I've seen a few stories and tweets saying that a conservative think-tank accidentally proved that single-payer healthcare will save Americans a lot of money. They're talking about a working paper released by Charles Blahous at the conservative Mercatus Center. The dumbest story I've found so far is from Matt Bruenig at Jacobin magazine: The US could insure 30 … [Read more...] about No, a Conservative Think-Tank Did Not Say Single-Payer Saves Money
Carbon Dividend/Carbon Tax
I've fallen behind on my blog reading, so I missed Greg Laden's post a few days ago in which he tries to argue that carbon taxes aren't really taxes. Actually, he seems to prefer to call them a "carbon dividend," which is apparently the trendy new name for this idea. I googled and found this page at the Citizens Climate Lobby which explains it. It's basically a carbon tax -- … [Read more...] about Carbon Dividend/Carbon Tax
Building My New PC
When I first started buying computers, they got so much better every year that a seven year old computer like mine would have been completely unable to run software designed for the newest computers. The pace of advancement is slower these days, however, so even though it's several generations out of date, my computer was still pretty usable from a performance perspective with … [Read more...] about Building My New PC
Courtesanal Access Protocols
A while back, I stumbled across a series of posts by New Orleans sex worker Annie Calhoun on the subject of screening clients who contact her through the internet. I was especially struck by the degree of sophistication she shows in her thinking about security.I realize that sounds condescending, but I don't mean it that way. Corporate IT security managers would be thrilled … [Read more...] about Courtesanal Access Protocols
Trump and the Art of the Vandal
On Monday of last week, Harley-Davidson announced that it will be moving production of motorcycles destined for the European Union to somewhere outside the United States. The reason isn't hard to understand: In response to U.S. duties on European steel and aluminum, the EU enacted tariffs Friday on more than $3 billion worth of U.S. goods including bourbon, yachts and … [Read more...] about Trump and the Art of the Vandal