How to Achieve Scientific “Consensus”
N. Joseph Potts fashions a letter to a global-warming dissident from a concerned colleague. In it, he captures the professional and social pressures that bear upon those in academia who dare to question the government-funded mainstream.
America The Melting Pot
America — the “melting pot” of nations — we were called in the heyday of immigration. The melting pot may be pictured as the giant crucible of competition, heated by the flame of capitalism — that made the steel of the American temperament. Those poor “huddled masses” of the early 1900’s that Emma Lazarus addresses in her poem (on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty) became strong, independent, liberty lovers once they dreamed the American Dream. And even today when Liberty is somewhat hobbled, it continues.
The Problem With Presidential Signing Statements
Richard Epstein’s Cato-endorsed article The Problem With Presidential Signing Statements rightly warns of some troubling executive branch power-grabs by the Bush administration. As Epstein writes:
The Ohio Supreme Court on Property Rights
So we all like the Norwood decision (1 2) because the result is more respect for private property rights. But what about the Court’s reasoning? Was it really pro-property? Yes, it was. Not Rothbardian or Hoppean, mind you, but as good as you’re likely to see from a government court. Here’s part of what they said:
Professor Stiglitz and the Minimum Wage
Minimum wage is one of the only subjects nearly all economists agree upon, writes Vedran Vuk. The exceptions are economists who are willing to throw out science in defense of the policy positions of political figures.
The Limits of Armchair Theorizing: The case of Threats
A correspondent recently wrote me with a few libertarian puzzles/conundra. An edited version is below:
Irony Alert
There is this guy, Lew Rockwell, who writes regularly on these pages. I don’t know if you’ve noticed it or not, but the man is an extremist. Yes, I repeat that: an extremist! He has no sense of proportion, nor balance. Instead, he marks out the most extreme positions on any given subject, and tries to make them sound, horrors!, reasonable.
The Idea of a Private Law Society
Who should enforce law and order? To be just and efficient, writes Hans Hoppe, the production and maintenance of law will have to be undertaken by freely financed and competing individuals and agencies.
Cato on Kelo
I’ve previously argued that the Constitution does not (and should not) prohibit state takings that violate standards in the Fifth Amendment (see: A Libertarian Defense of ‘Kelo’ and Limited Federal Power; also More on Kelo and Federalism and related links here.
