Tyler Cowen explains the bizarre effects of a Saudi ban on the sale of dogs and cats, in an effort to stop unwanted passes at women (by men walking their pets):
This is, of course, a net benefit for the offenders to date. The newly created artificial scarcity increases the conversation value of the already [...]

Continue reading " Walking a Cat to Pick Up Women? "

McCain tells the girl “no” I won’t raise taxes… which would be good if he hasn’t been going around saying that “everything” is on the table, including raising payroll taxes.
This clip from Olbermann goes through John McCain’s many flips and flops on the issue, including a bizarre statement from his campaign claiming that the Senator, [...]

Continue reading " Did John McCain Lie to a Little Girl? "

Below is the video that played at Kent’s memorial service last week:

And just for the heck of it,  figured I’d share a couple of my favorite pictures… During the Yankee swap at our staff Christmas party, Kent (appropriately) got a Magic 8 ball… so for those of you who were wondering how all those important [...]

Continue reading " Tribute to Kent Snyder "

Came across this column by Dave Barry (courtesy of A Second Hand Conjecture)… It probably does a better job explaining the stupidity of farm subsidies than just about anything else I’ve ever read:
Farm Security: The mohair of the dog that bites you

If you’re like most American taxpayers, you often wake up in the middle of [...]

Continue reading " Stability means other people getting your money "

Ron Paul supporters who signed up for a money bomb just received the following email from the Bob Barr campaign:
Dear Friend of Liberty,
Do you believe as I do that our government is too big and too powerful?
Do you share my concern that our privacy rights and other civil liberties are being eroded in the false [...]

Continue reading " Barr Makes His Pitch to Ron Paul Supporters "

Ok, so you can have a handgun in D.C. now, but only in your home and only if it’s unloaded and locked away. At least, that’s the law the DC government is attempting to pass in the wake of Heller. (Unfortunately, the Supreme Court left plenty of leeway by saying that “reasonable” restrictions on gun [...]

Continue reading " Predictable "

Liberty Maven has been running an interesting series of analyzes on the presidential candidates to see how they rate compared to Ron Paul (Methodology here). While you can quibble with a point or two here or there, the overall trend suggested by the scores seems reasonable enough.
The tally (out of 99) is:
Barack Obama 17
John [...]

Continue reading " The Paul-O-Meter "

Over on DiscoverScholars.org blog, I discuss a novel idea for keeping education costs low and improving the quality of higher education.
Just like the need to decouple health insurance from employers, I propose separating students’ available financial aid from the schools at which they’re enrolled.

Continue reading " The Economics of Education "