate deck, glassed over, about 1.5 meters by 6 meters, with nice chairs, on a corner overlooking Avenida Apoquindo. The best deck I have ever had in a hotel, I think, because of the view.

Looking south from the balcony:

Looking east, toward the econonomic disaster that is Argentina:

(Yes, it's more than 100 kilometers to Argentina, but you can smell bad policies a long way off). (UPDATE: A commenter points out that we COULD be smelling Maradonna's coaching. Quite true; Argentina has had many smelly adventures lately, on every front...)

We dined at the apartment tonight. I was excited about camarones, and the excellent local EVOO. At the UniMarc grocery, we found most of what we needed, though they had basically no decent seafood. Got frozen camarones, hoped for the best.

The EYM cleaned the spinach, and I cooked up some pasta. Tri-color penne, with sauteed onions, sliced green chilis, some very nice salty capers, and some beautiful fresh Italian parsley. (How can Chile not have fresh shrimp, but have fresh parsley, in winter?) Lots of beautiful EVOO, from Kardamili. Some Imperator balsamic aceito, and the salad was good to go. (The Imperator balsamic vinegar was a bit sweet, perhaps, but the EVOO was wonderful). The spinach must have been fresh, within one day. Great espinaca. Why?

The shrimp and pasta dish was only okay, because the shrimp were not much. I covered that with ajo and pimienta roja de cayena, and the EVOO helped a lot. If you have great olive oil, spanking fresh parsley, garlic, and green chilis to go with pasta, who needs shrimp? We did manage to choke it down, with a 2009 Concha y Toro Gran Reserva Sauvignon Blanc. Neither of us is a big white wine fan, but when Concha y Toro is $8 bucks U.S., you have to go for it.

The EYM went out after dinner to explore "muchos lugares lejos" on the Metro. He is wearing a silky black MTV jacket. Last night, an overjoyed and overdrunk visiting Spaniard in a pick up truck (really) tried to pick up the EYM. When the EYM politely demurred, the man said, incredulously, "You are dressed like that, and you are not gay?" Maybe Senor Espana can call the Federal Trade Commission, about misleading advertising.

It's a city of 6 million, and the EYM is determined to meet them all. On the subway.

Tomorrow: I ride the Transantiago! I wrote about it, and now I research how things are going on the new bus system. (The "new" bus system had a pretty big role in ensuring the defeat of the previous presidente, so this is a big deal here). El Mercurio even called me, back in 2008, to say, "Isn't our bus system hilarious?" I had to agree, yes, it is.

Yum!

It's ice cream time!

Apparently, now there are 32 flavors....

House Where Mungowitz Not Raped Torn Down

The house where the "Mungowitz Rape" never happened was torn down.

Mike Schoenfeld, communications god-king of Duke University, was asked if the house where Mungowitz was not raped held any special meaning for the University.

"Who?" said Schoenfeld. Sad, really, that he would pretend that this incident that never even happened had never happened. Typical.

Now, it's true that the problem with identifying the house as the place where Mungowitz was not raped, at least according to some observers, is that there is no reason to stop there. Other people, more famous people, were not raped there. George Washington was never raped in that house. More recently, Mahatma Gandhi was not raped there, on several occasions. In particular, Mr. Gandhi was not raped in the house on December 21, 1978, or any other earlier, or later, nights.

Most recently of all, Chrystal Mangum was not raped at that house.

In fact, we could make a really long list of people not raped there.

So, I hope that the media will start to refering to the house at 610 N. Buchanan Street in Durham as the "house where Mungowitz was not raped," since that is as good an identifier as the ones the media insists on using.

Can you help?

(Nod to BH)

It's all just a matter of degree

Tyler reviews a book on the rise and fall of Prohibition in the USA, which seems to argue that alcohol was a big problem before prohibition and that the policy "worked" in some sense of the word.

But however besotted turn of the century America was though, it paled before the levels reached by their European forefathers:

Both anecdotal and statistical evidence indicate heavy consumption of alcoholic beverages, heavy over time, heavy over space, and even heavy over social class to a certain extent, although the rich consumed more than the poor.

Three examples of temperance from the sixteenth century make the exceptions that prove the rule. The Venetian Alvise Cornaro promoted temperance in word and deed. He wrote a book, Discourses in favour of a sober life, in which he advocated a diet of extreme renunciation, confirmed by his own example; he drank only not quite .4 of a liter of wine a day, which is more than half a modern bottle of wine.

In The Life of the Duke of Newcastle, written by his wife, the duke received praise for his temperance; she wrote, "In his diet, he is so sparing and temperate, that he never eats nor drinks beyond his set proportion." His set proportion was three glasses of beer and two of wine a day.

The final exception to prove the rule was a temperance society founded at Hesse in 1600. Its members agreed to restrict their drinking to seven glasses of wine with each meal.

In other words, "Grant me chastity and continence, but not yet".

This quote is from here, well worth reading in its entirety.

bad samaritans

When I have a simple question, I rarely use Google, I just ask Mungowitz!

For some reason, this tends to piss him off mightily and I get some fairly pointed info about the value of his time and the ease of use of major search engines.

That ususally doesn't stop me though.

Anyway, here is a similar, and very funny, case.

A Wonderful Dinner, and La Copa Mundial

Juan Pablo took us to an Argentine restaurant, "Don Carlos," for dinner. Three words: Tree. Men. Dos. Stupendo. Wonderful.

The EYM gets to order the vino tinto (he's 20, drinking age here is 18). He orders a Gran Tarapaca syrah (about $10 the bottle, btw, nice). Waiting for the wine, we order a round of Peruvian-style Pisco Sours. Yum, and here's to you, Senor Pizarro.

For food, we order some sausage, prieta and chorizo, and some terrific empanadas and a round of provoleta (fried cheese with tomatoes). (Yes, prieta is Chilean blood sausage. It is AMAZING. Tyler C., eat your heart out: I had prieta, and you didn't! Just deal with that.)

Then, salads. I wanted paltas (avocado) and we all had some version of tomatoes. The avocado was okay, but not outstanding.

Then, meat. This is an Argentino restaurant, and that means meat. I had wanted goat, which in Mexico is cabrito but here in Chile is called chivito. But they were out, so I had to settle for lamb. Best lamb I have ever had. Tender, grilled and salty, melts in your mouth. Like meat lollipops. Outstanding. The EYM has chicken, and Juan Pablo orders a meal fit for Fred Flintstone: a huge breaded piece of beef, and a vat of papas fritas. He struggles manfully, and defeats the meat, but is lost for the rest of the evening.

The EYM and I, having only NORMALLY overeaten, were ready for postre. And there were some strange desserts. We went for it: The EYM ordered "zapillitos en almibar," which the menu describes as "tiny pumpkins in syrup." WTF? And I ordered "Postre Vigilante," the batata y queso dessert.

The zapillitos en almibar turned out to be delicious, but essentially inedible. Not sure how to describe it. The little squares of pumpkin - sugar reduction were something between the consistency of crytallized honey and fudge, though pumpkin flavored. And they were resting in a thick simple syrup, also pumpkin flavored. One bite and the EYM was saying "yum!" Three bites, and he couldn't eat any more, having lapsed into a hyperglycemic coma.

My sweet potato dessert, slices of thick candied sweet potato on thick slices of cheese, was a classic Argentino dessert. (here, in Spanish). Wonderfully simple, the contrast in textures of cheese and dessert, and the contrast in sweetness and creaminess from the cheese. Very nice.

Then, cappuccino all around. Cappuccino a bit watery, but okay.

Of course, we were watching the finals of la Copa Mundial. The restaurant is only three blocks from the Embassy del Pais de Espana, which was rocking. The game was really quite boring, except for the specialist viewer (pretty much everyone south of Nuevo Laredo). But AFTER the game: the restaurant erupts in cheers, and clapping.

Walking home, past the Spanish Embassy, we could hear the cheering and yelling inside. The hard-eyed caribineros out front almost smiled, I think. People were blowing horns (car horns, though we did see some vuvuzelas sticking out of car windows), and waving Spanish and Chilean flags out the windows of cars and apartments. There was a distinctive celebratory horn blow pattern: Beepbeep... Beepbeepbeep (2, 3, repeated over and over).

I took a movie of the cars on the Avenida Apoquindo. You can hear the horns (this went on for hours, sometimes dozens at once), and you can see, at the end, an entrepreneur selling Spanish national flags. There were dozens of these guys on the street, within minutes of game's end.

And I took a picture out the window of the hotel, looking west on Apoquindo. The light looks funny, because I set the shutter for 1 second because it was getting dark.


On the way home, we noticed a large building, just a bit west of the hotel. Quiet, darkened, high gates. Turns out to be the.... Dutch Embassy. Heh. Heh heh. Maybe the Dutch Ambassador had gone to the party at the Spanish Embassy, to pay off his bet.

Time for Mr. Nappy now. A tiring day.

Lebron Links

1. Wow, I agree with Jesse Jackson about something!

2. Good story about the history of the LeBron-Wade-Bosh BFF saga.

3. LeBron says LeBron should have gone to the Knicks on Benthamite grounds.

Mungowitz, Su Hombre en Santiago de Chile

The EYM and I are here for the next month, nearly, in Santiago de Chile.

Got in late this morning, after the overnight ick flight from Atlanta to Santiago.

The intrepid Juan Pablo picked us up at the airport, after it took us 2 hours to get through customs. Chile has a rule that they charge visitors the same charge for a "reciprocity" visa that those countries charge Chilenos. Thanks, America, for costing me nearly $300 for "reciprocity," just to enter the country.

Chile is also really paranoid about bringing in food items. So I asked the EYM to make sure that he didn't have any opened food containers, or plant matter, in his luggage. He says, "What about this?"

He holds up a big sandwich baggie full of creamy white powder. He sees the look on my face, and says "What? It's protein powder. Is that bad?" I tell him to throw that away, right away, and walk away quickly. I do NOT want to try to explain to Chilean Customs why we need to bring 100 grams of white powder into the country.

The lines are long, but they move along. When we got to the hotel (Apart Hotel, La Gloria 30, Las Condes), I noticed I was missing....MY BACKPACK! The one that had my laptop, books, and myriad "things of great importance."

Juan Pablo, by this time having graduated from intrepid up to unflinching, drove me BACK to the airport. (The EYM caught 40 winks in the hotel). We got to the airport, and since I knew where I left the backpack (the x-ray booth at the "Nothing to Declare" desk), we tried to get there. But, of course, you can't get there. At all. You can't go back up the cloaca of the "Arriving International" wing, without getting shot (and rightly so, no complaints). But neither could I get back to the TOP of the International Arrivals digestive system, unless I was arriving on a new international flight.

We knocked on a bunch of doors, and tried to find an official who could help us. After knocking for nearly ten minutes on one promising door (it said, "vacated baggage," in English; don't know what that means, but like I said, promising), an august official of the Chilean PDI appeared. Rather, one of his eyes appeared, behind a crack in the door. Juan Pablo explained. PDI guy looks at me and says, "Passport?" I nod, eagerly.

I am ushered in. Left to stand in a corridor for a few minutes. A second PDI fellow, one who spoke no English, appears and escorts me down a hallway to yet a third PDI guy, one who is so important that I think he actually lives in this underground grotto. PDI 3 begins to speak to me rapidamente en espanol. I try to tell him that I don't speak Spanish (though my "don't speak Spanish" is WAY better than my "don't speak German," from last summer). Then, I SEE MY BACK PACK, ON A SHELF, right behind PDI 3! I point to it, and say "Alla! Es mio, el backpack negro!"

PDI 3 is most skeptical. "Es SUYO? Verdad? (What is in it, he asked, I don't remember the Spanish, but I undestood it.)

I answered: "Libros, papeles, laptop computer..."

PDI 3 is overjoyed: "Libros! Son SUYOS?" Takes one out, and before I can see, covers up the cover completely with both hands: "Este libro, que dice?" (What does it say?)

I can't see the book, because he is hiding it. There are ten books in the pack, and so I just cleverly stare at him bug eyed. At this point, I haven't slept in 28 hours, and this seems surreal. Fortunately, I realize that I had put a name tag, with my ...well... name and address, on the backpack, just like checked baggage, just in case. I point to the tag, and say, "Mira! Mi nombre, Mike Munger, Carolina del Norte, como en el passport."

PDI 3 is pleased: a positive ID. He spends (seriously) at least two minutes comparing the info in my passport (name, address) to the info on the tag (name, address). Then he takes the pack over to a giant desk covered with scraps of paper, and digs around. He finds it: a black notebook with looseleaf paper. The paper is full of rubber bands holding together groups of pages, and paper clips and post it notes. He finds a blank space on a page, and writes laboriously in cursive longhand. I peek, and he is writing down the an inventory of the contents of the backpack. Then he writes down my name, address, and passport number, and draws a line for my signature.

Then he asks me to check the backpack, and make sure that none of the contents had been stolen. I had to pick up each item, tell him that it was in the backpack, and then he checked it off his inventory. But, since his inventory was composed ONLY of those things that were in the pack...you see the problem. Still, okay, we were making progress. After all the items in the backpack were checked off as being in the backpack, I signed with a flourish and thanked the man. He called me "Don Miguel" and wished me "buena suerte" and escorted me to...The Customs Area!

As the door closed behind me, I realized that I did not have the paperwork to get through Customs. I had just BEEN through Customs, 90 minutes earlier, and had handed in my paperwork that had been stamped at Immigration Control. Now, all I had was a passport and a backpack. By this time, the morning rush of international flights that crowd Arturo Moreno Benitez airport had long gone. The huge Customs hall had just me, and about 30 customs agents, all staring at me. The place is well lit, and it's hard to act casual in those circumstances.

I decided to play dumb, and just headed for the door, bypassing everything. One guy asked me to stop, and he came over. I showed him my passport, and said, "I forgot my backpack, and came back to get it." He frowned, pointed at the cloaca, and said (in perfect English) "You came back through there?"

"No, no, I came through the vacated luggage office, there." I pointed at the door right behind me, which was in fact where I had come out, and he had seen that.

He asked if I had the arrival papers, and I told him I had just been through Customs 90 minutes ago, and had just come back to get my backpack. I held out my backpack, as evidence (I'm not sure of what, but evidence).

I was sure that my Chilean Maxwell Smart would sneer, and say, "Oh, the old 'I've already been through Customs' trick. They always try that one!" But no, he just said, "Have a good visit. Make sure you go out the main door."

Back to the hotel, a long nap, and then a fine meal with Juan Pablo and the EYM. On which more anon.

Sunday links

1. The Steet is dead. Long live the Street.

2. Raghu is a credit snob.

3. Mankiw explains the unholy trinity.

4. Mark Thoma takes leave of his senses.

5. Angus' song of the year so far.

6. Hayek hearts Singapore (nice post by Will W.)

Dan Gilbert: this one's for you!

The Grand Game

Time for the Grand Game!

That's where we propose an article, and readers point out their favorite passage.

This one is a little more titillating ... or I should say salacious, then the usual fare.

I'll go first, and go easy:

"The teachers were cited... for drinking an undetermined amount."

Wow! I drink an undetermined amount pretty often. Sometimes it's a positive amount, sometimes zero, but rarely is it determined. That's a pretty vague charge, don't you think?

(Nod to Angry Alex)

Markets in everything: Derriere edition

nowadays, this would be even funnier in reverse!

Click the pic for a more glorious image.

Buy me a ticket for an air-o-plane

or, LeBron's decision gets instant validation.

or, Alex Chilton in reverse.

"lonely days are gone, I'm a heading out, my owner, he wrote me a letter"

The full text of Danny Gilbert's Lebron letter is here. Seldom has such vituperation been written in such an inappropriate for the occasion font!

People, LeBron has every right to go wherever he wants. He was drafted by Cleveland and they had his services for 7 years, during which time, the management totally failed to build a cohesive or reasonable team around him.

LeBron to Miami is a lot of things but it IN NO WAY is a "cowardly betrayal". Gilbert is now pushing into Don Sterling and Dan Snider territory as the worst franchise owner in sports.

The mistake by the lake

Wow. LBJ wanted out of Cleveland so bad that he left over $30 million on the table to join Wade and Bosh in Miami.

I give a lot of credit to Pat Riley and Wade for making this happen. Riley for the dealing and salesmanship and Wade for unselfishness, pushing for guys that are going to lower his own stats.

At least with this move, I think LeBron has improved his chances to get to the conference finals!

It remains to be seen who else will come to Miami and play for peanuts to try and win with the new "big 3".

Graphic

This is how computer graphics should be used. Interesting, concise, memorable, instructive.

(Nod to Russ Roberts)

Letter to the Editor

A letter to the Editor, shared by KPC friend Douglas Coate:

The roots of Rand Paul's opposition to the 1964 Civil Rights Act as applied to private employers run deep. In English history, back to the Anglos and the Saxons, the Magna Carta, and the common law. In Western civilization the roots run longer, through Roman law, the Babylonian codes, and to the early traders in Mesopotamia. There has always been tension between citizen traders on the one hand and the
state on the other. Merchants have tried to enhance and preserve their wealth by gaining rights to property, contract, and trade, while states have too often tried to expropriate it by denying these rights. The great accomplishments of Western civilization, and now Eastern civilization, have resulted from the spread of these rights and the flowering of trade, cooperation, and specialization.

Fair employment laws or anti discrimination laws are the latest attempt by the state to take wealth from those that create it. By changing the hiring, firing, pay, and promotion decisions of private firms from their profit maximizing levels the state can redistribute wealth to favored groups. But not without consequences. Targeted
firms will have higher costs, some will be driven from business, and all will try to sell their goods at higher prices. Trade, cooperation, specialization, and wages and living standards will suffer.

Private firms if left alone do not discriminate. They hire the best workers they can at prevailing wages. Not to do so would increase their costs, lower their profits, and threaten their existence. Workers themselves become the ultimate arbiters of employer fairness in a market economy, for they can leave one employer for another without notice.

So, what did Rand Paul do wrong? He caved! If he had stuck to his position, he would have at least made people think.

The Onion Has to Stop Publishing

This story is hilarious satire, until it turns out not to be satire at all.

The NYTimes Story

Hold out for a "corporate job", instead of a "dead-end job"?

Angus worked as a welder! I laid sod, worked as a night manager at a Burger Chef (like a Hardees, but not so upscale and fancy) (!) and unloaded boxcars of lumber by hand, in Florida, in the summer. GET OVER YOURSELF, BOY, and get a FREAKIN' JOB!

(Nod to Anonyman)

UPDATE: Les Cargill rightly suggests that I was about 3 seconds from the Four Yorkshiremen skit. And here it is...

Unemployment Benefits

A somewhat dated, but quite interesting, piece on unemployment benefits by KPC friend George Leef. It was published in Regulation, in 1998.

Dang, was Larry Bird really in Boogie Nights?

Apparently so!

KPC Classics

Haven't posted on the "Classics" meme for a while.

But here is one from early November, 2004, before the election. Who could forget "Votergasm"? (I had, but not anymore) (Parts are not work safe, btw)

Weiner Dog Diver

Using scuba gear and a wet suit!

A weiner dog is even shaped like a submarine. This is pretty cute: look at the tiny legs on the wet suit. The weight of the tank will keep him upright. Go, Boniface!

Today the cap, tomorrow the news

Roll over LeBron, and tell Chris Bosh the news!

LBJ will announce his location decision on a ONE HOUR SPECIAL on ESPN Thursday night!

Wow.

There are two considerations here that are not necessarily mutually exclusive. First, money. Cleveland can pay him substantially more than any other team. A lot of people (yes, I'm talking to you Tyler) minimize this, but consider that (a) salaries are likely to fall in the future, and (b) endorsement money has already fallen. LeBron is not (nor should he) going to take a low paying job for next year.

The question is, how does he weigh the tradeoff between the loss of money from leaving Cleveland with the increased chance of winning a title?

As currently constituted, none of the teams in the LeBron derby have great title hopes (sorry Chicago). Is Joakim Noah really that much better than Andy Varejao? Plus the Bulls now have a first time head coach and a GM who got physical with the last coach!

New Jersey (which was my initial pick for where he'd go) has hired the Lil General as their coach. The over/under for when Avery would be on LeBron's very last nerve is probably what, 15 minutes?

Miami has a good owner and a high status GM who has also been a high status coach. Playing with another superstar is easier said than done though.

Cleveland stinks. Besides LBJ, the only guys I like on that roster are JJ Hickson and Varejao. Plus, Byron Scott ain't no Red Aurbach!

That leaves the Knicks. They have made one bad move (that's a LOT of $$ for Amar'e, people), and it is far from obvious how LeBron would fit into D'Antoni's vaunted "system" (it only works for people with apostrophes in their name).

Wow, I think I am saying that LeBron is screwed on the championship front!

Ironically, the team that ruined his chances (Cleveland, by not building anything reasonable around him for 7 freaking years) is the team that can pay him the most, and money is all that LeBron can be certain about when making his decision.

Takeaway: In Which I Play Scrooge

I was on "The Takeaway" this morning. National NPR program. You can listen by clicking "listen" here.

They asked me to do a little blog post, so I did. Call me Scrooge-mael.

My Banquet Keynote Speech at Lib Nat Conv

At the Libertarian National Convention in St. Louis this past Memorial Day Weekend, I was privileged to give the Banquet Address. And the LNC was kind enough to put it up in three parts (b/c of the YouTube length restriction).

Part One

Part Deux

The Last Part

.

Linkulus Maximus

Some links:

Delightful. Obama administration deserves more credit for what they are trying to do in education policy. Not sure there should be a federal education policy, but if there is, "race to the top" at least has some good ideas. (Nod to Anonyman)

Dan Klein: Assist the Everyman! (Nod to @IHSAcademic)

The sky is falling. Or, is the ocean rising? It's so hard to keep track, when the warmists are making up stuff. 'Cause a year later they will deny having ever made a prediction. (Nod to Paul Jacob)

You can get a Utah concealed carry permit without (1) ever visiting Utah, or (2) ever actually firing a gun. Why do so many states have reciprocal arrangements with Utah? (Nod to Anonyman)

Rob Jenkins was kind enough to cite my article in the Chronicle of Higher Ed, and make a very nice extension. His idea for a "space" of administrative types is quite interesting.

Complexity and local maxima in the study of economics. (Nod to Neanderbill)

Jeff Miron is well out on the "true dat!" scale, on gun control.

It Takes A Thief?

To catch cheaters, colleges go to great lengths.

I went to Davidson, here in NC. We had an Honor Code. My impression is that it worked. But does it still work? Could it work elsewhere?

That is, could trust deter cheating better than spying deters cheating?

Good Luck Charms and Hope

Keep Your Fingers Crossed! How Superstition Improves Performance

Lysann Damisch, Barbara Stoberock & Thomas Mussweiler
Psychological Science, forthcoming

Abstract: Superstitions are typically seen as inconsequential creations of irrational minds. Nevertheless, many people rely on superstitious thoughts and practices in their daily routines in order to gain good luck. To date, little is known about the consequences and potential benefits of such superstitions. The present research closes this gap by demonstrating performance benefits of superstitions and identifying their underlying psychological mechanisms. Specifically, Experiments 1 through 4 show that activating good-luck-related superstitions via a common saying or action (e.g., “break a leg,” keeping one’s fingers crossed) or a lucky charm improves subsequent performance in golfing, motor dexterity, memory, and anagram games. Furthermore, Experiments 3 and 4 demonstrate that these performance benefits are produced by changes in perceived self-efficacy. Activating a superstition boosts participants’ confidence in mastering upcoming tasks, which in turn improves performance. Finally, Experiment 4 shows that increased task persistence constitutes one means by which self-efficacy, enhanced by superstition, improves performance.

-----------------------

Hope uniquely predicts objective academic achievement above intelligence, personality, and previous academic achievement

Liz Day, Katie Hanson, John Maltby, Carmel Proctor & Alex Wood
Journal of Research in Personality, forthcoming

Abstract: A 3-year longitudinal study explored whether the two-dimensional model of trait hope predicted degree scores after considering intelligence, personality, and previous academic achievement. A sample of 129 respondents (52 males, 77 females) completed measures of trait hope, general intelligence, the five factor model of personality, divergent thinking, as well as objective measures of their academic performance before university (‘A’ level grades) and final degree scores. The findings suggest that hope uniquely predicts objective academic achievement above intelligence, personality, and previous academic achievement. The findings are discussed within the context of how it may be fruitful for researchers to explore how hope is related to everyday academic practice.

(Nod to Kevin L)

Porn, However, Will Still Be Available.

The TSA is set to block "controversial opinion" from work computers.

(Nod to the NCM)

Stuff My Dad Says

So I follow "S*hit My Dad Says" on Twitter (along with more than a million other people who also follow).

I had heard that there would be a TV show, with William Shatner. But it's actually true...

Some background...

(Nod to Angry Alex)

Rent-Seeking

A classic example of rent-seeking. Because the police can "make money" by distorting their efforts to focus more than is appropriate on marijuana busts. As the Wall Street Journal reported.

In private markets you can only make money if you produce something other people value.

But in the presence of artificial rents like this drug enforcement subsidy, the link between "make money" and "produce something of value" is broken. It is an artificial rent. And the resources devoted to seeking the rent, to the extent that such resources are taken away from other useful purposes (preventing property crimes, protecting citizens) are wasted.

Rent-seeking isn't really about the rent, which is a transfer. The cost of rent-seeking is the wasted resources devoted to capturing the rent.

Here's the bizarre thing to me. You know who IS producing something of value? THE FOLKS WHO GROW AND SELL MARIJUANA! Yikes!

(Nod to Angry Alex)

Pie in the Sky

Or, Robert Frank phones it in yet again. His current NY Times column, which tells us how to stimulate the economy and reduce the deficit at the same time, is interesting to say the least.

His first program is one where the Federal government borrows money at 3%, loans it to consumers at 8%, and the consumers use it to pay off their outstanding credit card debt which charges a higher rate.

Win-win, right?

Well, first of all outstanding credit card debt is around $900 billion so that is a lot of new borrowing. Pretty hard to imagine that would fly.

Second, what is the mechanism to implement this? Would each consumer have to submit a notarized statement of their credit card debt levels? How would the government force the consumer recipients to use the money to pay off their credit card debt?

Third, what does Frank expect these debt ridden consumers to do with their money once they've gotten a break from usurious credit card interest rates? Why, spend it of course!

Fourth, what will the government do when people start defaulting on their payments? Repo their flat screens?

Frank's second program is to implement a carbon tax that will come into force when the economy reaches full employment. He says this will immediately cause a huge surge of new investment.

Why?

Because the tax will destroy a lot of our existing capital stock!

People, I am not making this up:

"once a carbon tax was announced, the design of nearly every existing machine or structure that uses or produces energy would be rendered suddenly obsolete."

Holy crap! I am pretty sure this is the definition of the broken window fallacy, innit?

I guess you kind of have to admire the guy for trying to sell cap and trade as a economic stimulus program!

Happy Birthday, America!

No Brainer

I was home this morning watching my boy Rafa ruin two sets of underpants (his and Berdych's) when I heard John MacEnroe lamenting that "they have to do something" about the state of the Davis Cup.

Hey John: You know what "they" ought to do with that anachronistic, nationalistic, boring, interminable, no-compensation-paying POS?

SCRAP IT!

No one cares about Davis Cup. No one wants to play Davis Cup. Tennis is in the Olympics for the foreseeable future and that particular anachronistic, nationalistic institution crushes the Davis Cup.

You know what else they ought to scrap?

Any shots of Rafa from the waist down. C'mon, dude. You're better than that!

The lives of economists

Great article in the NY Times on Ken Rogoff and Carmen Reinhardt.

Rogoff was an international grandmaster in chess (and a "ragged hippy"), while Reinhardt was a Cuban refugee. Both found economics in a roundabout manner.

Al Gore: Poodley

Some questions:

1. Why is it that "women's gropes... um, groups" support these losers? All creeps like John Edwards and Al Gore have to do to get unquestioning support from women is to jabber about how much they like women's causes. But groping, attempted rape, and bizarre adultery schemes don't seem like support to me.

2. In any other setting, a woman who sells herself for a small consideration would be a prostitute. But when women's "interest groups" do it, it's called lobbying, right?

(Nod to Anonyman, who never was poodley)

The Grand Game

Discuss.

I think there are some silly mistakes here. But there are also some insights. And the animation is tremendous.

However, all the actual insights are Public Choice insights. Marx was, after all, the first public choice theorist. The basic Marxist syllogism is this: 1. If government is powerful... 2. Then in a democracy that government will be dominated by business interests. 3. Therefore, get rid of private business.

The "if" part (1) and the "then" part (2) are both substantially correct, actually. But the "therefore" part is dumb. The correct "therefore" is:

Therefore, get rid of powerful government, which mostly restrains competition. Competition won't be perfect, and in fact there will be problems like those in 2008-9. But the problems will be much smaller, and of shorter duration, without the meddling of powerful and self-interested government agencies.

(Nod to Kindred, from here)

I'll have what he's having

Man, NBA executives have got wicked good drugs. How else can one explain that Rudy F. Gay getting a max contract from Memphis wasn't even close to the worst deal done at the beginning of free agency.

Don't get me wrong, it's pretty bad. Rudy went for 17 points and 5 rebounds per game with more turnovers than assists last year and he's a max guy?

Really?

But you have to consider that the T-Wolves are signing Darko Milicic for $20 million and the Bucks are going to go for Drew "8 teams in 8 years" Gooden at $32 million.

Wow.

I know that's chump change compared to what will get thrown at LeBron et al, but you have to remember that Darko and Drew are completely and totally worthless! Seriously, they should be playing in a rec league somewhere.

As bad as those deals are though, they pale in comparison to the worst deal done so far, which is Atlanta signing Joe Johnson for 6 years at $119 million.

People, Joe Johnson is a ball-pounding machine who makes his teammates worse, not better! Plus he'll be 29 when next season starts. So the Hawks will be paying him over 20 million a year when he's 34 and 35 (i.e. unable to do even the crappy stuff he does now).

So far, Joe's career averages are 17 points, 4 boards and 4 assists per game.

This is a signing worthy of the Knicks. In fact, if they give a 5 year guaranteed max contract to Amar'e Stoudemire, that will be ultra dumb, but nowhere near as bad a move as what Atlanta has just done.

So whatever those NBA suits in Atlanta, Milwaukee, Minnesota and NYC are smoking, sign me up!

And thank goodness for Sam Presti.

Time Warp

Water balloon face


Lighter in a blender

A Real Debate, For Once

Three candidates.

Three candidates, representing three parties, debating as equals on the same stage, on television.

(Photo Credit: Matt Born, Wilmington Star-News)

And the voters get to decide.

My respects to the NC Bar Association. As sponsors, they got to decide whether to include the Libertarian Party candidate for US Senate, Dr. Michael Beitler, in the debate. And for the first time ever, they did.

So, it's up to us, now. We have a seat up on the stage. We just have to use it.

The most recent poll I have seen on the Senate race....
Burr 50%, Marshall 40%, Beitler 6%. The crosstabs are interesting, in the poll. For example, Beitler gets 4% among "Conservatives," 5% among "Moderates," and 8% among "Liberals." The Libertarians need to run as the center-left party, and emphasize the futiilty of the war on drugs and the war on gay people.

Voting on How to Vote

The Brits are thinking of ending their FPTP voting system.

Perhaps the experience of the Liberal Democrats is the reason.

(nod to THE Chelsea)

A Scot on a Desert Island

One day a Scotsman, who had been stranded on a deserted island for over 10 years, saw a speck on the horizon. He thought to himself, "It's never a ship. Too small." As the speck got closer and closer, he began to rule out even the possibilities of a small boat or a raft.

Suddenly there strode from the surf a figure clad in a black wet suit. Putting aside the scuba tanks and mask, and zipping down the top of the wet suit, there stood a drop-dead gorgeous blonde!

She walked up to the stunned Scotsman and said to him, "Tell me, how long has it been since you've had a good cigar?"

"I've nod hae a smook in ten yahrs!" replied the amazed man.

With that, she reached over and unzipped a waterproof pocket on the left sleeve of her wet suit and pulled out a fresh package of cigars and a lighter.

He took a cigar, slowly lit it, and took a long drag. "Help ma boab!" said the castaway. "Och, that is verra goot! I'd forgotten how gra' a smook ken beh!"

"And how long has it been since you've had a drop of good Scotch whiskey?" asked the blonde.

Trembling, the castaway replied, "Ten years, but Crivvens, I ken still take a goot bucket!"

Hearing that, the blonde reached over to her right sleeve, unzipped a pocket there and removed a flask and handed it to him.

He opened the flask and took a long drink. "Tis nectar o' the gods!" murmured the Scotsman. "Losh, 'tis truly fantastic!!"

At this point, the gorgeous blonde started to slowly unzip the long front of her wet suit, right down the middle. She looked at the trembling man and asked, "And how long has it been since you've played around?"

With tears in his eyes, the Scot fell to his knees and sobbed ........."Michty me! Ken it really be ya hae golf clubs in there too!"

(With thanks to Shirley)

Democracy and the Deliberative Conceit

Mark Pennington, "Democracy and the Deliberative Conceit." (A little over an hour...)

Mark Pennington - "Democracy and the Deliberative Conceit" from oxford libertarian on Vimeo.

From Kosmos.

Charming

What a remarkable fellow. The first five seconds are hard to beat. He looks a bit like the British goalie in the match with USA.



Now, this is manipulative, and the guy is just trying to make money. That's enough to make me send him some. Well played.

James Booker, Henry Byrd, Mac Rebennack

Who ya got, people??

Henry Byrd was better known as Professor Longhair and Mac is Dr. John. I love the Doctor for introducing me to New Orleans piano, and Fess for pioneering it, but James Booker is my favorite.

This post is dedicated to Mark Perry!

Apparently sombody is not an Obama fan

People check out this cartoon by Steven Pastis (the strip is called Pearls Before Swine):


As always, you can click the pic for a larger image and thanks to "Not a Sheep" for the pointer!

Wilmington - Wrightsville Beach

Had a great time in Wilmington - Wrightsville Beach last week. Had some adventures. First, went to Redix several times. Hard to explain Reddix. Here is the sign out front:

So....yes, they really do sell fine clothing (if you are a frat boy like me, who likes orange and blue plaid pants with a pink polo shirt, all way over-priced. This is HEAVEN for my tastes in clothing.) (If you put Angus in Redix, he would be screaming like the witch in Oz after they poured water on her: "I'm melting! MELTING!"). And they really do also sell hardware and fishing tackle. You have to see it. Lots of hardware, and lots of appropriate clothes if your name is "Trip" or "Trey" or "Reg."

Of course, a declaration on a sign that anything is "in" is suspect. Perhaps they meant that they had just received a shipment of SillyBandz, but I think they were trying to tell their audience about style. (No hipsters go to Redix, unless they were sentenced to community service among the hip-impaired like me).

Later one evening we went to Jungle Rapids, a finely tuned entertainment complex that hoovers the wallets of parents most effectively. That's fine, I played pinball and put a new high score on the Simpsons machine, easy because I think no one had played it at all since the last power failure. Then we played Putt-Putt, and I got smoked by the EYM and the YYM, neither of whom have any respect for their elders. (If Angus had been there, he could have told the boys that I am really, REALLY good at Putt-Putt. But he wasn't).

There was one appalling thing at Jungle Rapids: This game below. You likely know the game "Whack a Mole!" where you take a mallet and hit the mole that pops up. Pretty fun, especially when I used to pretend all the moles were Ken Shepsle. (Okay... I still do that). But this game with the cow? You have to hit the lit tit, or rather milk it. They light up and go dark, quickly and in random sequence. If you look closely (click on the pic, for a better view) you will see that the back left tit is lit.

I watched for a while, and only saw one little kid play it. His parents thought it would be cute, and tried to take pictures. But when the tits started lighting up in sequence, the little kid (he was maybe 4) starting crying his head off. He was NOT going to grab those things.

Sachs Bomb

People, Jeffrey Sachs is pissed! I know, I know, what else is new, right?

But in this case he's mad because aid from the G-8 nations to the world's poor went up by $40 billion relative to 2004!

You see, the G-8 leaders pledged in their 2005 summit to raise it by $50 billion.

For this offense, he argues that the G-8 should be disbanded!

I don't even know what that means, that the component countries should cease to exist? That they shouldn't be allowed to meet? Or make statements? Or give aid?

He also seems angry that aid to non-African poor went up by more than was promised.

Dr. Sachs is definitely not a "glass half full" kind of guy.

Face it people, we are all evil. Like the great Louis C.K. says people are dying every day and we drive around in fancy cars with that knowledge in our heads.

The King is Dead. Long Live the Queen

I'm not chair any more in....

...wait for it....

less than two minutes....

NOW!

Good luck, Karen!

We are really lucky to have a person like Karen Remmer to take over as chair. Not only will she do way better than I did (a pretty low standard...), I think she is going to make a huge difference for Duke.

The Embarrassing 2nd Amendment.

Had a nice glass of wine last night, and re-read one of my favorite essays, by one of my most favoritest lefties....Sandy Levinson, of the UT-Austin Law School.

Here is the essay: The Embarrassing 2nd Amendment.

Sandy (whom I got to know down at UT-Austin when I was there) is honest. He does not like the 2nd Amendment. But he believes in the rule of law, and so feels obliged to point out two things.

First, the words in the 2nd Amendment have meaning. They appear to mean that there is an individual right to keep and bear arms. Subject to regulation, not an absolute right, all that's true. BUT. SOME. INDIVIDUAL. RIGHT.

Second, we can't pick and choose which amendments to enforce. If the Bill of Rights is important, if the Constitution cannot be violated, then we have to enforce all of it. If you don't like the 2nd Amendment, then amend the Constitution.

I enjoyed re-reading the piece, as I said, given the events of this week. I particularly liked these passages:

To put it mildly, the Second Amendment is not at the forefront of constitutional discussion, at least as registered in what the academy regards as the venues for such discussion — law reviews, casebooks, and other scholarly legal publications. As Professor Larue has recently written, "the second amendment is not taken seriously by most scholars."

...I cannot help but suspect that the best explanation for the absence of the Second Amendment from the legal consciousness of the elite bar, including that component found in the legal academy, is derived from a mixture of sheer opposition to the idea of private ownership of guns and the perhaps subconscious fear that altogether plausible, perhaps even "winning," interpretations of the Second Amendment would present real hurdles to those of us supporting prohibitory regulation. Thus the title of this essay — The Embarrassing Second Amendment — for I want to suggest that the Amendment may be profoundly embarrassing to many who both support such regulation and view themselves as committed to zealous adherence to the Bill of Rights (such as most members of the ACLU). Indeed, one sometimes discovers members of the NRA who are equally committed members of the ACLU, differing with the latter only on the issue of the Second Amendment but otherwise genuinely sharing the libertarian viewpoint of the ACLU.

Give Sandy credit: that is an honest portrayal of the problem. He at least realized that he should be embarrassed. And he was.

For two decades, I have been given at best a condescending hearing when I have claimed that the 2nd Amendment clearly confers at least a limited individual right to bear arms. And since these same super-silly-ass folks also claim to believe the Constitution says what the Supreme Court says it says....well, I love America.

Kelo Goes to NYC

Columbia Univ gets to steal a bunch of land, and doesn't have to pay retail for it. I know the New York motto is "NEVER pay retail", but....YIKES!

Ilya says what needs to be said, and links what needs to be linked.

Don't know how I missed this.

there ain't a horse that can't be rode

and people, here (thanks to KPC friend Shawn) is the perfect rider for yesterday's tiger-bike:

Don't forget to click the pic for an even better look at the gbike Mr. Leopard is riding!

11 hours and 45 minutes

Less than 12 hours now.

700 minutes.

42,000 seconds.

And then I will chair no more forever. It's been ten years. Bad for me. Worse for my department.

There is some 18 year old Scotch waiting to help me celebrate tonight at midnight. If I can stay up that long.

Terrorist Attack Averted, News Cur Criticized

Al-Qaeda Calls Off Attack On Nation's Capitol To Spare Life Of 'Twilight' Author

Mr. Putin! Tear down that wall

I'd Like to feed the children/Find a cure for disease

Rebuild the cities/and Plant a lot of trees

I'd like to help the sick/Build factories

Give money to students/hospitals and galleries

But, I'm afraid of the Russians/I can't sleep at night

So afraid of the Russians/Afraid we've got to fight

I'd like to go to space/Clean up rivers and lakes

Put everyone to work/ whatever it takes

But, I'm afraid of the Russians/I can't sleep at night

So afraid of the Russians/Afraid we've got to fight

They've got ships at sea/They've got missiles in the air

Tanks on the border of Europe/and spies everywhere/

--Made for TV

Rationality and Sex

Men are often accused of thinking with their winky, and behaving badly. Apparently women "think" with their.... well, other parts, also. The brain is overrated.

Reproduction expediting: Sexual motivations, fantasies, and the ticking biological clock

Judith Easton, Jaime Confer, Cari Goetz & David Buss
Personality and Individual Differences, forthcoming

Abstract: Beginning in their late twenties, women face the unique adaptive problem of declining fertility eventually terminating at menopause. We hypothesize women have evolved a reproduction expediting psychological adaptation designed to capitalize on their remaining fertility. The present study tested predictions based on this hypothesis—these women will experience increased sexual motivations and sexual behaviors compared to women not facing a similar fertility decline. Results from college and community samples (N = 827) indicated women with declining fertility think more about sex, have more frequent and intense sexual fantasies, are more willing to engage in sexual intercourse, and report actually engaging in sexual intercourse more frequently than women of other age groups. These findings suggest women’s “biological clock” may function to shift psychological motivations and actual behaviors to facilitate utilizing remaining fertility.

-----------------------

The effect of a woman's incidental tactile contact on men's later behavior

Nicolas Guéguen
Social Behavior and Personality, Winter 2010, Pages 257-266

Abstract: Previous research has indicated that a light tactile contact is associated with a positive response towards the person who is touching. The effect of touch on courtship was investigated in this experiment, which was conducted in a field setting. A female confederate either slightly touched or did not touch a man in a bar when asking him for some help. It was found that men who were touched showed more interest toward the female confederate than when no touch occurred. It was also found that touch was associated with stronger courtship intentions by men. The importance of women's nonverbal patterns in the courtship context and the trend of men to misinterpret women's intent are proposed to explain these results.

-----------------------

I only have eyes for you: Ovulation redirects attention (but not memory) to
attractive men

Uriah Anderson, Elaine Perea, Vaughn Becker, Joshua Ackerman, Jenessa
Shapiro, Steven Neuberg & Douglas Kenrick
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, forthcoming

Abstract: A number of studies have found a disjunction between women’s attention to, and memory for, handsome men. Although women pay initial attention to handsome men, they do not remember those men later. The present study examines how ovulation might differentially affect these attentional and memory processes. We found that women near ovulation increased their visual attention to attractive men. However, this increased visual attention did not translate into better memory. Discussion focuses on possible explanations, in the context of an emerging body of findings on disjunctions between attention to, and memory for, other people.

-----------------------

Timing of Sexual Maturation and Women's Evaluation of Men

Stefan Belles, Wilfried Kunde & Roland Neumann
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, May 2010, Pages 703-714

Abstract: Many antecedents and consequences of an accelerated sexual maturation are associated with negative experiences with the opposite sex. Here we show a connection between menarcheal age, a salient sign of female sexual maturation, and the implicit attitude toward men in later adulthood. In Study 1, earlier age at first menstruation was associated with automatic negative evaluations of male faces but not female ones. Study 2 revealed a relationship between early age of menarche and an implicit association between the concepts male and danger. In Study 3, the earlier the menarche, the larger was the estimated egocentric distance of virtual male voices and the shorter the estimated distance of female voices. These results, obtained about a decade after onset of menstruation, suggest that apparently subtle differences in the onset of sexual maturation may have long-lasting implications for intersexual relationships.


(Nod to Kevin L)

Carnivores Tired of Getting Dissed

The "why else would people keep pigs?" line was the theme of one of my podcasts with Russ Roberts. Is it really better for ALL cows if NONE of them had ever lived? 'Cause nobody would keep them as pets.

(Nod to Angry Alex)

Supremes Decline Hearing for RNC v. FEC

The Supreme Court decides not to hear RNC v. FEC.

Leaving us in the bizarre situation that corporations have more political speech rights than parties. Regardless of how you view Cit Untd, that is strange.

G-bike gets pwnd!

I long for the days of Mungowitz in Germany, riding his inimitable, self decorated Gbike.

However, I think I've found a bike that tops it:


(click the pic for a larger and more glorious image)

Kartik Artheya

Kartik Artheya makes a reasonable point, perhaps.

"Economics is hard. Really hard. You just won't believe how vastly hugely mindboggingly hard it is. I mean you may think doing the Sunday Times crossword is difficult, but that's just peanuts to economics. And because it is so hard, people shouldn’t blithely go shooting their mouths off about it, and pretending like it’s so easy. In fact, we would all be better off if we just ignored these clowns.”

(Note: no link, because it was taken down. I heard about this from that cutie Will Wilkinson)
(UPDATE: Here is a link. Thanks, Angus!)

Though, to be fair to Angus and me, we rarely say what government or anyone else SHOULD do. Neither of us believes we really know that, and we are most skeptical of people who say they do know.

What we generally say is that what IS BEING DONE is pretty darned dumb. Kartik A is saying that what is BEING SAID is pretty darned dumb, too.

World Cup: Referees Shouldn't Be Part of the Game

La copa mundial... Some things to concede at the outset.

--Ghana p'wned the U.S. No way the U.S. could have won that game.
--If El Tri falls in a forest, and no one plays defense, does anybody hear it?
--England....Jeez, England was terrible. Not as bad as Les Bleus, or Il Azzurri, but bad.
--Brazil beat the bejeesus out of Chile. Sad. But not close.

Having said that, wtf?
--The referees? No golden balls, more like a golden shower, right on the games.
--The faking? These weenies make the Celtics' Paul Pierce look stoic and undemonstrative. Why in the world are there not more yellow cards for diving?
--Vuvuzelas. Really? Why?

I can see why futbol is so big in Europe and Latin America. Largely arbitrary, controlled by officials who are in no way accountable to anyone, yet who are remarkably incompetent and indifferent. Everyone constantly pretends to be a victim, and rolls around on the ground crying until they get a subsidy they don't deserve. And then they waste the free kick, just giving up the ball. And then they run around in random patterns, hoping that someone will get lucky and do some actual work, so we can all celebrate.

Wait, I need to update. Soccer is the perfect sport for Europe, Latin America, and the U.S. Congress.

UPDATE: Tommy the Brit posted this on his FB page. And got the following comment, from a fellow Brit:

I can see why "football" is so big in America - the black guys do all the work, the white guys have all the power, obesity is an advantage, and there are commercial breaks every five minutes...

We are Clean!

After a thorough investigation, the Munger 2008 Gov campaign can breathe a sigh of relief. There were no additional unreported donations of private jet rides to the campaign, the candidate, or its staff.

Partly because there were no donations of private jet rides.
Partly because there were no private jet rides.
Partly because there were no airplane rides. We used the thing called "the car."

Bev Perdue, the people's choice, had 42 unreported private plane rides donated to the campaign, as part of the $19 million she spent for a job that pays $130k. Pat McCrory spent less than half that.

Makes me wistful. Maybe someday I'll get someone to donate a trip in the air, so I can report it. Maybe something like this:

Soccer Shennanigans

If you think the 2010 FIBA world cup is whacky, you haven't seen anything! Check out this story about the 1994 Shell Caribbean Cup:

There was an unusual match between Barbados and Grenada.

Grenada went into the match with a superior goal difference, meaning that Barbados needed to win by two goals to progress to the finals. The trouble was caused by two things. First, unlike most group stages in football competitions, the organizers had deemed that all games must have a winner. All games drawn over 90 minutes would go to sudden death extra time. Secondly and most importantly, there was an unusual rule which stated that in the event of a game going to sudden death extra time the goal would count double, meaning that the winner would be awarded a two goal victory.

Barbados was leading 2-0 until the 83rd minute, when Grenada scored, making it 2-1. Approaching the dying moments, the Barbadians realized they had no chance of scoring past Grenada's mass defense, so they deliberately scored an own goal to tie the game at 2-2. This would send the game into extra time and give them another half hour to break down the defense. The Grenadians realized what was happening and attempted to score an own goal as well, which would put Barbados back in front by one goal and would eliminate Barbados from the competition.

However, the Barbados players started defending their opposition's goal to prevent them from doing this, and during the game's last five minutes, the fans were treated to the incredible sight of Grenada trying to score in either goal. Barbados also defended both ends of the pitch, and held off Grenada for the final five minutes, sending the game into extra time. In extra time, Barbados notched the game-winner, and, according to the rules, was awarded a 4-2 victory, which put them through to the next round.

Here's a video summary:

Monopoly is Over-rated

When I was at the FTC, early in the Reagan administration, we had a test for whether an industry was a monopoly:

1. Rank the firms in the industry by size, from largest to smallest.
2. Now count the number of firms.
3. If the number is bigger than 1 it is NOT a monopoly.

Here is a slightly more sophisticated approach, but pretty much the same idea. Monopoly simply does not exist, outside of government action and a (very) few extraction industries such as diamonds.

SC Strikes Down Chicago Handgun Ban!

Yay! Supreme Court strikes down handgun ban. CNN reports it. BizWeek version.

The 2nd Amendment is finally incorporated, and with a strong personal liberty component. Guns are NOT for hunting. They are for personal protection, if the person chooses to purchase one and use it responsibly.

Russ Robert on FvH

Russ comes up big with the Hayek piece in WSJ. Do read it.

Oh! The Things That We Will Do!

A happy day. I had not seen this before.

An entire blog devoted to the intellectual hi-jinks of one P. Krugman, Nobel Laureate and PhD in economics. Here you go!

The cool thing about the title, "Krugman in Wonderland," is that it echoes the famous "Durham in Wonderland," which chronicled the lies and fabrications of the New York Times news staff, sports staff (take Selena Roberts, please), and editorial page, as well as the criminals who run the police force of Durham, regarding the Duke Lacrosse Hoax. Nice.

(Nod to L. Smith for the assist)

BP Spills Coffee

BP tries to handle coffee spill.

I like how the only woman is the only one who tries to do anything.

(Nod to G. Mankiw, via MJE)

My man BobLee has some thoughts about Raleigh's mayor.

What Mayor Meeker said: Members of the Wake County school board "are not from this area and do not share our values..."

(source)

Let me translate that for you: "Y'all Yankees git yer sorry, carpet-baggin' racist asses back on I-85, headed north, and don't even stop to pee 'til you hit South Hill"

The cool thing is that Mayor Meeker.... is... NOT... FROM... NORTH CAROLINA, and went to school in Connecticut. As we native southerners say, "Bless his heart."

As Bob Lee points out, Mayor Meeker's own WIFE is on that very school board that does not share "our" values.

People on the left only believe in democracy as long as the majority agrees with them. As soon as the majority shows a mind of its own, it's time to bring out the guns.

No Kid Can Resist a Mud Puddle

Smartass?

Wow, Joe B gets mad as easy as Bob Ethridge does.

The authoritarian streak among "progressives" is remarkable.

Still, it is easy to see why Joe Biden and the Obama admin generally have no sympathy for the tax burden on small businesses.

1. They themselves have never run anything, or had any job other than in "public service," where pretty much everything is done FOR you, not TO you.

2. They don't actually PAY taxes, as we found out in confirmation hearings over and over again. Taxes are for the little people, not for the titans of government.

(Nod to Angry Alex)

don't let our youth go to waste

Ah, France, where reality is optional. Thanks for this:

The front lines of the latest French protest against raising the retirement age revealed a remarkable sight: Not the slightest wrinkle, not a single gray hair.
Brandishing "Save our Pensions!" banners, students who haven't even entered the job market yet are already worried about what happens when they leave it.
Welcome to France, where workers' rights are so deeply entwined into the culture that even teenagers are unsettled about plans to raise the retirement age from 60 to 62, which is still among the lowest in Europe. The reform protest brought nearly a million people out into the streets across the country Thursday.

and here is the belle of the ball:

Despite the protest's colored balloons and jovial atmosphere, Julie Mandelbaum, a 23-year-old geopolitics student from the prestigious Institut de Sciences Politiques, was not in a party mood.
Four years ago, she erected barricades in front of several French universities to stop a contentious work contract that would have made it easier for companies to hire — and fire — young workers. The government then abandoned the proposal.

Mandelbaum says the government should tax high wage-earners and banks instead to ensure there is enough money for pensions when she retires.

"Don't let the government squander away our pension!" she bellowed into her microphone, leading the march for France's main student union UNEF.

The wrong Weigel

Wake me up when the interweb blogging heads start discussing THIS Weigel:

How to succeed in soccer, or where's Vlade Divac when you really need him.

Consider this the equivalent of a 2,000 word essay:

Welcome to America: Ghana's B%tch

Once again the USA gave up an early goal, but this time they just couldn't overcome it. People, did you know that (a) the only goals Ghana scored in group play came on penalty kicks?, (b) Ghana's best player never played at all? (c) Ghana also knocked the USA out of the World Cup the last time.

This piece puts the blame right where it belongs.

I am not upset though (not yet anyway), my team is Mexico!

Not the Onion

As far as I can tell this is serious, though of course it is not real.

The more you read, the better it gets. Smart. Incisive. Safe and Secure. Nice.
Here is their "What is IARPA?" page...

(Nod to Kevin L., who is smart and incisive, but not safe)

Interview with Iraqi Newsweekly GULAN

An "interview" with the Iraqi/Kurd newsweekly GULAN, and Ferhad M. Hassan, editor in chief. His questions in italics, my answers in Roman....The subject is the transition to democracy in Iraq and Kurdistan.

1- In the transitional stage, everything in the society is facing changes. So, we would like to ask you, how do you define post dictatorship transitional stage and what are the necessary steps required to be taken?

We have learned a lot about the problem of transition. The hardest problem is to reform the legal system, to ensure that judges, police, and public officials are fair in enforcing the law, and that the law applies equally to everyone.

Until this happens, the political transition cannot be fully effective, or complete. So the problem of the transitional stage is that the voters do not yet fully trust the government, or the police. And so they may not be willing to pay their taxes without close scrutiny. But that means that the government cannot pay the police, and judges, and so the system is always on the verge of running out of money.

Many scholars and professors in the U.S. have concluded that having a strong system of honest judges must come BEFORE a strong democracy.

2- As many experts think that transitional stage is not an easy step and takes many years. Is there any measurement to determine the end of the transitional stage?

In the U.S., it took a full decade, from 1791 through 1801. Even then, there were lots of problems. The key factor in proving the transition is complete is when an opposition party is able to run against the governing group, and win in a fair election. And then the defeated governing party hands over power voluntarily. Elections are "peaceful revolutions," where the outside group defeats the ruling group, and takes over the government, without war or bloodshed.

So, two things have to happen: 1. A free and fair election where the ruling party loses, and 2. A peaceful transition of power, accepted by all people (including the Army) as being legitimate.

3- The most important element in the transitional stage for building democracy is the political parties. Especially the countries which have been under dictatorship. So, the political parties to a certain extend are revolutionary not democratic. So, once the political parties need to be democratized first, how can they produce democracy?

Parties ARE revolutionary, yes. But democracy ensure peaceful revolutions. That is what elections are: peaceful revolutions. And parties are crucial for this. Imagine that there was to be a soccer match between "11 guys" and "Another 11 guys." No one cares about watching that. But if the "Party I Love" is going against the "Party I Don't Like", then I will go to the soccer match, or I will turn out for the election.

Experts on democracy nearly universally say that democracy is impossible without parties. Only parties can create a sense of connection with voters, and create a repuation that keeps government accountable, for success or failure.

4- Developing and implementation of economy market is another aspect of the transitional stage. But, many experts think that, transition from central economy to independent economy may result in corruption. So, how to avoid and prevent corruption in the transitional stage?

Again, the problem is fair judges and police. Also, having a market economy creates a middle class, a countervailing power that helps keep government accountable.

The problem faced by Iraq is that it has great oil wealth, and this wealth is a temptation for corruption. The oil wealth of the country means that politicians are tempted to promise cheap gas, and low taxes. Corruption results when people can make more money from misusing public office than they can from using private enterprise honestly. If a man starts a restaurant, he makes money by providing good food at low prices. If a man becomes a corrupt policeman, he makes money by stealing from drivers at checkpoints and by threatening people. Corruption is MUCH more likely in a planned economy, because people pay bribes to the center for favorable treatment.

5- Another important aspect of the transitional stage is the role of free mass media and intellectuals of the society. So, how far free mass media and intellectuals can play an effective role in the transitional stage?

The media and intellectuals must try to do two things. 1. Educate the public on the process of transition, and warn that it may take ten years, and 2. Report on corrupt practices, and violations of the law, even when it embarrasses the government. The problem is that the media cannot be truly "free" until it can carry out this function without fear of government reprisal and repression. This is the key to transition: when a newspaper or television person can write or say something critical of the government without fear. If there is fear, then the media, or intellectuals, cannot carry out their function. Even uncertainty about government response can have a "chilling effect," causing media and intellectuals to censor themselves.

6- Religion and politicization of religion is another aspect for building of obstacles in the transitional stage. So, how far the Islamic political parties are reasons for the backward situations in the eastern and Islamic societies?

The problem is not religion, the problem is religious intolerance. There are many "Islams" and many kinds of believers. An insistence that each citizen can live as he chooses is the guarantee of religious freedom for all.

So, the problem is not Islam, but rather demagogues and authoritarian leaders who try to use Islam as a way to get power over other people. This can only happen if voters allow it. Voters have to vote for leaders who vow to protect the freedom to practice Islam, not leaders who say they will impose one particular narrow view of Islam on everyone.

7- How success in the transitional stage is evaluated? And, what are the conditions that should be taking into consideration in deciding whether transitional stage is passed or not?

If people trust their police, and trust that judges will treat them fairly, and pay their taxes voluntarily, then democracy has begun.

If in addition the ruling party loses an election, and hands over power peacefully, then the transition is complete.