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While you weren’t looking, the battle is over, and the good guys have won.
Archive for September, 2009
September 30th, 2009
Category: Crime Control
The Texas Forensic Science Commission was about to hear a real expert on arson deconstruct the “expert” testimony that sent an innocent man to his death. Gov. Rick Perry, who signed the death warrant in the face of evidence of innocence, just fired the Chairman and two other members of the Commission, thus depriving it of a quorum. Elegant: in a sick, twisted way.
September 29th, 2009
…a prima facie case of chronic educational malpractice at Berkeley. Apparently we have close to 3000 alumni who learned (from us?) that the most important thing they can do for Cal now is to buy a fifty-year football ticket for the price of a small house.
….One might ask, so what if it does make money? We could probably make a fortune with a modeling agency renting out good-looking undergraduates who got a custom-greased ride through their academics and beauty scholarships instead of pay; would that make it a good idea? It’s about as mission-relevant as our football program.
September 29th, 2009
Category: Afghanistan, Drug Policy
James Wimberley’s plea to do something about the under-treatment of pain in Africa (and other parts of the developing world) addresses a problem that has received less attention than it deserves, partly because pain, unlike death, isn’t very easy to count. His first-choice solution is to buy opium in Afghanistan to make into opiates [...]
September 29th, 2009
Category: Afghanistan, Drug Policy
Sourcing morphine for the poor from Afghan opium: I retract some intemperate language but not the idea.
September 29th, 2009
Category: Microeconomics and policy analysis
Since future generations will be richer than we are, it’s not obvious why we should deprive ourselves to leave them a larger capital stock. What they would want from us, if they could speak, would be more basic research and a cleaner and cooler planet.
September 28th, 2009
Category: Watching Conservatives
Just a year ago, a McCain adviser was explaining that the economic melt-down was a figure of Barack Obama’s imagination.
September 28th, 2009
Category: Uncategorized
Consumers get 14 cents’ worth of benefit for every dollar in public spending on the program.