Columnist Steve Chapman has a piece today complaining that the coming increase in the minimum wage will cause unemployment: Come Friday, the federally mandated minimum wage will jump to $7.25 an hour from $6.55 -- an 11 percent increase. At a time when employers are laying off workers, Washington is going to make it more expensive to keep them. If you're a minimum wage … [Read more...] about The Minimum Wage and Unemployment
The Blogger Identity: Claims
One of the recent kerfuffles in the legal blogosphere (or, if you must, the blawgosphere) is about anonymity. On blogs. Yeah! I know! But they all sound so serious! Dan Hull started it (this time) with his declaration that What About Clients was now a "Wuss-Free Zone." Effective July 1, 2009, and absent compelling reasons, this blog will no longer print any comments of … [Read more...] about The Blogger Identity: Claims
Beating Customs Agents With Your Laptop
[Excuse me while I rant...] I've never been out of the country, so I've never had to deal with the U.S. Customs Service (or whatever self-important name these tax collectors are using lately), but I hate the whole organization on principle anyway because they're a bunch of weasels who insist on conducting unjustified searches of United States citizens. Police need a … [Read more...] about Beating Customs Agents With Your Laptop
1984: Social Media Edition
In George Orwell's famous distopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, one of the most oppressive features of his totalitarian world is the ubiquitous surveillance. Every public place---and every private room as well---is always being monitored through a massive network of two-way video cameras called telescreens. Do anything that angered the tyrannical regime of Big Brother and a … [Read more...] about 1984: Social Media Edition
Story of a Photo – Texting While Driving
The New York Times has up a story about distracted driving and cell phones. I only skimmed the story---I'm skeptical about the issue, but I don't know enough to really have an opinion---because I was looking at the picture. Radley Balko had pointed it out in a passing comment: I'm trying to figure out how the photo for this NY Times scare story on distracted driving was taken. … [Read more...] about Story of a Photo – Texting While Driving