Newt Gingrich's Potential Presidential Run is Victim of McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Regulations

Here is a discussion of how the Federal campaign finance laws have prevented Newt Gingrich from running for President. So much for campaign finance laws encouraging competition. My book Freedomnomics made similar points regarding the impact of campaign finance regulations.

Democrat Economic Proposals

1) Hillary Clinton proposes giving every newborn $5,000.

-- Shades of George McGovern's 1972 campaign? This would cost about $20 billion per year. We give everyone $5,000 at birth but they have to pay higher taxes later to pay for that. I assume that the point of all this is to increase progressivity, but the notion that you are taxing people to give all newborns more money. If you means test the money to the poor, you dramatically lower how much you have to pay out. Presumably one reason for this could be to encourage people to have more kids, but the Even assuming that someone thought that it was necessary for yet another government program to transfer money, why would you want to give every newborn more money?

Note: I am not a big fan of the.

2) Congressional Democrats want a $35 billion increase in government health care financed by a $1 tax increase on cigarettes.

-- Also sorts of states are starting government programs with the promise that cigarette taxes will pay for them. Not only were states unlikely to get the money that they wanted to begin with, but this Federal tax increase would make that all the less likely.

Racially motivated stress as an explanation for infant mortality rates?

OK, you have differences in "poor nutrition, inadequate prenatal care, teen pregnancy, heredity, high blood pressure, stress, obesity, low birth weights and prematurity," but some academics have a different theory:

"The pregnancy scares the life out of me because I am pregnant with a baby boy, and I know how black boys are treated in this society," one study participant told researchers from Spelman College and Emory University in Atlanta. . . .

Here is my question: how has the gap between black and white infant mortality rates changed over time? The 1950s and 1960s should have had really high relative infant mortality rages, but they weren't. Well, I looked up some numbers:

The infant mortality rate for Black Americans in 1999 was 2.5 times the rate of White Americans. In 1950 the mortality rate of black infants was only 1.5 times the rate of white infants. . . .

More on Romney and guns

This is from someone who I am confident knows the facts here:

This isn't the first time we've attempted to deal with Mr. Romney on Second-Amendment issues. In 2001, the Utah Legislature passed a special bill designating the 2002 Winter Olympic venues as temporary secure areas, making it illegal to bring firearms into those venues during the Olympics. As with all secure areas designated by state law here, two requirements were attached. The first was a security perimeter around the entire venue, with metal detectors at all entrances. This, of course, was put in place at all Olympic venues. The second requirement was that gun-storage lockers be provided outside the security perimeter, where legally-carried self-defense weapons could be safely deposited.

When Mr. Romney took charge of the 2002 Salt Lake Olympic Organizing Committee, we politely asked him whether lockers would be put in place as required by law. He curtly informed us that no lockers would be provided. The absolute disdain with which he treated us left a bad taste that still lingers in the gun-rights community in Utah.<.dd>

Talks this coming week

Monday talk at the University of Toledo from noon to 1:30
Talk at Hillsdale College at 7 PM to 8:30 PM
Tuesday, Talk at Cooley Law School in Grand Rapids at noon to 1:30 PM
Wednesday Talk at Cooley Law School in Lansing Michigan from noon to 1:30 PM
Thursday talk at Cooley Law School Oakland campus at noon to 1:30 PM, Mercy Law School in Detroit from 4 to 5:30.

Jonah Goldberg gets it completely wrong on Giuliani

I generally like Jonah's writings, even if they are not as heavily number intensive as I normally like them, but on this piece I have to say I wonder if he actually read

So Giuliani went the way of many of his rivals by ditching his principles to appease the crowd. First, though, he tried a little comedy — very little. He answered a call on his cellphone from his wife in the middle of his speech, a stunt about as well received as Flounder’s query of the poker players in Animal House: “You guys playing cards?” . . . .

But if you read what Giuliani actually said I think that you have to come to a different conclusion:

Take his answer to a question about gun control:

"My position is the law should be left the way it is now. Given the level of crime in this country, I think the emphasis and the energy should be spent on enforcing the laws that presently exist, and if changes in the law are necessary later, that'll respond to other social conditions.

"I think the single most important thing that the next president has to do is to organize an effort in the Department of Justice and with state and local law enforcement to work in a cooperative way to enforce the laws that presently exist. After we do that, and we see the impact of that, then we can take a look at whether new laws are necessary; they may or may not be. "

"Given the level of crime in this country?" Would his position change if crime increased? It would certainly seem so. Surely Giuliani has frequently claimed that gun control reduces crime. Indeed, he has claimed that most of the reduction in New York City’s crime rate during the 1990s was due to gun control: "the single biggest connection between violent crime and an increase in violent crime is the presence of guns in your society...the more guns you take out of society, the more you are going to reduce murder. The less guns you take out of society, the more it is going to go up." . . .

Romney Campaign in Trouble?

Romney's campaign may be fourth nationally, but it has pinned its hopes on wins in Iowa and New Hampshire and a bounce from the coverage. John Fund at OpinionJournal's Political Diary points out that this strategy might be having some problems:

A Rasmussen Reports survey released last Tuesday showed Mr. Romney's lead over Rudy Giuliani dwindling over the course of the last month from 12 points to just three points. A survey by CNN and WMUR TV released yesterday indicated a similar downward trend: the 15-point lead Mr. Romney held over Mr. Giuliani in July is now down to a single point. Overall, Mr. Romney's lead in the RealClearPolitics Average for New Hampshire has slipped to 4%, its lowest level since the end of May.

Should Mr. Romney be worried? Yes. Is it time to hit the panic button? Not quite. The linchpin of his strategy is a win in Iowa, and right now the big lead he's built up in the Hawkeye State over the summer appears to be holding. Since winning the Ames straw poll at the beginning of August, Mr. Romney has extended his lead in the RealClearPolitics Average in Iowa by more than five points, now holding a 15.4% lead over his nearest competitor, Rudy Giuliani. . . .

If he begins to fade in Iowa, Romney's campaign will quickly implode. Romney is obviously a very smart, very polished candidate who could make a credible play for voters in the middle in a general elections, but I worry that he is out of touch with many middle America voters. I think he has had a tin ear on gun issues (becoming a life member last year or is misleading talk about hunting). The key point is the issues, not whether he is a member of the NRA. His statement that you don't need an assault weapon for hunting in discussing the assault weapons ban is what concerns people who care about these issues because it just indicates how little he actually knows about guns. I have tried to offer advice on some gun issues to people who I know are advising him, but those offers of help (now many months old) fell on deaf ears.

UPDATE: The newest Newsweek Poll should be a warning for Romney. Amony Likely Republican Caucus-Goers Romney's lead is eight percentage points over second place Fred Thompson. I think that this bodes well for Thompson and if he wins Iowa, which seems very doable, I think that he will quickly sweep the field.

Media Matters gets it wrong again, this time on Limbaugh

This from National Review Online:

In the latest effort to target Rush Limbaugh, the left-leaning group Media Matters has manufactured yet one more false — and by now yet one more tiresome — controversy. This one has to do with Limbaugh’s use of the phrase “phony soldiers.” According to the Media Matters narrative, on his September 26 program Limbaugh accused troops who want to withdraw from Iraq of being “phony soldiers.” Once Media Matters published this charge, key Democrats dutiful echoed it. In a public statement, Senator John Kerry said this: “This disgusting attack from Rush Limbaugh, cheerleader for the Chicken Hawk wing of the far right, is an insult to American troops. In a single moment on his show, Limbaugh managed to question the patriotism of men and women in uniform who have put their lives on the line and many who died for his right to sit safely in his air conditioned studio peddling hate. On August 19th, The New York Times published an op-ed by seven members of the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division critical of George Bush’s Iraq policy. Two of those soldiers were killed earlier this month in Baghdad. Does Mr. Limbaugh dare assert that these heroes were ‘phony soldiers’? Mr. Limbaugh owes an apology to everyone who has ever worn the uniform of our country, and an apology to the families of every soldier buried in Arlington National Cemetery. He is an embarrassment to his Party, and I expect the Republicans who flock to his microphone will now condemn this indefensible statement.” . . .

A wrong explanation for the drop in the value of the dollar

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- The dollar dropped across the board Friday, marking the seventh straight trading session in which it's sunk to a record low against the euro, after tame core inflation data suggested that the Federal Reserve has room to further cut interest rates. . . .

People make investments based upon the real (after inflation) return that they expect on an investment. If the interest rate simply fell by the drop in inflation, the real return for holding dollars would be unchanged. There is however something known as the "Darby effect" that could explain what is happening. Our government taxes the nominal interest that we get, not the real interest rate. As the inflation rate rises, interest rates have to rise by more than the increase in inflation to compensate lenders for the higher taxes that they will have to face. So a drop in inflation results in an even bigger drop in interest rates. Even so, the real after tax return from holding dollars should be remaining the same. In any case, I am pretty dubious that the small amount of money that the FED loans to banks is really driving interest rates very much. I haven't spent a lot of time figuring what is happening right now with respect to changes in the value of the dollar, but I know that this explanation is wrong.

Why off-duty police (and their wives) should carry concealed handguns

Before, he never carried an off-duty weapon. Now he does. He never wanted his three children to be around guns; now his wife has a gun permit.

More People Turn to Stun Guns for Self-Defense

Stun Guns Rise in Popularity

A little warning here. The Taser shown in the video requires that you actually have to come into contact with the attacker (this is not the version apparently used by the police in Mississippi). For people who are weaker physically will take a great risk if they come into close contact. One must also realize that the version that the police are described as having does not work in a large percentage of cases because of the clothing warn by the criminal.

Todd Zywicki posts nice review of Freedomnomics on Volokh.com

Todd Zywicki writes a very nice review of my book at volokh.com.

Glenn Reynolds was nice enough to post a link to Todd's review on Instapundit.

Big Radio Interview Tomorrow on Freedomnomics: Mark Levin at 7:30 PM

I will be on Mark Levin's great radio show at 7:30 PM EDT on Friday.

When humanizing someone comes off as rudeness

John Fund at OpinionJournal's Political Diary:

First came last week's bizarre cell-phone incident in which the former New York mayor took a call from his wife, Judith, in the middle of his nationally televised speech to the National Rifle Association. Team Giuliani tried to spin the incident as a light-hearted and "spontaneous" moment that humanized their man, but it quickly developed that Rudy has pulled the same stunt in many other states, demonstrating rudeness to his audiences and raising questions about his campaign's self-discipline.

Thoughts

Comment on Columbia University inviting Iran's President to talk:

The claim is often made about how important it is to have a discussion with those with whom we disagree. Possibly some useful information was obtained from the exchanged earlier this week, though I doubt it. What is most disappointing to me is that universities who say that they would want to invite Hitler to talk, have a hard time inviting any conservatives to talk. It seems that it is one thing to encourage discussions within the broad range of normal discussants. Is there anything that a person could do that would cause him not to be able to be invited to speak? A representative of the KKK wouldn't get invited, right? A mass murderer wouldn't get invited, right?

Felix Oberholzer-Gee and Koleman Strumpf: It is time that real pressure be put on academics who refuse to share their data

I second Craig Newmark's remarks:

the authors of a massive--42 pages--lead article in one of the economics profession's top two journals--Journal of Political Economy--whose findings have been cited in the "New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Boston Globe, USA Today, Financial Times, Rolling Stone, ABC NIghtline, ABC World News Tonight, CNBC, BBC News, MTV, NPR, and Bloomberg Radio" have an extraordinary amount of responsibility. They should accept the burden of addressing careful, thoughtful criticism. They should, after a reasonable amount of time, freely share their data with other researchers so that their results can be studied, tested, and if need be, questioned.

Unfortunately, Felix Oberholzer-Gee and Koleman Strumpf, authors of "The Effect of File Sharing on Record Sales: An Empirical Analysis", don't seem to agree. Stan Liebowitz has sharply but carefully and thoughtfully attacked parts of the paper. So far he has had almost no response. And he would like to further examine the paper's main empirical results, but he has not been able, so far, to obtain the data. . . . .

Of course, this adds to others such as Steve Levitt, Ian Ayres, and John Donohue who have been reluctant to share their data either in a timely manner (measured in years after their research gets national attention) or never at all.

The irony is that Ian Ayres has written a book about extolling the value of empirical work when he has done well publicized work where he and his co-authors won't share their own data.

New Op-ed: "Giuliani Bobs and Weaves on Gun Control Record"

Rudy Giuliani had a monumental task last Friday. Going before the NRA, Giuliani wanted to alleviate gun owners' fears that he would take away their ability to use guns to defend themselves.

Some media suggested an even more lofty goal: "it is possible that the NRA would endorse Giuliani."

Surely Giuliani said many comforting things. He talked about the Second Amendment protecting individual rights. And he now disavows the lawsuits against the gun makers-- something that he himself initiated, but that he says went off course and went in directions with which he disagreed.

Has Giuliani really changed on gun control?

Giuliani provides more details than he did before the NRA on one key point. I wish that he had provided more details earlier, but I still have to think about this reason.

In the interview, Giuliani said, "The case took a lot of twists and turns in the direction of trying to get a lot of information about the tracing of guns that would be used for private lawsuits" instead of solely for law enforcement purposes.

"I didn't anticipate that when I brought the case," he said.. . . . .

As I will explain in a piece that will come out soon, I am dubious that this is a serious change.

Utah slightly tightens permitting rules

I don't think that this will make any real difference in the number of permits, though I know of no information that there were any problems with these permit holders.

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Utah has stopped issuing concealed-gun permits to foreigners because of the rising number of applicants and the difficulty of conducting background checks. . . . .

Since 1995, Utah has issued 92,000 permits, 30 percent to non-Utah residents. Applicants typically must show they attended a safety class. Even a blind North Dakota man has one. . . . .

Surge in Florida Concealed Carry Permits

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Chances are better than ever that the person standing next to you or driving by is licensed to carry a firearm.

Last year alone, the number of Floridians who applied for a concealed-weapon permit jumped 30 percent.

Susan Smith-Massie is a single, self-proclaimed softball mom who is raising two teenage daughters. One of her passions is working with animals, but another is making sure her family is protected . . . .

Wisconsin Judge Lets Delivery Man Carry Concealed Handgun for Job

A permit process would obviously be a lot less costly way of letting those who are able to carry a concealed handgun be able to do so.

A Milwaukee County judge found the concealed-weapon prosecution of a pizza driver who shot two would-be robbers in seven months unconstitutional Monday.

The ruling by Circuit Judge Daniel A. Noonan means Andres Vegas won't face criminal charges in the non-fatal shootings. Prosecutors had filed a misdemeanor count of carrying a concealed weapon after the second shooting, in January, and said Vegas had been warned after a July 2006 shooting not to carry a concealed gun while driving for his job.

However, Noonan agreed with defense attorneys' contention that Vegas needed the gun to protect himself in his chosen work, citing state Supreme Court decisions that found justified exceptions to the state's concealed-carry ban.

"Given Vegas's experience, he has a need for a gun at a moment's notice," Noonan writes in his decision. "Enclosing and unloading the weapon is not a reasonable alternative to secure and protect his safety. Plus, Vegas while delivering pizzas enters and exits his car constantly; it would be unreasonable for him every time that he enters his car to require him to unload it and place it in a case and then reverse the process every time he exits. This defeats the purpose of having the gun for security and protection. . . . .

Thanks to L A Stich for sending me this link.

The more costly the story, the less likely it is to be published: Campaigns in Action

Early this summer, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign for president learned that the men’s magazine GQ was working on a story the campaign was sure to hate: an account of infighting in Hillaryland.

So Clinton’s aides pulled a page from the book of Hollywood publicists and offered GQ a stark choice: Kill the piece, or lose access to planned celebrity coverboy Bill Clinton.

Despite internal protests, GQ editor Jim Nelson met the Clinton campaign’s demands, which had been delivered by Bill Clinton’s spokesman, Jay Carson, several sources familiar with the conversations said.

GQ writer George Saunders traveled with Clinton to Africa in July, and Clinton is slated to appear on the cover of GQ’s December issue, in which it traditionally names a “Man of the Year,” according magazine industry sources.

And the offending article by Atlantic Monthly staff writer Josh Green got the spike. . . . .

Newt Gingrich's Theory of Early Polls

Given that, Newt Gingrich has a great theory about how people vote and why people respond to polls different than they do when they actually go and vote. People vote the way men buy cars. If you think or I think I need a new car, I might drive a Jaguar or a Hummer or a Maserati if I can find one, whatever.

And if you ask me after I drove it, did you like that car? "Oh yeah, that was a great car." (A pollster's conclusion:) "Galen likes Hummers." ...

And that's what happens when people are asked by a pollster if the election were held today, (who would you support)? If I was going to buy a car today — yeah. But I'm not buying a car today, so I can say whatever I want.

But when the day comes that I do buy the car and I have to actually write the check, I drive out with a Windstar because that's the right car for the family. . . . .

G. Gordon Liddy radio show on Monday Morning

I will be on the G. Gordon Liddy radio show at 10 AM on Monday, September 24th.

Did Giuliani Convince the NRA Last Week?

I don't think so.

"I believe that law enforcement should focus on enforcing the laws that exist on the books as opposed to passing new extensions of laws," Mr. Giuliani said. He added that his views have been shaped by his time as a prosecutor, mayor and even by Sept. 11, which he said, “puts a whole different emphasis on what America has to do to protect itself.”

But he said fighting crime outweighed nearly everything else when he was Mayor.

“Even right to bear arms is based on a reasonable degree of safety,” he said to tepid applause. . . . .

Why does he believe that gun control is so important in reducing crime?

Funny unintended consequences: a renewable energy source increases greenhouse gases

For those who think that man made greenhouse gases have a significant effect on global warming:

A renewable energy source designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is contributing more to global warming than fossil fuels, a study suggests.
Measurements of emissions from the burning of biofuels derived from rapeseed and maize have been found to produce more greenhouse gas emissions than they save. . . . .

Economics and American Government Classes at Riverdale High School

The teacher is holding a copy of Freedomnomics.

"Overzealous in Knoxville"

There is a bigger advantage to society from people carrying concealed handguns, but this citizen was still in the right:

Trevor Putnam knew the gun laws. The officer who stopped him didn’t.

“When I told him that I hadn’t done anything, he said he’d find a reason to put me in jail,” said Putnam, 24, who works with guns every day as vice president of Coal Creek Armory in West Knoxville.

“It’s not that I have a problem with police officers. I deal with police officers nationwide from Arizona to Maine every day. But I lost my confidence in a legal right that I knew I had.”

Knoxville police officers will get a refresher course on the state’s gun permit laws after an officer who didn’t know the law stopped, frisked and threatened to arrest Putnam for legally carrying a gun inside a Wal-Mart this summer.

Officer Glenn Todd Greene’s actions June 21 at the store on Walbrook Drive in West Knoxville earned him a written reprimand and remedial training for rudeness and not knowing the law, Internal Affairs records show. He’s worked for the Knoxville Police Department for about seven years.

Putnam got a written apology from Police Chief Sterling P. Owen IV.

“The officer was wrong I want to personally apologize to you for any embarrassment or inconvenience you may have suffered as a result of this incident,” the chief wrote.. . .

More On Iowa Campus Police Not Yet Being Allowed to Carry Guns.

David Yepsen usually strikes me as a fairly mild mannered guy, but he just can't seem to restrain himself in discussing the opposition and delays in letting campus police carrying guns at Iowa's public universities. Yepsen surely understands the issues of deterrence and incapacitation:

Just when I was worried about finding new entertainment once the caucuses clear out of here in January, along comes the Board of Regents and the Des Moines School Board.

The regents act like the guys in charge of traffic control at a Tom Harkin steak fry.

They're a joke. This time, it's over the important security issue of whether to arm campus cops. The officers have asked for years to carry firearms. Most other college security officers do. The security chiefs at the universities want their officers to carry firearms, too.

But not in Iowa. We don't have mass shootings like they did at Virginia Tech. (Well, not very often anyway.)

It took that tragedy in Virginia to wake up everyone else. Now, the three state university presidents in Iowa are recommending campus peace officers at their schools be armed. That ought to be the end of it. The CEOs of the institutions have spoken. . . .

Another viewpoint is seen here:

Steinke said the regents feel they need more information before such a plan could be approved. According to Steinke, regents feel they need additional information on the type of ammunition the officers would use, the certification that they would be required to complete prior to carrying weapons and whether there would be background checks and psychological profiles of the officers carrying weapons. . . . .

Clearly, those are legitimate concerns. Equally clearly, they are concerns that can be addressed in a matter of days - certainly not weeks or months - by reviewing the existing policies of Iowa's existing law enforcement agencies and the Iowa Law Enforcement Academy.

Another Review of Freedomnomics

If you read "Freakonomics," Then you had better read "Freedomnomics: Why The Free Market Works and Other Half-Baked Theories Don't" by John R. Lott, Jr. You owe it to yourself and to anyone you recommended "Freakonomics" to.

Talk on Friday at 2:50 PM in St. Louis

EAGLE COUNCIL XXXVI, Hilton St. Louis Frontenac Hotel, 1335 South Lindbergh Bl., St. Louis, MO 63131, (314) 993-1100. I will be speaking from 2:50 to 3:30 PM at the Hotel. Sorry, for traveling and giving talks so much this week.

Columbus, Georgia sees big increase in gun ownership with rise in crime

Spate of recent crimes in city has increased local gun purchases

"nursing student and mother of two, she long resisted her husband Mike's request that she buy a handgun for protection. But after reading about Columbus' 24th homicide this year, she conceded.

"I was trying to explain to him, 'No no I'm supposed to be in the heal, help field,' " Wendy Laney said. "That's kind of a contradiction there. But he said, 'Well, you know if it comes to you or somebody else...,' and I said, 'Yeah, you've got a point.' " . . .

More Talks today

At noon I will be speaking at Lewis & Clark Law School.
At 4 PM I will be speaking at Willamette Law School.

Both talks will be about information in Freedomnomics.

The Soviet Union lost more soilders fighting for other people's liberty than the US?

From the Washington Post:

the claim

"You know, you look back over our history, and it doesn't take you long to realize that our people have shed more blood for other people's liberty than any other combination of nations in the history of the world.''

-- Fred D. Thompson, stump speech in Des Moines, Sept. 7

THE FACTS

A grandiose claim that is hard to justify no matter how you define "other people's liberty." Let's begin by looking at U.S. casualties in foreign wars. (Domestic conflicts such as the Revolutionary War and the Civil War are excluded.)

U.S.
Conflict Casualties


Spanish American War 2,446
World War I 116,516
World War II 405,399
Korean War 36,574
Vietnam War 58,209
Persian Gulf War 382
Wars in Afghanistan,
Iraq (as of yesterday) 4,217


Total 623,288
SOURCES: Congressional Research Service, Defense Department

The number of overall U.S. military casualties, while high, is still relatively low in comparison to those of its World War I and World War II allies. In World War II alone, the Soviet Union suffered at least 8 million casualties, or more than 10 times the number of U.S. casualties for all wars combined. According to Winston Churchill, the Red Army "tore the guts out of the Nazi war machine." It can be argued that Soviet troops were primarily fighting to free their homeland from Nazi occupation. After fighting its way to Berlin, the Soviet Union imposed its own dictatorship over Eastern Europe. Even so, Soviet sacrifices contributed greatly to the liberation of Western Europe from Nazi domination. Soviet forces died for their own country and their own tyrannical government, but they also spilled blood on behalf of their Western allies. . . .

Is this really serious? Suppose that the Americans have encountered more difficulty from the Germans on D-day and the Soviets had been able to go further West. Does the Post believe that people living in that additional area would have been free?

University of Iowa Regents slowly making progress towards arming campus police

The progress is slow, but hopefully it will be done next month.

Council Bluffs, Ia. - The Iowa Board of Regents has delayed a decision on arming campus police until at least October.

The board seemed poised Tuesday to vote on whether to change its 40-year policy prohibiting campus police from regularly carrying firearms. Several regents, including David Miles, Bob Downer and Jack Evans, said they were ready to vote in favor of arming campus police.

Regent Ruth Harkin then proposed development of a comprehensive security policy that would include the arming issue. Regent Craig Lang seconded her motion, which was approved, and the board then voted 7-1 to create a provision in that policy allowing campus police officers to carry firearms in the regular course of duties.

The new policy would need to be approved at a future meeting. That could occur as soon as October. . . .

Thanks to Chris Jens for sending me this link.

NRA's political donations small compared to MoveOn.Org

WASHINGTON — Here's a pop quiz on money in politics: Who gives more money to federal candidates, the National Rifle Association or MoveOn.org?

Answer: MoveOn.

And it isn't even close.

In the last two election cycles, MoveOn.org Political Action Committee spent more than $58 million in pro-Democrat political advocacy, according to Federal Election Commission records.

In just the 2006 election cycle, MoveOn.org spent $27 million in advocacy to elect a Democratic majority in Congress and used its formidable fund-raising clout to propel numerous Democratic challengers to House and Senate victories. By comparison, the NRA PAC donated $11 million in 2006.

"They give away and raise about three times as much as the National Rifle Association," said Massie Ritsch, communications director for the Center for Responsive Politics. "A tremendous amount of money, especially when you consider how quickly they came on the scene."

Thanks to Robert Aldridge for sending me this.

More on Teacher Trying to Take a Gun on School Property for Protection

Ashland, Ore. - In court documents, she's known as "Jane Doe." Innocuous enough, but the woman behind that pseudonym pushes one of the nation's hottest political buttons: guns and school safety.

What Ms. Doe wants to do is take her Glock 9-mm pistol to the high school in Medford, Ore., where she teaches.

She's licensed to carry a concealed weapon and she has what many supporters say is a legitimate reason for being armed: a restraining order against her ex-husband based on threats he's allegedly made against her and her children.

But district policy prohibits anyone except a law-enforcement officer from bringing a weapon onto campus. When word got out that she had a concealed-carry permit, administrators reminded her of that policy. There's the political rub: According to state law, "any element relating to firearms and components thereof, including ammunition, is vested solely in the Legislative Assembly."

Backed by gun-rights groups, Doe intends to challenge the school district in state court this week. Meanwhile throughout the country, lawmakers are filing bills that would make it legal for adult school employees to carry firearms, in some cases providing special weapons safety training for those who want to be part of their school's security force in addition to their classroom teaching duties. . . . .

Thanks for Will Brink and Scott A. Davis for sending me similar links on this story

NRA might endorse Giuliani?

I definitely have no deep insight into how the NRA operates, but given all my post on Giuliani's positions on gun control I question this claim.

Rudy Giuliani, an ardent gun-control advocate as mayor, will address the National Rifle Association on Friday.

The GOP White House hopeful, who backed the federal assault-weapons ban in 1994 over the objections of the NRA, has changed his position as a presidential candidate. He now says he supports the Second Amendment and believes gun laws should be addressed by the states.

It is possible that the NRA would endorse Giuliani.

Appearance on Lars Larson Radio Show

I will be on the Lars Larson radio show at 6:20 PM today.

Talk on Thursday night to the New York Young Republican Club

Union League Club, located at 38 East 37th Street, on Thursday, September 20, 2007, beginning at 7PM. . . . .

Older Men-Younger Women Romances Good for Longevity of Human Race

Younger women being attracted to older men is biologically based:

Older men who shack up with much younger women keep the Grim Reaper at bay for the human population and extend our species' lifespan, new research claims. . . .

As relationships seem to be less motivated to produce children over time, there might be a correlation with a reduction in the average age between men and women. I wonder whether there is empirical evidence that men search for other mates when the women that they are with are no longer able to have children.

What is not noted if that the same would hold for females. Older females should reproduce and marry (whatever) male age group. This might actually have a larger effect on longevity because, say, by 40, a lot of women cannot have babies because of either bad eggs and/or because of health problems. So the women capable of having babies post-40 are the ones with healthier genes (and genes for longeivity).

Does it occur that the reason that women marry older men is because EVEN THOUGH the women are more attracted to younger men, the older men might have more wealth/higher income and are more likely to be stable emotionally? So the 24-year old woman in the U.S. who marries a 28-year-old man rather than a 20-year-old is likely to be able to start have babies earlier. It is not particularly impressive that he made it all the way to age 28 even though it makes some slight difference in weeding out the ones who committed suicide or died in a car crash at 21.

Also, demographics force many women to marry older men. There is just a tremendous surplus of women to men in the very highest age-groups, and those men like to pick the relatively younger (old) women, who also will take care of them when they age and die.

New Op-ed on Why the Press Likes Campaign Finance Regulations

LAST week saw an outcry over the unfairness and content of MoveOn.org's New York Times ad belittling Gen. David Petraeus as "General Betray Us." But the episode also illustrates a much more fundamental problem with campaign-finance regulations - the advantage that these laws give to the institutional press over ordinary citizens. It's time to admit the unenforceability and hidden favoritism of campaign-finance regulations. . . .

The Unintended Consequences of the Organ Donation Regulations

If people could buy organs from donors, there would be more organs available and the value of each organ would go down. With more organs available, there would be a lot less pressure to harvest any possible organs that were available, and I assume fewer cases such as this:

After a long fight with a degenerative disease, Ruben Navarro appeared close to death. So the hospital caring for him alerted the local transplant network, which rushed a team to the medical center to try to salvage the 25-year-old's organs.

But as Navarro hung on, tension mounted in the operating room of Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center in San Luis Obispo, Calif. With time slipping away, one of the transplant surgeons ordered repeated doses of the narcotic morphine and the sedative Ativan, jokingly calling the drugs "candy," according to police reports. Navarro eventually died, but too late for his organs to be useful.

Horrified nurses complained, prompting multiple investigations. In July, prosecutors charged Hootan Roozrokh with trying to hasten Navarro's death, marking the first time a surgeon has faced criminal charges in a transplant case.

Art DeVany's nice mention of Freedomnomics

I think John Lott's Freedomnomics may one day be added to the classic literature of libertarianism (with a little "l").

Art is a very well known economist and this is very nice of him.

Another Review of Freedomnomics

Freedomnomics was excellent, it reinforced my belief in the free market, as both a system that betters the lives of people all over the world, as well as in the United States. Further, it helped convince me beyond most doubt that taxes and government are the antithesis of progress, efficiency, and to a degree, even altruism and mandated by government to look out for government interests, and by its nature will continue to expand. . . .

Reminder that Atlas Shrugged was published on Oct. 12, 1957, 50th Anniversary coming up

The New York TImes as a reminder of the influence that Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged has had. In particular, it mentions how the book has shaped the feelings of many corporate executives.

Ann Coulter is promoting Freedomnomics at Xavier University

Ann Coulter is shown here promoting Freedomnomics in a talk at Xavier University.

Thanks very much to Zeke for sending me this link.

New Op-ed on DC Handgun Ban

D.C.’s brief makes a number of other claims:

The ban comes "nowhere close to disarmament of residents. The District's overwhelming interest in reducing death and injury caused by handguns outweighs respondent's asserted need . . . ." The obvious key here is that DC says people can use rifles and shotguns for self-defense. D.C. also adds that they don't believe that the regulations that lock up and require the disassembling of guns does not "prevent the use of a lawful firearm in self-defense."

But locked guns are simply not as readily accessible for defensive gun uses. In the U.S., states that require guns be locked up and unloaded face a 5 percent increase in murder and a 12 percent increase in rapes. Criminals are more likely to attack people in their homes and those attacks are more likely to be successful.

Since potentially armed victims deter criminals, storing a gun locked and unloaded actually encourages increased crime.

— "All too often, handguns in the heat of anger turn domestic violence into murder."

To put it bluntly, criminals are not your typical citizens.

Democrats can't distance themselves from MoveOn.org

Democrats refuse to criticize MoveOn.org's attack ad on General Petraeus.

Voter Fraud Texas Style

Officials involved in a joint federal-state probe say that some of the dozens of people under investigation in a months-long Bexar County voter fraud case may be charged with both state and federal crimes.
Federal investigators are to meet this week with local prosecutors to coordinate the cases being developed and determine who'll face state felony charges for voting illegally and who will be deported for violating federal immigration law.

No arrests have yet been made.

Authorities said they are anticipating charging some of the undocumented people alleged to have voted in Bexar County with felony violation of state law before they are turned over to immigration agents and likely deported. . . . .

Vote Fraud Canadian Style

Well, so may be it doesn't matter that Canada has a photo ID requirement.

Canada's chief electoral officer says he will not bow to the will of a Commons committee, only to the will of Parliament as a whole on the issue of forcing veiled women to bare their faces at polling stations.

Two funny comics

This comic strip was too sensitive politically for the Washington Post. Apparently the previous week's strip making fun of the deceased Jerry Falwell was not a problem for the newspapers, but this one dealt with Islam.

So does this count as a political donation by the NY Times?

If Tapper's numbers are correct, MoveOn.org paid just 38.89% of a full-cost, nationwide ad, or a 61.11% discount off of a full-rate ad. While I'm fairly certain that nobody pays "sticker" prices, 61% off seems a rather sweet deal.

If this was to a political campaign, would this count towards donation limits? I assume that campaigns take out ads, but does the NY Times charge everyone the same amount for ads.

School Tries to Hide Crime by Banning 911 Calls, Student suffers brain damage from stroke because no one could call 911 for help

Sometimes trying to cover up crime numbers has some serious unintended consequences:

The typed words on the school memo are as direct as they are stunning: "No Deans are permitted to call 911 for any reason."
An assistant principal at Jamaica High School wrote the order just two weeks before ninth-grader Mariya Fatima suffered a stroke at the Queens school in April.
Employees waited more than an hour before calling 911, according to court records, costing Mariya crucial minutes of medical treatment, a delay that may have made her paralysis worse.
A month after Mariya collapsed, the same assistant principal sent out another memo, flip-flopping and telling the deans it was okay to call 911, but instructing them to downplay assaults.
The author of the memo and the school's principal have both since left Jamaica High School, but that's little comfort to Mariya's family.
"You take it for granted that your child is going to be safe, but if they don't want to call 911, no matter what the circumstances, your child is not protected," family lawyer Gary Carlton said.
Mariya, who lost use of her right hand and leg, has had to relearn how to speak and walk since the stroke.
She's receiving home instruction, but her reading skills have dropped to a fifth-grade level.
"I want to go back [to school]," she recently told the Daily News. "I feel lonely."
The memos, obtained by The News, shed light on the lengths some educators will go in order to improve crime statistics and avoid harsh penalties.

Talks next week

Monday, noon, Seattle University Law School
Tuesday, Noon, University of Oregon Law School
Wednesday, noon, Lewis & Clark University Law School
Wednesday, 4 PM, Willamette University Law School
Thursday, 7 PM, New York CIty Young Republican Club, http://www.nyyrc.com/calendar/month.php

Reputations for safety matter

WASHINGTON -
Mattel Inc. CEO Robert Eckert pledged Wednesday to work to improve toy safety, and insisted that the company acted responsibly in recalling millions of Chinese-made toys because they contained lead paint or small magnets.

Seeking to tamp down public outrage over a rash of recalls, Eckert acknowledged his El Segundo, Calif.-based company made mistakes by not closely overseeing subcontractors in China whose toys didn't meet U.S. safety standards. But he steadfastly disputed reports that Mattel was feuding with federal regulators over warning requirements and as a result didn't disclose quickly enough dangers of excessive lead paint and small magnets in toys that prompted an Aug. 14 recall of 19 million products worldwide.

"We are by no means perfect," Eckert said in prepared testimony to a Senate Appropriations subcommittee. "But we have tackled difficult issues before and demonstrated an ability to make change for the better, not only within our own company but for the broader industry." . . . .

Update on Campus Police carrying guns in Iowa

An update on the decision by public universities in Iowa on whether campus police should be allowed to carry guns is available here.

Minnesota Legislative Reference Library Provides Some Balance on Economic Debate

A direct link to the Minnesota Legislative Reference Library is available here.

"Man In Wheelchair Shoots Intruder"

DETROIT -- A wheelchair-bound man shot an intruder in his home in the 8100 block of Alpine Road in Detroit Sunday night.
The man said he saw the intruder as he was getting out of the shower.
The homeowner told police he shot the man to protect his home and he feared for his life.

Why a free-market wage is a "fair wage"

Philosophy Professor Stephen Kershnar explains how prices work:

As a general rule, free market wages are the height of fairness. A free-market wage is the wage that a person gets in a competitive sector of the economy. Generally, this reflects the degree to a worker contributes to lives of other people. This is because a worker’s salary reflects the degree to which others value his goods or services and the degree to which others value his goods and services reflects the degree to which these things make their lives go better. As Walter Williams has pointed out, such a system in effect rewards persons on the basis of what they’ve done for their fellow man. . . .

Senate security regarding General David Petraeus testimony

Yesterday, two members of Code Pink stood up and yelled during General David Petraeus testified. These two women were dressed all in pink. The same thing happened on Tuesday. It looked like the same two women. I thought that Ike Skelton had promised on Monday that these two women would be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Whatever penalty these two women faced, how is it that these two women got into the hearing. It is my understanding that the audience had to get passes to attend the hearing. Why were these two women allowed in? Why did the Democrats want them to attend? Why does the press ask the Democrats why they keep letting these women in the hearing rooms?

Fred Thompson takes lead among Republicans for President

It is being called the Thompson bounce, but it does not seem to have started fading.

In the race for the Republican Presidential Nomination, Thompson is now the top choice for 28% of Likely Republican Primary Voters. Rudy Giuliani, who has been the frontrunner for most of the year, is close behind with support from 21%. Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and Arizona Senator John McCain each attract 12% of the vote. Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee remains atop the second tier at 6% . . . .

UPDATE: Other polls apparently put the race within the margin of error.

Debate continues at Iowa Public Universities over Arming Police

At the Iowa State forum, Stewart said that having campus police trained and certified to carry guns would help officers protect students. He said ISU police deserve the same level of protection as officers in other communities.

Warren Madden, ISU vice president of business and finance, said an armed police force could react more quickly to serious threats than other law enforcement agencies.

"Sometimes time is a critical element in responding to events," Madden said.

Herman Quirmbach, ISU associate professor of economics and a Democratic state senator from Ames, said arming campus police is not the answer to violence on campus. Rather, Quirmbach said, the university should identify students who may have violent tendencies and get them help.

Faculty at University of Northern Iowa and Iowa State University opposed letting police carry guns. The faculty at the University of Iowa voted "12-3 to support arming police." Well, the debate is heating up and the University Presidents have made their decisions even if they haven't been made public yet. One would hope that an economist such as Quirmbach would understand the notion of deterrence. In any case, why does he think that they will be successful in identifying those who will commit the attack (assuming that it is only students who will do it)? What do you do if you fail to identify those who want to do the attack?

Thanks to Richard Featherstone for sending this to me.

Gun Control Doesn't Appear to Be Big Issue in Switzerland

With the Swiss People’s Party in the lead in Switzerland, some of the earlier concerns about Switzerland adopting much stronger gun control laws appears to have receded somewhat.

Mexico's strict gun control hasn't stopped its worst problem: crime

Mexico has very strict gun control laws:

Mexico's gun control laws are much stricter than in the United States. Individuals may purchase pistols or lighter caliber rifles, but only after obtaining a license following an exhaustive background check and then registering the firearm with the federal government. . . .

But voters think that the country's most pressing problem is crime:

People in Mexico have a clear idea of what their country’s most pressing concern is, according to a poll by Ipsos-Bimsa published by El Universal. 21 per cent of respondents think crime is the biggest problem facing the Latin American country. . . .

Gun control advocates claim that the problem is guns from the US. Here is my question: Why is it that if the Mexican's can't control the drug trade, they are going to be able to stop the drug gangs from getting the guns that are necessary to protect their drug businesses?

Oregon School District banning concealed handguns on School Property despite state law

One teacher is at least trying to stop the school district from making its schools gun free zones

A high school teacher wanting to carry a gun on campus is fueling a challenge against a Medford School District policy that prohibits possession of a weapon on school grounds.

Portland-based lawyer Jim Leuenberger, with backing from the Oregon Firearms Federation, said in an e-mail sent Friday to the Mail Tribune that he intends to ask a Jackson County Circuit Court judge to declare the policy "illegal and void" for holders of concealed handgun licences.

"There is a state statute that prohibits local governments — including school boards — from restricting possession of firearms by concealed firearm permit holders," Leuenberger said. "The state statute says any such local restrictions are void." . . .

Smith & Wesson making money

Well, at least one gun maker's fortunes are improving. Forbes notes:

On a day when most stocks nose-dived, gun manufacturer Smith & Wesson (nasdaq: SWHC - news - people ) shot up 5.09%, or $1.02, to $21.06 on Friday.

On Thursday, the company reported record earnings of $74.4 million for the quarter ending July 31, and raised its guidance for the remainder of the 2007 fiscal year. Analysts attributed the gun maker's recent success to its product line expansion.

“Smith & Wesson has done a phenomenal job moving beyond the handgun market to include long guns like rifles,” said Eric Wold of Merriman Curhan Ford & Co. . . .

Does DC know what "Does not deprive" means?

On page 21 of its request for cert from the Supreme Court, DC makes the following claim:

A law that bans handguns, but permits private ownership of rifles and shotguns does not deprive anyone of the right to keep and bear Arms, however that right is construed."

"Does not deprive" is a pretty strong term. But owning rifles and shotguns is not the same thing as being able to use them. The word "bear" must mean something. The implications for DC's gun locks can be seen in the paper found here. Some of the diagrams in the paper are particularly useful.

One Briton's View of Guns in the US

Despite the recent spate of shootings on our streets, we pride ourselves on our strict gun laws. Every time an American gunman goes on a killing spree, we shake our heads in righteous disbelief at our poor benighted colonial cousins. Why is it, even after the Virginia Tech massacre, that Americans still resist calls for more gun controls?

The short answer is that “gun controls” do not work: they are indeed generally perverse in their effects. Virginia Tech, where 32 students were shot in April, had a strict gun ban policy and only last year successfully resisted a legal challenge that would have allowed the carrying of licensed defensive weapons on campus. It is with a measure of bitter irony that we recall Thomas Jefferson, founder of the University of Virginia, recording the words of Cesare Beccaria: “Laws that forbid the carrying of arms . . . disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes . . . Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.”

One might contrast the Virginia Tech massacre with the assault on Virginia’s Appalachian Law School in 2002, where three lives were lost before a student fetched a pistol from his car and apprehended the gunman. . . .

It is nice to see that these arguments are even being taken seriously in the UK.

Thanks to Dan Gifford for sending this to me.

New Op-ed in NY Post: Falling Bridges?

CONGRESS this week held the first nationwide hearings in the wake of the deadly Minnesota bridge collapse, and most Americans seem to think we need to spend much more to fix what The New York Times calls our "crumbling bridge system." Even in advance of this week’s hearings on the issue, House Transportation Committee Chairman Rep. James Oberstar (D-MN) said: "If you are not prepared to invest an additional five cents in bridge reconstruction and road reconstruction, God help you."

In fact, our nation’s bridge system is far from crumbling — the number deemed "structurally deficient" has fallen every year since 1990, dropping by a total of almost 50 percent. . . .

New Op-ed: DC asking for Cert on Gun Ban

To me the most interesting part of DC's request for cert was how little time they spent discussing the constitutionality of the law and how much time they spent on a purely public policy discussion.

In asking the Supreme Court to let the District of Columbia ban handguns, the city has a simple argument: Whatever one thinks of the Second Amendment, banning handguns is a "reasonable regulation" to protect public safety. The problem for the city is that anyone who can look up the crime numbers will see that D.C.'s violent crime rate went up, not down, after the ban. . . .

For some commentary on the piece see: here, here, here, here, here.

Photo IDs will be allowed for Voting in Georgia

Judge Harold L. Murphy of Federal District Court here ruled that a group of plaintiffs who challenged the law, a coalition that included the American Civil Liberties Union, the N.A.A.C.P. and the League of Women Voters, had not proved that the law placed “an undue or significant burden” on the right to vote.

Passage of the law was one of the first major actions of the newly Republican-led legislature in 2005, and it has been tied up in the courts since then.

Critics say the law will discourage voting, especially among the poor and the elderly. Supporters say it is necessary to prevent voter fraud.

The two sides have had difficulty proving their cases. In hearings, the individual plaintiffs acknowledged that they had the means to obtain photo identification, especially because the legislature had changed the law to make the cards free and easier to acquire. . . .

The argument against IDs has always seemed pretty weak to me. The claim is that the plaintiffs would just need to show that not everyone has a driver's license. There are two problems with this. That doesn't mean that people without driver's licenses voter very much. More importantly, possibly those who vote and who don't currently have some type of Photo ID will now get one. Before they didn't have a reason to get an ID and now they do.

Evaluating the Virginia Tech Report on Guns

Robert VerBruggen gives a careful review of the new report:

So the Virginia Tech panel's report to the governor, months after the rampage, is a necessary step, a document that state lawmakers should be able to look to for advice. Cho Seung-Hui murdered 32 people on April 16, and it's important to prevent similar incidents. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine instructed the panel to find out what happened and why, and to suggest new policies based on those findings. . . .

An example of how restrictions on campaigning help better known candidates

HILLARY Rodham Clin ton's presidential cam paign hints that agree ing to refrain from campaigning in outlaw Florida and Michigan primaries is a noble sacrifice bowing to party rules. Some of the news media bought into that, with The New York Times reporting: "The decision seemed to dash any hopes of Mrs. Clinton relying on a strong showing in Florida as a springboard to the nomination." Rather, her forbearance looks like a windfall for the Democratic front-runner.

Democratic consultant Bob Shrum, who does not have a candidate this time around, correctly interpreted the decision by Clinton and her two principal competitors, Barack Obama and John Edwards, to follow the Democratic National Committee (DNC) rules. On NBC's "Meet the Press" last Sunday, Shrum said: "That actually, in a perverse way" could "help Sen. Clinton. If no one campaigns and she wins . . . the primary in Florida, wins the primary in Michigan, that could have a knockout effect." . . .

Even with gun ownership, you make something more costly people do less of it

A new Missouri law that eliminated a time-consuming permit process has fueled a surge in handgun sales across the St. Louis area. . . .

Sometimes Government Insurance Doesn't Really Mean Coverage

Two patients in Canada who couldn't wait for the government insurance program to provide them health care coverage.

Patients suing province over wait times
Man, woman who couldn't get quick treatment travelled to U.S. to get brain tumours removed
Sep 06, 2007 04:30 AM
Tanya Talaga
Health Reporter

. . . Holmes began losing her vision in March 2005, she told a press conference at Queen's Park yesterday. An MRI in May 2005 revealed a tumour in her brain. Her family doctor couldn't expedite appointments booked with specialists for July 19 and Sept. 19, 2005. As the tumour pressed on her optic nerves, her vision deteriorated. Afraid to wait any longer, she went to the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Within a week she met three specialists and was told she had a fluid-filled sac growing near her pituitary gland at the base of her brain. They urged her to have it taken out immediately. She went home with the hopes of quickly removing what is known as a Rathke's cleft cyst.

Unable to get surgery fast, she returned to Arizona and had the mass removed on Aug. 1, 2005. Her vision was restored in 10 days. The Holmes family is now in debt $95,000 because of medical costs.

"My husband has taken a second full-time job. We've re-mortgaged our home. It has to be known. People can't go through this," said Holmes, a family mediator. "I was very fortunate to save my eyesight but the cost and the battle has been devastating . . . .

Alan Colmes forces Giuliani to say Whether He thinks that the Brady Act Reduced Violent Crime

If there is an academic study by Economists or Criminologiist that finds tht the Brady Act reduced violent crime, I hope that someone will please point to it for me. Alan Colmes deserves some respect for forcing Giuliani to answer this question.

COLMES: But the Brady Bill did lead to a decline in crime. You have to acknowledge that.
GIULIANI: The Brady Bill was part of the crime bill. The crime bill overall helped. I am not saying it did not help. But the reality is that what we did in New York was nothing short of totally unexpected. Nobody thought it was possible.

New Book Reviews of Freedomnomics

1) The Heartland Institute has a nice review of my book here (click on review).

2) A review of the book in National Review by Jim Manzi concludes that: "Yet this limitation is only one of arggument, not one of ultimate purpose. Lott's overall point -- that freedom unleashes, for the most part, beneficial human ingenuity, and not the corrupt carnival of Levitt's imagination -- is both true and important. Freedomnomics is well worth reading as an engaging apologetic for the market economy." If I have time, I will write some notes on this review.

Fred Thompson's Video Announcing His Campaign for the Presidency

The video announcement of Fred Thompson's announced run for the presidency can be seen here.

For DC the ban on handguns is a safety issue

"Whatever right the Second Amendment guarantees, it does not require the District to stand by while its citizens die."

"We're going to fight to uphold a law that . . . has public support," Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) said at a news conference outside D.C. police headquarters. "The only possible outcome of more handguns in the home is more violence. Our appeal will help the District of Columbia be able to continue to reduce gun violence." . . . .

Other than referencing their opinion, what evidence do DC politicians have that murder or violent crime fell after the ban was instituted?

Leonardo DiCaprio's Environmental Movie Bombs

it is nice to know that people won't go to a poorly done movie just because it is politically correct:

His environmental documentary, "The 11th Hour," has been a total bust at the box office. After 18 days in release, the film has grossed only $417,913 from ticket sales. The 90-minute snore-fest is playing on 111 screens this week, but that number is likely to be reduced this Friday. The film will be sent to DVD heaven after that. . . . .

Why isn't the press covering Norman Hsu as the Democrat's Jack Abramoff?

Of course, Jack Abramoff gave money to both Republicans and Democrats, but the press played it as a purely Republican scandal. Hsu is on the run again and I couldn't find a story about this on CNN. If it was Abramoff, I believe that this story would get round the clock coverage.

California businessman Norman Hsu, a former New York apparel executive and major contributor to Democratic candidates and causes, failed to appear for a bail reduction hearing Wednesday, leading to speculation that he again is a fugitive from the law, FOX News has learned. . . . .

--Hillary Clinton is keeping virtually all the money raised by Hsu for her campaign. Hsu "is listed as one of the top 20 Democratic fundraisers in the country and is one of Clinton's "HillRaisers" -- people who rustle up at least $100,000 for Clinton's campaign, The Wall Street Journal reports." The money she is keeping is the money that Hsu raised for her campaign, but the problems with this money is pretty obvious:

On top of that, among those who have "bundled" their contributions along with Hsu's is one San Francisco family of seven adults whose home is small and under the airport flight path, jobs are average and $213,000 in donations are closely coordinated with Hsu's.

Hsu's relationship to the Paw family apparently goes back a decade, and Winkle Paw, 35, is an employee of Hsu's New York companies, The Wall Street Journal was first to report. Barcella told The Los Angeles Times the Paws have their own cash, and "Norman never reimbursed anyone for their contribution."

Another New York family of three that runs a plastics packaging plant in Pennsylvania and is tied to Hsu donated more than $200,000 in the last three years, the Times states.

Clinton adviser Howard Wolfsen told The Times that Hsu has been a longtime donor to the party: "During Mr. Hsu's many years of active participation in the political process, there has been no question about his integrity or his commitment to playing by the rules, and we have absolutely no reason to call his contributions into question or to return them."

-- Democratic Representative Patrick Kennedy is keeping his donations from Hsu.

So apparently on are many others. My own belief is the very fact that so many democrats are keeping this money shows that there hasn't been the same pressure on them as there was on the Republicans. Is Hsu merely serving as a conduit for money from China? He is a Hong Kong businessman.

Realtors Discuss Freakonomics and Freedomnomics

Many of you no doubt read the book Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner. I read it the other year. It was a bestseller and caused quite a buzz and a stir when it was first published. The book is an interesting and entertaining read that discusses some controversial idea, among them that legalized abortion helped reduce violent crime in the 1990s . . .

This weekend I read the book Freedomnomics, subtitled "A Rebuttal to Freakonomics and More"

Author and Economist John Lott, Jr. provides some convincing arguments against the evidence and conclusions of the book Freakonomics.

Regarding the topic of real estate agents, Lott surmises that Levitt & Dubner habitually fail to realize "that market forces exist that punish dishonest behavior."

Lott doubts that real estate agents are really ripping off their own clients and states that a listing agent has very little to gain from encouraging buyers to deliberately depress bids on homes. . . . .

UK Gun Crime Soaring, Labor Government Accused of Cooking the Books

THE government was accused yesterday of covering up the full extent of the gun crime epidemic sweeping Britain, after official figures showed that gun-related killings and injuries had risen more than fourfold since 1998.

The Home Office figures - which exclude crimes involving air weapons - show the number of deaths and injuries caused by gun attacks in England and Wales soared from 864 in 1998-99 to 3,821 in 2005-06. That means that more than 10 people are injured or killed in a gun attack every day.

This weekend the Tories said the figures challenged claims by Jacqui Smith, the home secretary, that gun crime was falling. David Davis, the shadow home secretary, tells her in a letter today that the “staggering findings” show her claims that gun crime has fallen are “inaccurate and misleading”. . . .

Thanks very much to Will Brink for bringing this to my attention.

Jodie Foster's New Movie "The Brave One" Looks to be Very Disappointing

"The Brave One" looked like a revival of the old "Death Wish" movies, or at least that was what I thought at first. Warner Brothers describes the movie as follows:

The first time she shoots someone, it is kill or be killed. The second time is also in self-defense . . . or did she make a choice not to take herself out of harm's way? The fear that once paralyzed her has been replaced by something else . . .

I have posted positive notes on this movie earlier, but this summary and Jodie Foster's discussion here are very disappointing:

''Here's my commentary: I don't believe that any gun should be in the hand of a thinking, feeling, breathing human being. Americans are by nature filled with rage-slash-fear. And guns are a huge part of our culture. I know I'm crazy because I'm only supposed to say that in Europe. But violence corrupts absolutely. By the end of this, her transformation is complete. ''F--- all of you, now I'm just going to kill people with my bare hands.''' . . .

Does this mean that Switzerland isn't part of Europe? In any case, the synopsis of the movie stating she "has been replaced by something else" with Foster's own views is not very promising. It appears to give this movie a decidedly anti-self defense twist.

Well, at least some of the recent reviews have picked up on this heavily anti-self defense sentiment that seems apparent in the movie:

an impeccable dissection of gun control, as well as a wicked mockery of NRA mentality. . . .

Incentives matter even in a socialist workers paradise

As the gap between the official exchange rate and the black market rate has increased, so has the incentive to exploit rules, like a regulation that allows people to spend $5,000 a year on their credit cards while traveling abroad.

Some Venezuelans travel to nearby Curaçao, where they buy $5,000 of casino poker chips with their credit cards, exchange the chips for cash and then sell the dollars on the black market back in Caracas. . . .

The article also provides a nice example of the shortages created by price controls.

Percentage of Americans who are Hunters Plummets

New figures from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service show that the number of hunters 16 and older declined by 10 percent between 1996 and 2006 - from 14 million to about 12.5 million. The drop was most acute in New England, the Rocky Mountains, and the Pacific states, which lost 400,000 hunters in that span.

The primary reasons, experts say, are the loss of hunting land to urbanization plus a perception by many families that they can't afford the time or costs that hunting entails.

"To recruit new hunters, it takes hunting families," said Gregg Patterson of Ducks Unlimited. "I was introduced to it by my father, he was introduced to it by his father. When you have boys and girls without a hunter in the household, it's tough to give them the experience."

Some animal-welfare activists welcome the trend, noting that it coincides with a 13 percent increase in wildlife watching since 1996. But hunters and state wildlife agencies, as they prepare for the fall hunting season, say the drop is worrisome. . . .

There are a lot of economics reasons for this. Fewer people have grown up in rural areas raising the costs of them learning how to hunt, possibly more alternative activities raising their opportunity costs, increased licensing requirements raising the costs of getting started, and having to travel farther to go hunting.

Mark Levin on Senator Larry Craig Resigning

So, Larry Craig is gone. He solicited sex without actually soliciting sex or having sex. He pled guilty, but not to lewd behavior — to disorderly conduct (a misdemeanor). He is said to have a secret life involving same sex partners, but where are all these partners? According to one report, a guy in college believes Craig hit on him in 1967. Another says he “believes” he performed oral sex on the senator in a restroom at Union Station. He’s not 100-percent sure. If Craig has been living this secret life since 1967, you’d think others would come forward at some point. Maybe they will. So far, they haven’t. Indeed, where is all the evidence of Craig’s seedy life? Where are the photos, the video, the audio, the solid witnesses, and the rest of the evidence? And if the case against Craig in that airport restroom was so compelling, if it was so sleazy, if authorities wanted to send a message to others, why didn’t prosecutors take Craig to trial? Why let him go with a disorderly conduct misdemeanor? Were they doing him a favor? I don’t think so. They conducted a sting operation without any sting. Let me suggest not only couldn’t they make a gross misdemeanor charge stick, they would have lost the disorderly conduct charge, too. Read the statute. But the law is an ass, as they say. This is an issue of morality. . . .

I think that Mark is right on. As I noted last Thursday, The biggest problem that I have is that sexual relations in a restroom should be punished. I don't think that simple foot tapping or even having one's shoe briefly touch another person's shoe should be a criminal offense.

Freedomnomics on C-SPAN Again on Monday at 5 PM EDT

Freedomnomics: Why the Free Market Works and Other Half-Baked Theories Don't
Bookmark Program


Watch now!
Author: John Lott

Upcoming Schedule
Monday, September 3, at 5:00 PM

About the Program
Economist John Lott talks about his book, "Freedomnomics," a rebuttal to "Freakonomics," published in 2005 by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner.

About the Author
John Lott has been published in multiple academic journals and is the author of a many books, including "More Guns Less Crime" and "The Bias Against Guns."

From David Friedman's Blog

David often has interesting discussions on his blog. Here are a few recent questions that he has raised.

Why don't we see automated systems in old houses that open windows at night when the outside temperature is lower than inside the house and close windows when the reverse is true?

My presumption is that the reason we don't see this is because it isn't efficient. It is costly to set up a mechanism that would raise and lower enough windows in a house to really effect the temperature. Even if we eventually see something like this in new houses, that wouldn't mean that it was efficient to put the system in older ones.

Is there a moral problem in giving students points for simply participating in class discussions? David worries about this because it may be done simply to reduce the effort that the professor makes in teaching.

I personally give credit for just students who get the answers right. But I do think that students learn from thinking on their feet so it doesn't bother me to call on students in the class who haven't raised their hands.

Finally, David asks about why low cost hotels include internet access in their price for the room, but more expensive hotels have it as an extra fee.

I could be wrong, but I guess that I am dubious that this has much to do with price discrimination. It would be interesting to get some numbers on the share of customers in the two types of hotels that use the internet.

Student prevented from graduating because she referred to Jesus in her commencement talk

This punishment seems a little extreme to me. I don't understand how a school can prohibit such speach by a student to begin with, but this punishment seems out of scale to the "crime."

DENVER — A student who said she was told she wouldn't get her diploma unless she apologized for a commencement speech in which she mentioned Jesus has filed a lawsuit alleging her free speech rights were violated.

The school district contends its actions were "constitutionally appropriate."

Erica Corder was one of 15 valedictorians at Lewis-Palmer High School in 2006. . . .

What is it with "15 valedictorians"? About the only way I can see you getting 15 valedictorians is if they all had straight "A's," and that implies that these classes give just too many A's. After all, many of these 15 valedictorians must have been taking honors and AP classes together. Suppose you have 25 students in an AP class. How many A's would you have to give out so that there will end up being 15 students all together who get straight A's.

Appalachian State 34, No. 5 Michigan 32

An amazing game. Completely unexpected upset. Appalachian State played like a team possessed.

Northern Iowa University Faculty Senate Votes Against Letting Campus Police Carry Guns

At a special meeting on Friday, the University of Northern Iowa Faculty Senate voted overwhelmingly against arming campus police.

The senate debated the issue for nearly an hour late in the afternoon as the campus emptied for the long holiday weekend. Ultimately, it decided the university would be safer if campus police did not carry guns. The final vote was 11 in favor of a motion to oppose arming campus police, with three voting against and one abstention. . . .

Professor Jerry Smith makes a strong point about police not being able to respond to an attack. Yet, I think that there is a further point. Not only will unarmed police be unable to respond, but if one believes in deterrence, unarmed police will actually make the attack more likely. The killers engaged in these multiple victim public killings have the warped objective to try to kill or wound as many people as possible and how successful they are is related to the amount of time that elapses between when the attack starts and when someone else with a gun is able to arrive on the scene. To the extent to which one can reduce these killers return to harming others, you can deter some attacks from occurring. Basically, some simple economics.

I find it amazing that even professors really believe that campus police, with the same training as other officers, carrying guns will make the campus less safe. The discussion about officers shooting African-Americans as a reason not to arm campus police is truly remarkable.

Thanks to Richard Featherstone for sending me this link.