iPhone users have access to a new app to display posts and articles from the Cato Institute. Thousands of copies were downloaded within the first day and a half.
Just a few years ago, pundits were proclaiming the end of free markets and the death of libertarianism. It was sure to be a rash and foolish prediction.
Big government Republicans wrecked their party, and Democrats doubled down on policies of that ilk. Through it all, libertarians had reason to be resolute, to stay their course. We had good ideas then, and have them now, that offer hope and opportunity. No sudden political swings of the major parties’ efforts could alter that truth.
I’m a proud member of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and here’s part of a message they’ve sent their members about recent fourth amendment victories:
It’s been a great week for electronic privacy and the 4th Amendment!
In a decision issued yesterday, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the government must have a search warrant before it can seize and search emails stored by third party email service providers. Closely tracking arguments made by EFF in our amicus brief, the court found that email users have the same reasonable expectation of privacy in their stored email as they do in their phone calls and postal mail.
And today, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with EFF and refused the government’s request to reconsider an earlier pro-privacy decision, which held that federal magistrates have the discretion to require the government to get a search warrant based on probable cause before obtaining cell phone location records. That decision, based on EFF’s briefing and oral argument as a friend of the court, has implications far beyond cell phone location privacy. It could apply to a broad range of communications records – including the content of your emails, your web search or browsing histories, as well as the location of your phone.
Last year, he might have just dropped the $184.85 Garmin global positioning system into his cart. This time, he took out his Android phone and typed the model number into an app that instantly compared the Best Buy price to those of other retailers. He found that he could get the same item on Amazon.com Inc.’s website for only $106.75, no shipping, no tax.
Mr. Tang bought the Garmin from Amazon right on the spot….
Private companies, creating software for devices from other private companies, that gives private buyers to assess quickly the best price on private goods.
There’s an objection to open immigration that holds that immigrants should be restricted from entry to prevent their over-reliance on government assistance. (I support open immigration, establishing restrictions only on those who represent a danger to others.)
In fact, objections to immigrants’ use of government programs is really an objection to government spending, generally.
That’s a sensible and solid objection: citizens are already too reliant of government support. A smaller state would benefit everyone, and simultaneously remove an objection to open immigration.
MADISON — Stunned Democrats stripped Senate Majority Leader Russ Decker of his leadership position after he abruptly turned on them and voted against new contracts for state workers….
The deals looked all but dead after Decker’s about-face late Wednesday night. Senate Democrats planned to reconvene at 10 a.m. Thursday, but they can’t approve the contracts without the Weston Democrat’s support….
On Dec. 15, 1791, the ten amendments to the Constitution known as the Bill of Rights were ratified. In 1941, in honor of the amendments’ 150th anniversary, President Franklin D. Roosevelt made the date a holiday: Bill of Rights Day.
The National Archives this year held a contest via Twitter, asking followers to distill the ten amendments in the Bill of Rights down to 140 characters each. You can see the winners here — picked by an archivist. The prize is, of course a reproduction of the Bill of Rights.
Here is the winning tweet for the Second Amendment:
Original Text:
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
Whitewater’s forecast calls for a chance of snow with a high temperature of twenty-four degrees.
Yesterday, December 15th, was the anniversary of the adoption of the Bill of Rights, following Virginia’s ratification of those constitutional amendments.
Beautiful, each principled commitment.
There’s good news from Australia this morning — a small koala maliciously injured from a pellet gun is on the road to recovery. I posted previously on Frodo the Koala’s fight for life (Video: Doctors Battle to Save Baby Koala), and despite significant injuries, she’s on the mend:
FRODO, the baby koala found with up to 15 shotgun pellets in her tiny body, continues to amaze vets with her recovery.
The joey has overcome a fractured skull and internal injuries after being shot with lead pellets about a month ago at Kenilworth in the Sunshine Coast hinterland.
Here’s a mid-week budget cutting video, from Reason.tv: Budget Chef Presents: How to Balance the Budget W/O Raising Taxes!
Reason offers the accompanying description:
Using just a big piece of pork, a large knife, and a small knife, the budget chef shows how to balance the federal budget by 2020.
As a special treat, he does it without raising taxes from the current Bush-era rates!
It seems like a complicated preparation at first, but it’s so simple that almost any elected official should be able to pull it off like a pro!
Domestic and foreign investors will love this, and it will also help create a stable environment conducive to long-term, sustainable economic growth.
Between 2011 and 2020, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that total federal outlays – for defense, agriculture subsidies, Medicare, Social Security, you name it – will total a whopping $42.1 trillion (in 2010 dollars). To bring outlays down to revenue, we need to cut a total of $1.3 trillion in total expenditures over the next 10 years.
That sounds like a really tall order until you realize that it cutting just 3.6 percent a year for each of the next 10 years. To put it in dollar terms, it means cutting about $130 billion a year from budgets that will average over $4 trillion.
That’s not so hard now, is it? By making small, systematic cuts to a federal budget that is larded up with more fat than an Ponderosa buffet, we can balance the budget without even nicking essential services.
“Budget Chef” is written and produced by Jim Epstein, Josh Swain, Meredith Bragg, and Nick Gillespie (who also hosts). Approximately 2 minutes. Scroll down for downloadable versions and subscribe to Reason.tv’s YouTube channel to get automatic notifications when new material goes live.
This video is based on “How to Balance the Budget Without Raising Taxes,” by Nick Gillespie and Reason economics columnist Veronique de Rugy of the Mercatus Center. Read that December 5, 2010 piece for detailed breakdowns of spending amounts. more >>
Here’s a part of yesterday’s Libertarian party message. Right on schedule, Republicans are back to defending policy and politics as usual –
December 13, 2010
Dear Friend of Liberty,
I’m sure you’ve seen the media reports of how President Obama and the Republicans are making deals for big increases in government spending (while keeping tax rates very high). Ethanol subsidies, more unfunded unemployment spending, etc.
About a week ago, Republican leader Mitch McConnell said, “I think the current [35%] tax rate is appropriate for our country.” No it isn’t, it’s way too high. In fact, I don’t think there should even be an income tax. Section 2.4 of the Libertarian Party Platform calls for the abolition of the IRS.
When I heard Republicans repeat the words “less government” on the campaign trail this year, I wasn’t fooled. I knew they were lying. I hope you weren’t fooled either.
Unlike the Republicans, we Libertarians believe in cutting government spending. In fact, we want to cut spending across the board — and that includes the military, Social Security, and Medicare. And we want to get rid of ethanol subsidies and other corporate welfare — while the Republicans vote to increase it….
Sen. Joe McCarthy, a great embarrassment to Wisconsin, was known as ‘Tailgunner’ Joe. To my knowledge, no one called that witch-hunter ‘Cheerleader’ Joe McCarthy.
And yet, the space between a supposedly positive ‘cheerleader’ and a witch-hunter in search of disloyalty isn’t a great distance. It was Rousseau, I think, who once remarked that many of those who supported the Enlightenment would have, in an earlier time, been champions of the Inquisition, merely following the fashion of an earlier movement.
There’s much more to be said about this, including the deeply un-American use of the term ‘disloyalty.’
For now, it is enough to note that it confirms the every word written in dissent, and serves as a reminder that there is so much yet to write.
Whitewater’s forecast calls for a mostly sunny day with a high temperature of twelve degrees.
In the City of Whitewater, the Urban Forestry commission meets from 4:15 p.m. to 6 p.m. The agenda is available online.
Update: A reader kindly writes that, in fact, this wasn’t a traditional leaked document, but a public one. For more about pesticides and honeybees, she suggests this link:
Over the concerns of its own scientists, the Environmental Protection Agency continues to approve a controversial pesticide introduced to U.S. markets shortly before the honeybee collapse [up to 1/3 of colonies have disappeared], according to documents leaked to a Colorado beekeeper….
The memo, obtained by Colorado beekeeper Tom Theobald and publicized by the Pesticide Action Network, was written in November by scientists from the EPA?s Environmental Fate and Effects Division, who are considering Bayer?s request to use clothianidin in cotton and mustard. They describe how a key Bayer safety study used by the EPA to justify its original clothianidin approvals, which were granted before the study was actually conducted, was sloppily designed and poorly run, making it a ?supplemental? resource at best.”
Note well, that from the point of view of the EPA, the leaked memo might constitute disloyalty to the EPA on the part of the agency employee who leaked it.
For state workers, Wisconsin, for example, has a whistleblower law specifically to prohibit state government from initiating, administering, or threatening to take retaliatory action if a state employee discloses violation of state or federal law, rule, or regulation, mismanagement or abuse of authority, substantial waste of public funds or a danger to public health or safety. The the law sets out the protections offered and requirements to obtain those protections. See, Wisconsin Statutes. sec. 230.80, et seq.
Today’s forecast for Whitewater calls for a sunny day with a high temperature of twelve degrees.
There’s no school in the Whitewater Unified School District today; the Aquatic Center will be open.
There are two principal City of Whitewater public meetings today. At 4:30 p.m., the Community Development Authority meets, with an agenda available online. The agenda includes, among others, these items:
Discussion and Possible Action on Strategy for Marketing in 2011
Discussion and Possible Action on Renewal of Business Park Vacant Property Listing Contract with Equity Commercial and/or other Brokerage Firms
Discussion and Possible Action on Whitewater Technology Park
a. MOU – CITY OF WHITEWATER, CITY OF WHITEWATER COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY, and the WHITEWATER-UNIVERSITY TECHNOLOGY PARK, INCORPORATED
b. Innovation Manager Search
c. Economic Development Administration Update
d. Infrastructure Updates
i. Starin Road Extension
ii. Tech Park Infrastructure
Good policy is the best marketing.
Later, at 6 p.m., the Planning Commission will meet, with the meeting agenda available online. The agenda includes, among others, these items:
Hold a public hearing for consideration of a change of the District Zoning Map for the following area to enact an ordinance to impose the R-O Non-Family Residential Overlay District Zoning classification under Chapter 19.25 of the Zoning Ordinance of the City of Whitewater for 314 W. North Street (lWUP 00089), 318 W. North Street (/WUP 00090), 326 W. North Street (/WUP 00091), and 330 W. North Street (IWUP 00092)
Hold a public hearing for consideration of a change in of the District Zoning Map to rezone from R-3 (Multi-family Residence) Zoning District to PCD (Planned Community Development) Zoning District, under Chapter 19.39 of the Zoning Ordinance of the City of Whitewater and for consideration of a GDP (General Development Plan) and SIP (Specific Implementation Plan) for the proposed student apartment development for CatCon Whitewater, LLC., with the rezoning, GDP, and SIP all associated with the following parcels located along N. Prince Street and W. Florence Street are requested to change to PCD for the development of student apartments: Tax Parcel Numbers IWUP 00178C, /WUP 00178, IWUP 00178A, City of Whitewater, Walworth
County, Wisconsin
Review the proposed one lot Certified Survey Map associated with the development of student apartments on the northwest corner of N. Prince Street and W. Florence Street for CatCon Whitewater, LLC
I’m not sure why the City of Whitewater’s municipal manager hasn’t directed city staff scientists along these lines, but I am sure the city will incorporate these findings nonetheless: Fake Watchful Eyes Discourage Naughty Behavior.
Psychology researchers at Newcastle University hung two different posters at a restaurant, to see how customers would react. They both featured text asking patrons to bin their rubbish, but one had a picture of flowers on it and the other had a pair of staring eyes.
The number of people who paid attention to the sign, and cleaned up after their meal, doubled when confronted with a pair of gazing peepers….
“Painting a pair of eyes on a wall may be useful for preventing antisocial behavior in quiet locations,” says Dr. Bateson. And, “if signs for CCTV cameras used pictures of eyes instead of cameras they could be more effective.”
