School Choice Has No Impact. And Your Point Is..?
Steven D. Levitt writes about some of his cohorts whose studies indicate that sending kids to “better” schools doesn’t guarantee better results. Part of the answer is likely that the definition of “better” is based on outputs, like how high the test scores are at the school or what fraction of its students attend good [...]
Loving The New Smoking Ban
[sarcasm] Today is such a great day. This new smoking ban is absolutely amazing and has enriched my life in ways I never thought possible. Water tastes sweeter, the air smells cleaner, and my wallet is fat the sun is shining bright, but not so bright that it is causing unnatural warming–that’s coming from somewhere [...]
No Apartment For You!
A San Antonio man feels he’s been discriminated against because an apartment complex didn’t want to rent to him based on the fact that he has lots of tattoos. Frankel e-mailed us a statement saying his apartment complexes do, in fact, “reject prospective tenants who have… tattoos exposed on the neck, head, hands and wrists, [...]
Ahmadinejad’s Response to Columbia University
He said Bollinger’s comments included “insults” and false claims, and flew in the face of an environment that’s supposed to let people speak their minds. This was Ahmadinejad’s response to the introduction given by Columbia University’s President, Lee Bollinger, where he also called Ahmadinejad a “petty, cruel dictator”. Ahmadinejad is dead wrong, and his response [...]
Did Columbia University Trap Ahmadinejad?
I’m in wait and see mode on this one, but I’m a little surprised at what I just saw. I’m at work and don’t have a chance to watch the coverage, but I just returned from getting a cup of coffee and got to catch a glimpse of Columbia’s President evidently ripping Ahmadinejad a new [...]
10,000 Reasons Not To Have More Money
I came upon this story by way of Reason. I’m no fan of the ACLU, mostly because they are very selective about which civil liberties they choose to defend, but I have to be cheering for them in this case, where a truck driver was forced to turn over $23,700 for no other reason than [...]
Bueller? Bueller?
FladaBlog has an excellent post on public school socialism: Let’s consider an island with one family with children and one childless couple. Does the family have a right to force the autonomous couple to contribute to the education of their children? Most rational people will agree that they do not have such a right. Additionally, [...]
Happy Cost of Government Day!
Doug Mataconis points us to the report by Americans for Tax Reform that declares today the day of economic liberty in the United States. That’s right–beginning today, and every day for the rest of this year, every dollar you make actually belongs to you! This is very exciting. It’s a Festivus miracle!!! It now only [...]
Smoking Bans — Legislation in the Nazi Tradition
I’m watching a program on the History Channel that documents the non-smoking laws/rules instituted by Hitler in the 1940s. Apparently German scientists figured out that smoking was bad for you (duh?) about a decade before anyone else. Hitler banned smoking in his presence, as well as on public properties. There was also quiet a bit [...]
The American Experience — Alexander Hamilton
Last night I recorded this program on PBS. It is a nice warm-up to the debates tonight. I’ve often wondered what Thomas Jefferson would think about our current situation, but this program makes me wonder what Hamilton would think. Hamilton pushed hard for a strong central government, but I wonder if he would have wanted [...]
