Over at Reason, Nick Gillespie takes a look at spree-killer (and ex-cop) Christopher Dorner's "manifesto" and pronounces it useless: If there is a message buried deep within Dorner's incoherent litany of recriminations, anger, and random name-checks, it's this: People who go on shooting sprees typically tell us very little about society at large. They are by definition far, … [Read more...] about On the Significance of Mass Shooters
ICE Agents Got That Can’t-Throw-People-In-Jail Blues
My previous post on immigration discussed the Obama administration's proposal for immigration reform. I wasn't thrilled with it, and I laid much of the problem with the abusive use of power by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.So now today I read that Chris Crane, president of the ICE employees' union, wants its agents to have even more power. [T]he National … [Read more...] about ICE Agents Got That Can’t-Throw-People-In-Jail Blues
Taking a Look at Obama’s Immigration Reform
I just got an email from Cecilia Muñoz, who is the Director of President Obama's Domestic Policy Council, outlining the administration's proposal for immigration reform. Rather than use the abbreviated description in the email, I'll use the slightly wordier summary on the Whitehouse web site: FACT SHEET: Fixing our Broken Immigration System so Everyone Plays by the Rules "So … [Read more...] about Taking a Look at Obama’s Immigration Reform
Abusing US Attorney Carmen Ortiz
I've been following some of the discussions about the prosecutorial conduct that may have lead to Aaron Swartz's suicide, but I haven't posted anything about it because it didn't seem all that unusual, except for the suicide, which is not really all that unusual either. I didn't initially understand why so many people are heaping verbal abuse on US Attorney Carmen Ortiz for … [Read more...] about Abusing US Attorney Carmen Ortiz
Addicted to Harlotry — Part 3: Capital Investment
In Part 1, I introduced the concept of rational addiction and argued that failure to account for it causes us to underestimate the benefits that other people receive from certain activities, which may lead us to believe that there is something unnaturally wrong about their high levels of consumption.Then in Part 2, I explored the ideas of a supply-side version of rational … [Read more...] about Addicted to Harlotry — Part 3: Capital Investment