The Economist: Do we live in a multiverse?

Here is a link to a video at The Economist.

Run the video "Do we live in a multiverse".

I'm betting on a multiverse.  Hmm, how will I know if I win? :-)

George Will: America’s barnacled budget

Here is a link to an article by George Will.

Will explains how and why minorities make the Federal Budget a painful joke for majorities.  However, he does not go quite far enough.

Assume, for simplicity, equal distribution of cost.

If a minority, say 1% of the populace gets the Government to pay it $1.00, it costs the minority  only $0.01.  Thus, there is an incentive for minorities to try to get Government handouts.

If the populace is composed of 100 minorities, then each has an incentive to get its $1.00 at a perceived cost of $0.01.  However, if each is successful at perverting the Government Budget in this way, all of the minorities will receive $1.00 each and will pay $1.00 each.  Actually, the cost will exceed $1.00 each, as there are costs to run the various programs.

All this waste could be avoided if all the minorities agreed not to receive Government handouts.  However, there is no way to obtain and enforce such an agreement.

Put yourself in the position of one of these minorities (probably, you are knowingly or unknowingly already a member of several).  Would you agree to refuse your handout?  Of course not - there is no credible evidence that everyone else would, so if you did, you would simply be a loser.

Obscure Engineering Conversions Factors

Ratio of an igloo's circumference to its diameter = Eskimo Pi

2000 pounds of Chinese Soup = Won ton

1 millionth of a mouthwash = 1 microscope

Time between slipping on a peel and smacking the pavement = 1 bananosecond

Weight an evangelist carries with God = 1 billigram

Time it takes to sail 220 yards at 1 nautical mile per hour = Knotfurlong

365.25 days of drinking low-calorie beer = 1 Lite year

16.5 feet in the Twilight Zone = 1 Rod Serling

Half a large intestine = 1 semicolon

1,000,000 aches = 1 megahurtz

Basic unit of laryngitis = 1 hoarsepower

1 kilogram of falling figs = 1 Fig Newton

1000 ccs of wet socks = 1 literhosen

John Lott: The New York Times Believes MoJo’s Gun-Control Myths

Here is a link to an article by John Lott critiquing a New York Times article about allowing law abiding citizens to carry concealed guns.

The New York Times shows its ignorance and incompetent journalism, as Lott points out.

George Will: The man who helped kill the Soviet Union with information

Here is a link to a very good article by George Will.

It relates how the printed word can help defeat dictators.

His comment about Bernie Sanders is on target.

Read it.

My only published "poetry"

Published in the August 1980 issue of "Soaring".

Soaring along a wooded ridge, I meet a hawk

            Aloft like me on the Autumn breeze.

We linger, he and I, amidst the colors

            And the whisper of the wind

Until, as dusk rises from below,

            We fall gently back to earth.

Feeling all the while,

            The pulse of life within us.

A Tale of Johnny and Tommy

Here is a link to a comment by Don Boudreaux that is on target.

Anti-social behavior that would not be tolerated by children or by adults acting as individual  is lauded by progressives in politicians.

What Democrats get wrong about the middle class

Here is a link to an article by James Pethokoukis at the American Enterprise Institute.

JP points out some of the reasons why the middle class is really much better off now than it was two to three decades ago.

John Lott: What Mother Jones Missed In Its Hit Piece About Me

Here is a link to an article by John Lott that illustrates the despicable tactics of the anti-gunners.

Lott is on target, it is worse than he portrays.

The best book on the impact of concealed carry and related laws on crime rates is Lott's "More Guns Less Crime".  It provides all the common sense, statistics, and description about the level of discourse by anti-gunners that you need.  On top of that, it is a great read.

You can get Lott's book here.

How Not to Pass a Carbon Tax

Greg Mankiw makes some good points about how political reality can prevent implementing good economics.

Here is the link.

Mankiw makes the point that, in principle, a carbon tax can be sensible.  He notes that one problem with implementing one is that the revenue is likely to be used to increase Government, rather than to reduce other taxes, hence a reason for many to oppose a carbon tax.  Mankiw fails to mention two other key problems - (1) how is one to one to know what is the right tax level and (2) that there are political motives to make the tax larger - much larger - than optimal, even if the optimum tax level is known.