Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal has a book review of two books demonstrating how people choose irrationally. The first is Ori & Rom Brafman’s Sway, and the second is Marc Gerstein’s Flirting with Disaster. (Earlier this year, I read Nicholas Taleb’s Fooled by Randomness, a book that addresses similar themes.) Here is a result from a…

This morning, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision striking down an onerous and unconstitutional ban on gun ownership in the District of Columbia. Individual liberty includes all the rights guaranteed in the Constitution – including an honest reading of the Second Amendment. Anti-gun groups will decry this decision, but the scholarship in support of…

One often hears that a politician or official is 100% or 110% or even 150% committed to his or her work. Perhaps. I will assume that’s all true. Still, some of these same people have prepared to leave only to return and leave again, or have simply tried to leave. They are free to choose…

Over at Reason magazine’s blog, Hit & Run, there’s a June 25 post about how Texas health inspectors almost ruined a Juneteenth event. The officials objected that free sandwiches – 600 of them – could not be served publicly if they were prepared offsite in a private home. The official involved refuses to apologize because,…

I seldom watch television, but that doesn’t mean that I cannot appreciate quality programming. Tonight, on the History Channel, there is a double feature of Monster Quest beginning at 7 p.m. The first episode is about ghosts, and the second is about giant killer snakes. I do not believe that these monsters really exist, but…

I saw a story in the Chicago Tribune about how red-winged blackbirds were attacking pedestrians and cyclists along walkways in Chicago. The Tribune story, to which I have linked, even has photographs of a blackbird attacking a cyclist. No how, no way did the poor cyclist deserve such mistreatment. The attacks are so common that…

Over at the Wisconsin State Journal, there’s a story on the Wisconsin Department of Revenue’s assessment that Wisconsin will not see economic recovery until 2010. That’s a long way off for many businesses and families. The Dept. of Revenue report is a statewide assessment; some areas may lag the Wisconsin average. One could guess —…

Here’s a video this morning, instead of my Friday cartoon feature, in which the Beatles sing about how much they like the rain. Enjoy.

Here’s a description of a group within a struggling community. Who’s the group, and what’s the community? Recognize anyone you know? The answer this evening… [L]ocals were overwhelmed. Modern…ways and the waves of foreigners had created among them a sense of panic, he said, “the erosion of everything traditional and a real sense of insecurity.”…

On Monday, I published a post on local politics entitled, “Local Incumbency.” The post was a brief — too brief, I think — stab at the idea (well-circulated long ago) that politicians, despite ideological rhetoric, tend toward self-interest. There’s a school of economics and political thought — public choice theory — that admirably sets out…

It was a year ago that FREE WHITEWATER began. Since then, there have been hundreds of posts, on dozens of topics. Many have addressed the administration of justice in our small town, and other posts considered the right of free expression. My interest in these topics is unchanged. Nonetheless, I did not begin writing for…

There’s a new feature that I have added to the site, on the right sidebar. It’s called ‘Now Reading’ it shows what a blogger has on his or her reading list. There’s also a section to add a review of books finished. The plug in was created by Rob Miller, a college student in England,…