Homines libenter quod volunt credunt
Posted in Classical Liberalism on Sep 22nd, 2011
Only minutes after I posted a link to Megan McArdle’s good observation on how doing something about millionaires in particular is impossible without violating the rule of law (Hayek wrote extensively on this in the Constitution of Liberty) now we see the truth for what it is in my old state of Taxachusetts: Eventually the […]
Posted in Flotsam and Jetsam on Jul 16th, 2011
Can someone explain to me why there are not clearly visible timers on stop lights? At a minimum, drivers should be aware of how many seconds there are on yellow lights. Not every intersection is the same, and the timing differs, I am sure, at the same intersections at different times of the day. If […]
Posted in Institutions on Jun 28th, 2011
The Rochester woman who filmed the police stop outside her house was acquitted of the criminal charges brought against her. But I thought you’d appreciate these two pieces: (1) The Pink Rulers of Law: In response to the above incident, the Rochester thugs police “converged on Clarissa Street late Thursday afternoon and began ticketing their […]
Posted in Uncategorized on Oct 29th, 2010
Watch from 2:44 through 3:52
Posted in incentives, Politics on Sep 10th, 2010
Actually, we don’t get to see it! They just pick up the factory and machine and take it to a private coffee shop. On the agenda over espressos and lattes, according to more than a dozen lobbyists and political operatives who have taken part in the sessions, have been front-burner issues like Wall Street regulation, […]
Posted in Government Gone Wild on Sep 7th, 2010
Now it is not only enough for delusional light-rail supporters to “ask” taxpayers to loan them tons and tons of money to finance white manatee (elephants are too small) projects. TriMet now says it intends to make up the difference by borrowing against future federal grants, though it is questionable whether this meets FTA funding […]
Posted in Property Rights on Jun 25th, 2010
The most common defense of government use of “eminent domain” proceedings is that without the power to take land (nominally with just compensation) we would all suffer from the “holdout problem.” The holdout problem is simply this – if we are undertaking a large investment project, such as the building of a new college campus, […]
Posted in Government Thuggery, Regulation on Jun 9th, 2010
When du Pont developed cellophane (you know, plastic wrap) it was prosecuted by the Department of Justice under the terms of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. Why? Because after spending millions of dollars in R&D to develop this new product, it was able to increase sales from $0 to $100 million per year over a 20 […]