Better headline: “Bill Clinton credits GOP and Press for Diligent Inquiry into America’s Email Woes” (Headline: “Bill Clinton Blames G.O.P. and Press for Wife’s Email Woes” — NY Times)
Sep 272015
Sep 262015
Better headline: “Clinton would get more Hollywood money if there was less news about her” (Headline: “Hillary Clinton’s big donors in California have found all sorts of reasons to be nervous” — LA Times)
Dec 032013
Uh, oh. Another crazy patchwork of state and local regulations is under attack. (The Reticulator is almost always in favor of these crazy patchworks on anti-monopoly grounds.)
In Trempealeau County, Wis., where a number of new sand mines have opened, officials recently imposed a one-year ban on issuing new permits.
“We were looking at hundreds of permits being taken out, dozens of proposed mines that could become operational within a year,” said Sally Miller, a member of the county’s board of supervisors. “I didn’t want us to be 20 years from now saying we wish we had known.”
Even so, some state lawmakers worry a much needed job-creating sector is under threat, and hope to shift regulatory control to the state.
Dec 032013
To start a bank, you need to spell out how you’re going to guard against cyberattack. To take over the country’s medical care system, you do not. That’s the advantage of doing things with an unregulated monopoly.
To convince regulators of their viability, the backers behind the Bird-in-Hand group raised about $17 million from investors. Brent Peters, chief executive of the Bank of Bird-in-Hand, estimated the group spent about $800,000 in preparing its application for a new charter, including consulting and legal fees, rent on a temporary office during the roughly seven-month application process and the salaries of top managers, four of whom were on the payroll one month before the bank won FDIC approval.
In its application, the bank had to lay out internal policies and procedures in detail and specify the systems in place to, for example, guard against cyberattacks.
“You are talking perhaps anywhere from 8 to 16 inches of paper,” the bank’s attorney, Nick Bybel, said of the application.
Tally of U.S. Banks Sinks to Record Low – WSJ.com.
May 172013
Obamacare Sees Swiss Show Mandatory-Private System Works – Bloomberg.
Switzerland’s mandatory coverage. More expensive health care than we have in the U.S. Basic coverage is defined by the govt. Insurance companies can make money off of the extra policies, but not from basic coverage.
Apr 292013
I remember writing the below letter to the editor of the Kalamazoo Gazette, but I had not remembered the topic correctly. I found this one in my e-mail archives, dated August 29, 2004. I did get a call from the Gazette while I was on the road in northern Indiana, but this letter was never published.
I’ve read and re-read the words from your editorial titled “Campaigns unfit for human consumption,” hoping there is some mistake, but each time I look the words are still there: “The downside of freedom of speech in this country is that any individual or organization is free to voice its opinions about the government and its leaders.”
That’s not the downside to freedom of speech. That’s the upside. As a newspaper, you’re supposed to be reminding us of that rather than creating an environment conducive to censorship.
George W. Bush has said that the so-called 527 groups like the Swift Boat Veterans should not be allowed to put out their ads. That statement alone shows he is not suited to the role of leader of the free world. How is he going to bring democracy to Iraq if he doesn’t understand how free speech works at home? He’s no more fit to be president than John Kerry, who is using the courts to try to suppress the same ads, and who still hasn’t repudiated his wife’s statement that uncivil discourse in politics is somehow “un-American.”
Whatever happened to the old days when people said, “I may disagree with what you say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it?” You failed on both counts. You failed to say a single word of disagreement that explains why you don’t like the swifties’ ads, and you failed to defend their right to have their say.
Maybe you should mediate on the following quotes from the past, when people still believed in free speech:
“We can never be sure that the opinion we are endeavoring to stifle is a false opinion; and if we were sure, stifling it would be an evil still.” — John Stuart Mill, “On Liberty”
“The fact is that censorship always defeats its own purpose, for it creates, in the end, the kind of society that is incapable of exercising real discretion.” — Henry Steele Commager”
Censorship reflects society’s lack of confidence in itself. It is a hallmark of an authoritarian regime.” — Potter Stewart
“The only sure weapon against bad ideas is better ideas.” — Alfred Whitney Griswold
“A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.” — John F. Kennedy
John Gorentz (address redacted)
My home phone is xxx-xxx-xxxxand my office number is xxx-xxx-xxxx. However, if you want to contact me about this, I won’t be at either of those. As soon as I click send, I’m heading off on a 2 week bicycle trip. My cell phone is xxx-xxx-xxxx. I often need a chance to find a place to pull over before I can answer.
Apr 262013
Um, “cult of personality” is a term that Khrushchev used to criticize Stalin without criticizing the system that created him. It’s not as though Putin hasn’t been hard at work creating his own personality cult, anyway. And I presume that even in Putin’s Russia it’s illegal to steal votes to win an election. But he’s probably right that there aren’t any labor camps to be seen these days. Beating and torturing difficult opponents in prison, yes, but labor camps, no.
“I don’t see any elements of Stalinism here. Stalinism is linked to the cult of personality, massive legal violations, repressions and labor camps.” (URL)
Apr 072013
Re: Max Baucus and Dave Camp: Tax Reform Is Very Much Alive and Doable – WSJ.com.
Senator Max Baucus and Representative Dave Camp:
Write on the chalkboard, one million times: “If we don’t cut spending, tax reform doesn’t matter.”
After you complete that task, write this one a billion times: “Tax reform rhetoric is a coward’s way of evading the hard duty of spending cuts.”
After that is done, you may go outside and join the other kids at recess.
Mar 182013
I’m currently listening to The Ascent of Money, by Niall Ferguson.
I don’t know how he manages to tell the stories of the Savings and Loan Crisis and the current fiscal mess without telling about their antecedents in the Continental bailout, but somehow he does it.
Mar 162013
A probable example of regulatory failure. This can happen when the emphasis turns from health and safety to the rules about health and safety.
State building officials say they would like to help Mr. Conway and are considering changes. Local officials say their hands are tied because the codes are written by the state. They also say even amending building codes wouldn’t address fire and health issues at Turtle Island.
via Ah, Wilderness! Mountain Man vs. the Building Inspector – WSJ.com.