Assorted Links (3/12/2011)

Here’s a list of of articles that I have been reading lately:

Massive earthquake hits Japan

www.boston.com

From boston.com’s “Big Picture” website – a remarkable series of 47 photos of yesterday’s earthquake and tsunami in Japan!

The Weekend Interview with James Q. Wilson: The Man Who Defined Deviancy Up

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Holman W. Jenkins, Jr. interviews James Q. Wilson about why crime has dropped since he first wrote about ‘broken windows’ in 1982.”

Washington’s Dithering on Libya

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Eliot Cohen says that if the Gadhafi regime survives, the Obama administration’s response to the crisis could hurt U.S. foreign policy for years to come.”

A European’s Warning to America

online.wsj.com

“In a Wall Street Journal essay adapted from Encounter Books’ Broadside No. 19, Why America Must Not Follow Europe, Daniel Hannan writes that Americans deserve better than the European model that Barack Obama is trying to implement.”

The Modesty Manifesto

www.nytimes.com

“Americans’ tendency toward overconfidence is corroding our citizenship.”

Ready for Unionized Airport Security?

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Potomac Watch columnist Kimberley Strassel notes how the Obama administration is greasing the wheels for the largest federal union organizing effort in history.”

ObamaCare and the Truth About ‘Cost Shifting’

online.wsj.com

“Economists John Cogan, Glenn Hubbard and Daniel Kessler write in The Wall Street Journal that there’s simply no evidence to support the claim that the insured bear the costs of caring for the uninsured.”

How the market can keep streams flowing

www.ted.com

“With streams and rivers drying up because of over-usage, Rob Harmon has implemented an ingenious market mechanism to bring back the water. Farmers and beer companies find their fates intertwined in the intriguing century-old tale of Prickly Pear Creek.”  Mr. Harmon describes a market-based solution to this environmental problem which represents a very straightforward application of Coase’s Theorem (cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coase_theorem)…

The One That Got Away

online.wsj.com

Former Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan disses former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s book entitled “Known and Unknown” (cf. http://amzn.to/e7sG9x). Here’s a quote “It is the great scandal of the wars of the Bush era that the U.S. government failed to get him (bin Laden) and bring him to justice. It is the shame of this book that Don Rumsfeld lacks the brains to see it, or the guts to admit it.”

New York Needs Its Best

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Michelle Rhee says New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo should back legislation to end the rule that teachers must be laid off in order of seniority.”

Why I’m Fighting in Wisconsin

online.wsj.com

“Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker writes in The Wall Street Journal that his state can avoid mass teacher layoffs and reward its best performers, but the state legislature has to act now.”

NPR’s Damning Admission

online.wsj.com

“The latest scandal to tarnish NPR’s image.”

Medicaid Is Worse Than No Coverage at All

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Dr. Scott Gottlieb writes that Medicaid patients often fare worse than those with no insurance at all. So why, he asks, does the president want to shove one in four Americans into the government plan?”

Obama a ‘Radical’? Get Real

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Michael Medved writes that the president isn’t outside the Democratic Party’s mainstream—and Republicans will find him easier to beat once they realize the problem is that mainstream.”

What Price the Cloud?

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Business World columnist Holman W. Jenkins, Jr. says that cheap powerful handheld devices tied to high-speed mobile networks will strain the bandwidth capacity of Internet service providers.”

Why the Big Deal About Consumer Spending?

economix.blogs.nytimes.com

“Keynesian assertions notwithstanding, there is no hard evidence that consumer spending is a driver of economic growth, an economist writes.”

The Euro’s Debatable Future

online.wsj.com

“Europe’s leaders convene in Brussels this week to debate the future of the euro. In The Wall Street Journal, four experts—Barry Eichengreen, Martin Feldstein, Pedro Solbes and Steve H. Hanke—weigh in on the common currency.”

EU bans gender-based insurance rates

iii.org

“In most of the United States, men pay more for auto insurance than women do, and with good reason: Men cost more to insure – especially young men.”

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