One of the side effects of my reading so many libertarian and criminal law blogs is that it makes it hard for me to enjoy watching cop dramas on TV. Your typical television tough cop who "breaks all the rules" comes across to me as a bully who I'd like to see fired, if not indicted and imprisoned. And whenever they take somone in for interrogation, I keep thinking "Shut up! … [Read more...] about Criminal Minds – Review
What If McCain and Palin Had Won?
I usually try to avoid outright partisan battles here on Windypundit, but with all the complaining people are doing about the state of the country today, I was struck by a recent tweet by Roger Ebert: Say, how d'ya think we'd be doing about now with McCain and Palin? Yes, let's try to imagine what life in this country would be like if the country had been run by these … [Read more...] about What If McCain and Palin Had Won?
The Republican Pledge To America – A Very Quick Impression
The Republicans' have now revealed their new Pledge to America, an idea based loosely on their old Contract With America. I haven't read any of it yet, but it's 48 pages long. Somehow that strikes me as a bad sign for the future of small government... Update: Yeah, I looked it over and there's nothing much here we haven't heard before, from the impossible, through the vague and … [Read more...] about The Republican Pledge To America – A Very Quick Impression
Making Lawyers Pay
There's one bad policy pattern that politicians tend to repeat over and over, and according to Nathan Koppel at the Wall Street Journal, this time they're inflicting it on lawyers: The Mississippi Supreme Court is considering a proposed rule to require lawyers in the state to provide at least 20 hours of pro bono work. The rule has been proposed to try to help the thousands of … [Read more...] about Making Lawyers Pay
Public Defense Is Free
Thirty years ago, Philip B. Crosby wrote Quality Is Free, in which he explained how a business that improved its products could earn higher profits. The basic insight was that the earlier you catch a product defect, the cheaper it is to fix: Catching a defect during your outgoing quality assurance testing is a lot cheaper than dealing with a product return from a customer, … [Read more...] about Public Defense Is Free