27Sep
10 Minutes to Understand the Current Credit Crisis
If you’ve got 10 minutes, you can learn how we got where we are (h/t Hot Air):
Take the time to watch this, then share it with your friends, family, etc.
13Sep
Shots Across The Bow: Gas Prices: The Real Story
Excellent explanation of why gas prices go up when supply is interrupted: It's amazing what you can learn if you just ask a question or two instead of assuming you already know the answer. Why are gas prices spiking today? Gouging, right? It's the evil big oil companies ripping us off again! Actually, no, it isn't. Read the whole thing via the link above...worth the read. Shots Across The Bow: Gas Prices: The Real Story...
19May
Inspiration from New Zealand
Wow. This post, on successful government reform in New Zealand, is remarkable and inspiring. If nothing else, it gives one hope that perhaps there will be at least some last bastion of liberty in the world if the libs have their way here in the U.S. Certainly, I'll have to put NZ on my list of places to visit soon.
19Mar
CFLs more hazardous than previously believed
Who would have predicted this : Compact fluorescent light bulbs, long touted by environmentalists as a more efficient and longer-lasting alternative to the incandescent bulbs that have lighted homes for more than a century, are running into resistance from waste industry officials and some environmental scientists, who warn that the bulbs’ poisonous innards pose a bigger threat to health and the environment than previously thought. Oh yeah, that's right... I did , almost a year ago: So it seems to...
05Feb
Understanding the Laffer Curve
Here's a Laffer Curve Tutorial from Dan Mitchell of the Cato Institute. Should be required viewing for Congress, in my opinion.
03Aug
Rolling Stone hates Ethanol
OK, so when you've failed to convince Rolling Stone that a favorite liberal solution is a good thing, you've got a real problem (WARNING: article contains some strong language): The great danger of confronting peak oil and global warming isn't that we will sit on our collective asses and do nothing while civilization collapses, but that we will plunge after "solutions" that will make our problems even worse. Like believing we can replace gasoline with ethanol, the much-hyped biofuel that we make...
15Jun
West Nile Fear Rises Again
Time to fire up the fear engine: With another summer upon us, the media is again abuzz with news about the West Nile virus. News agencies across the nation are offering tips and advice on how to avoid contracting the disease. Advice ranges from the pragmatic (drain water on your property) to the impracticable (limit time outside at dawn and dusk, when mosquitoes are most active). Innumerable experts have been consulted and their consensus is clear: be afraid, very afraid. So begins a column from...
13Jun
Ethanol and food supply
Instapundit asks an important question: WILL ETHANOL LEAD TO FOOD SHORTAGES? Ethanol is a renewable, homegrown fuel that can help lower U.S. dependence on foreign oil. But as more and more ethanol is made from corn, less and less corn is available for food production, and that’s causing some unforeseen problems. Corn is a mainstay of American agriculture— it’s an important ingredient in cereals and baked goods, and corn syrup is used to make processed foods like candy, chips and soft drinks. But...
29May
Linda Chavez insults the majority of Americans
I used to respect and admire Linda Chavez. Hers was a voice of reason on race and racial politics, among other subjects. I greatly enjoyed her book, An Unlikely Conservative , and found her story inspiring. But reading the following, I cannot believe my eyes: Some people just don't like Mexicans -- or anyone else from south of the border. They think Latinos are freeloaders and welfare cheats who are too lazy to learn English. They think Latinos have too many babies, and that Latino kids will dumb...
24May
Politicians Posturing...as usual
Does anyone actually believe this conversation actually took place: "I was at a funeral Saturday, and when the monsignor greeted me, he said, 'My God, Bart, you have to do something about these gas prices!' " said Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), chief sponsor of the anti-gouging bill. So the Democrat-controlled House (with help from moronic Republicans) have passed a bill, which if enacted into law, would have the perverse effect of discouraging investment in the petroleum industry (why would anyone...
04May
I, Pencil
For those of you who've either never read it, or perhaps never heard of it: I, Pencil Arguably the most concise explanation of the power of the free market to give people what they need, in the most efficient fashion, and the why freedom is not only the best, but the only way, to meet those needs. The Foundation for Economic Education, the publishers of I, Pencil , have a great library of economic literature available, with many publications available free of charge in HTML and PDF format. Check...
26Mar
Are Unions Good for the American Worker?
I suppose that all depends on whether you're a worker that wants a union or not. As the Center for Union Facts web site amply demonstrates, there are many workers for whom unions are not so great, and for some, deadly.
19Mar
Why gas prices rise in the Spring
An excellent explanation of the fundamental reasons behind Spring gasoline price spikes. Here's a clue...price gouging isn't in there.
25Feb
Conservationist Conservative? Feh!
In Friday's Washington Post, South Carolina Governor (and Republican) Mark Sanford has an opinion piece on climate change and politics.
My response can be found here, on the American Thinker website.
My response can be found here, on the American Thinker website.
22Feb
Ethanol Reality Check
Think ethanol is the way to hedge against middle-east instability or other concerns about our consumption of petroleum?
Think again.
Think again.
21Feb
Australia to ban incandescent light bulbs
I'm a big fan of Aussie Prime Minister John Howard, who is as stalwart an ally as the United States could hope for in a world where too often those whose freedoms came at the price of American blood view the U.S. as an enemy. So it's disappointing to see his administration jump on the greenhouse gasbag bandwagon, deciding to ban incandescent light bulbs in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. When the government can decide for you what kinds of light bulbs you may or may not purchase, that's...
08Feb
Interesting Article on Hydrogen Hype
Over at The New Atlantis, there's a pretty thorough debunking of the overhyped potential (or lack thereof) of hydrogen as a fuel for motor vehicles. If only half of the article's claims regarding the costs of hydrogen-powered vehicles are true, it really puts a stake through the heart of this particular vampire of taxpayer dollars, not that it'll die as a result, alas. Popular Mechanics covered much of the same ground in a cover article on hydrogen recently, so I'm inclined to accept the conclusion...
01May
Shop 'til you drop...
That's my response to the "day without an immigrant" protests planned for today. Shop, work, dine out...let's make it a banner day for the economy. If a bunch of people who broke our laws to come here want to demonstrate how little we really need them, so be it. Perhaps once we've gotten through these pseudo-protests backed by the labor unions, we can start discussing how to secure the border.
13Jan
Devastating takedown of current global warming conventional wisdom
This article , in the Financial Times, illustrates to devastating effect the extent to which the current debate on global warming and what, if anything, we should be doing about it, rests on a foundation of ignorance. While adherents of the Kyoto protocol insist that current computer models of global warming are accurate and predict a dire future, apparently these models have missed a few things. For one, apparently climate scientists missed the fact that trees and other plants may be producing as...
28Dec
Arrogance combined with fear-mongering...no way to run a world
Very interesting speech from Michael Crichton (author of State of Fear , among others) on the way that our response to the fear industry (the touting by the media of the latest thing or things that will kill us) and our arrogant belief that we understand (and thus the government can successfully manage) natural systems such as national parks. He uses compelling examples such as the Chernobyl nuclear accident (claims of anywhere from 2,000-15,000 dead...in fact, only 56 died in the accident itself...
06Dec
Leftist Self-parody from Montreal
You just can't make this stuff up. Apparently there's a " feminist-based environmental group " that is asserting that men are the primary culprits in global warming, and that women are bearing the brunt of its purported effects. No, I'm not joking. One might hope that it's an elaborate hoax, but I think one would be disappointed in hoping that. An example of this idiocy is the statement of Ulrike Rohr, the director of the group: "To give you an example from Germany, it is mostly men who are going...
16Sep
Union = Irony Challenged
Clearly some folks haven't mastered the concept of irony . Apparently, according to this story in Las Vegas Weekly , the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union doesn't grasp that there's something a little weird about hiring temp workers at $6 an hour, with no benefits, to stand out in 104 degree heat and protest the poor working conditions (and lack of union representation) at Wal-Mart. It apparently didn't occur to UCFW organizer Bill Hornbrook that there's some inconsistency here. In...
16Sep
Wealth = Survivability...even among the poor
OK, so perhaps that headline bears some explanation. There's abundant evidence, including this Washington Post article , that demonstrates that one of the best indicators of the survivability of any given natural disaster is the wealth of the society in which the disaster occurred. And it's important to note, despite the constant drumbeat from the mainstream media, that this benefit of societal wealth accrues to both rich and poor in a wealthy society. That's not to say that poor blacks in New Orleans...
09Sep
Subsidizing Risk
I want the government (the feds in particular, but in this, probably the states as well) to get out of the business of subsidizing risky behavior. I'm not going to hold my breath, however, given the way that the U.S. Congress is collectively falling all over itself to send as many taxpayer dollars to the gulf region for "rebuilding" (never mind how much of what's committed will actually be used for that purpose). So here's my prediction, though it pains me to say it: We're going to see more Katrinas...
08Sep
Was he able to keep a straight face?
I have to wonder about the striking Northwest Airlines mechanic who, according to this story , said the following: "People are reluctant to hire a guy on strike" You don't say. I wonder why that might be? But that's not the only classic quote from those with only a distant attachment to reality. There's also this doozy, describing the same guy: He has also had trouble finding a job that pays as much. Union mechanics made $70,000 a year on average. "The last company I interviewed with, the compensation...
07Sep
Gas Prices and Economics
Here's the response I sent to an email I received last Friday, which requested that everyone (a list of many emails, all in the To: field) receiving it sign onto a "PETITION TO LOWER GAS and Diesel PRICES IN THE UNITED STATES": OK, let’s stop this right here, please. First of all, I’m putting all of the addresses on BCC, so we don’t continue to run the risk of some spammer picking up this email and putting every person on the TO: line in their SPAM database. Second, please *don’t* forward this email...
31Aug
Liberalism, Socialism, and death sentences
Yesterday, in one of the more ugly political hatchet jobs I've seen recently, the L.A. Times asserted in an editorial entitled "Bolton's Mischief" that actions by U.N. Ambassador John Bolton "would be a death sentence for millions." This remarkable assertion comes because among the hundreds of amendments the U.S. has proposed to a draft reform document, "[h]is most odious change was to delete all references to the Millennium Development Goals, which commit industrialized nations to cutting world...
28Jun
China, Christmas, and Independence Day
July 4 th , also known here in the USA as Independence Day, is rapidly approaching. My wife and I, having recently bought a new house with a nice deck, wanted to put out some bunting for the holiday (for those of you not familiar with bunting, it’s the red, white, and blue (though other colors are certainly possible) half-circle gathered fabric that is draped on railings for holidays and celebrations, in particular, Independence Day. Unfortunately, when we went to a local Michaels store, which...
29Mar
Government and Open Source
BrainWash , the online magazine of America’s Future Foundation , an organization focused on freedom and liberty, has been kind enough to publish a piece I wrote for them on the recent movement towards government mandates for open source software. The article examines the claims that have been put forth by governments in either mandating, or giving elevated consideration to, open source software, and whether these claims are being borne out by the available evidence. My thanks to Jerry Brito...
27Mar
Chinese goods and slave labor
It was often said during the Clinton years (and is still sometimes argued today) that the best way to get China to reform their human rights practices was to normalize trade relations with them and rely on market forces to gradually improve the situation. Now, I’m a big believer in free markets, but I think that’s a tall order, particularly for markets that are anything but free, if the descriptions of the Chinese practices in this article on Laogai (slave labor camps) are accurate. I...
23Dec
What's in a name?...a big payday, if you're lucky!
At least that seems to be the theory in the latest lawsuit filed against Microsoft by a company named Mythic Entertainment: Fairfax-based video-game developer Mythic Entertainment Inc. yesterday sued Microsoft Corp., saying the software giant's forthcoming game, called Mythica, infringes on the local company's trademarks. Mark Jacobs, Mythic's president and chief executive, said his company has had to contend with consumers and journalists mistaking the Microsoft title for one of his company's games...