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 study that the book reviewer cites to give a flavor for these books —
Linda is a 31 year old woman who was concerned while in college about social justice and discrimination. Which is more probable: (a) that she became a bank teller, or that (b) she became a bank teller and feminist activist?

The tendency to choose (b) is strong, but that’s not a rational choice. The broader choice (a) is rationally more probable than the narrower one (b).

Examples and studies like these make for interesting puzzles.

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 the right of individuals to bear arms for self-defense and hunting is simply overwhelming.

Attempts to argue for a more restrictive interpretation of the Second Amendment are second-rate and historically dishonest.

Libertarians of all types have strongly contended for a sound reading of the Second Amendment. The right of individuals to bear arms is a fundamental American liberty guaranteed in our constitution.

The full decision is available at Dist. of Columbia v. Heller, No. 07-290

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 their own course.

Many others in our city lack that same mobility. They believe in the promise of America, yet find that promise only partially fulfilled in this small town. Moving on to bigger and better is the least of their concerns.

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, after all, he was acting on behalf of the public health. I would give the Juneteenth celebrants credit for being able to judge their best interests at their picnic.

I’d also note how one-sided apologies concerning municipal officials are becoming. Thin-skinned officials are quick to complain about lawful comments that they “don’t appreciate,” but when they unfairly inconvenience or badger others they contend what they did was in the interest of a higher public good.

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 the people who earnestly insist that they do are often endearing eccentrics.

A cruel society would torment people like this. It is a measure of Americans’ respect for individual rights that we do not bully harmless dreamers searching for giant apes or supernatural wolves just beyond their backyards.

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 residents in the area have nicknamed one of the most ferocious birds “Hitchcock,” after that director’s film of birds gone bad.

The photograph from the Tribune shows the offending blackbird poorly; I have a photo of a genuine agelaius phoeniceus so readers can get a better look at this threat from above. See you yourself —

If you look closely, you can almost make out a smirk on the little miscreant’s beak.

What’s wrong with the people of Chicago, cowering before a pesky little blackbird? Stand tall, city of the broad shoulders, hog butcher to the world!

Besides, America has the technology to handle a problem like this: fight blackbirds with the Blackbird.

America should bring her own Blackbird, a Mach 3 spy plane, out of retirement to handle this avian menace. The Pentagon spent a lot of money for Lockheed’s über-cool, super-fast plane, the SR-71 Blackbird. They cost over thirty million apiece, back when thirty million meant something. Stick a few guns on this thing, and Hitchcock the blackbird will meet his match in Lockheed’s SR-71 Blackbird.

Here’s a short video of the Blackbird plane in flight.

Guaranteed, this will scare the feathers off any agelaius phoeniceus, especially if the plane swoops through the canyons of Chicago’s skyscrapers on the way to its target. A little machine gun fire, a rocket or two, some flares, and the problem’s solved.

The SR-71 Blackbird is proof of great American engineering; according to a website I found, engineers with slide rules designed the plane. Birds can’t even read slide rules, and even if they could, I don’t think that their little feet could manipulate the slide properly.

We have no reason to defer to them.

Chicago – be strong. Defend your city!

Meanwhile, there are probably 500 Chicago municipal corruption cases that the Tribune hasn’t even covered…

Nice to see that the paper has its priorities straight. They’re almost ready to join a chain of Wisconsin weeklies… more >>