Category Archives: Business

Business, Economics, Media Criticism, Philosophy, Political Commentary, Social Commentary

Libertarianism

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The top ten ways to talk about it:

5. At Tom Palmer’s urging, I created a speech, or at least a speech opening, around the theme that “Libertarianism is the application of science and reason to the study of politics and public policy.” That is, libertarians deal in reality, not magic. We know that government doesn’t have magical powers to ignore the laws of economics and human nature.

4. Inspired by Robert Fulghum’s bestseller All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, I like to tell people that you learn the essence of libertarianism — which is also the essence of civilization — in kindergarten:

Don’t hit other people.
Don’t take their stuff.
Keep your promises.

I never fail to be amused by the pretension of the Left that they’re the “reality-based community.”

Business, Political Commentary, Space

Sea Launch

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Had an expensive oopsie.

At least they didn’t wreck the launch platform this time. But it’s not helpful for coming out of bankruptcy. I wonder if this is another symptom of the problems that the Russians have been having (yeah, I know that Zenit is Ukrainian, but as Marcia Smith notes, Sea Launch is mostly owned by Energia RSC)? Speaking of which, if Congress was really worried about safety (not to mention non-proliferation), they’d be accelerating commercial crew, and getting us off our dependency on the Russians ASAP.

Business, Economics, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Science And Society, Social Commentary

Poisonous Greenery

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More unintended consequences:

Recently, many jurisdictions have implemented bans or imposed taxes upon plastic grocery bags on environmental grounds. San Francisco County was the first major US jurisdiction to enact such a regulation, implementing a ban in 2007. There is evidence, however, that reusable grocery bags, a common substitute for plastic bags, contain potentially harmful bacteria. We examine emergency room admissions related to these bacteria in the wake of the San Francisco ban. We find that ER visits spiked when the ban went into effect. Relative to other counties, ER admissions increase by at least one fourth, and deaths exhibit a similar increase.

I’m never surprised when environmentalist policies kill people, because many of them hate people, but in this case, it probably is an unintended consequence. Because they never think these things through. Manhattan Beach passed one of these idiot bans recently, but at least they can still use paper bags. Of course, it didn’t affect Trader Joe’s at all. And I usually shop in Redondo, where Albertson’s still offers plastic.

And yes, I know that the problem is mitigated by washing the canvas bags each time. How many people want to do that (plus having to remember to take them)?