Headlines that don't merit their own entry

Tags: sin tax ∙ meat ∙ Baltimore ∙ extortion ∙ blockchain ∙ stocks ∙ EPA ∙ incentives ∙ email probe ∙ Hillary Clinton ∙ California ∙ tax cuts ∙ Twitter ∙ doublespeak ∙ Donald Trump ∙ Robert Mueller ∙ Barack Obama ∙ FISA warrant ∙ FBI ∙ DoJ ∙ Obama administration

Competition drives the free market, to keep customers companies have to make things better than their rivals and better than what they themselves did yesterday.

Competition is what the "single payer" eliminates in the name of efficiency, yet over time competition means that products and services will be better, faster, and cheaper.

There is no incentive to improve under a government controlled system. There is overwhelming incentive to pay off legislators and technocrats for favorable treatment.

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I'm usually correct.

Except when I'm wrong… *grins*

Jokes aside, you probably agree with me on economics, smaller government and (most) individual rights. We won't agree on religion, personal morality, and sexuality. I hope we can agree on honor.

I hang out here to keep me honest and so I can see how conservatives think. And occasionally to keep you honest *wink* and keep you from taking yourself too seriously.

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I just get very tired of watching people who should know better lump all members of a group into a monolithic block who is out to destroy their way of life and must be Stopped for the Good of Humanity™

The ironic thing is many of the people who complain loudest about it being done to them are only too willing to turn around and do it to someone else.

I've seen pagans do it to Christians, "blacks" do it to "Hispanics," Republicans do it to Democrats, and women doing it to men.

And vice versa.

You know what? It's not the label shouting and doing things, it's the individual person. Until you deal them as individuals rather than as a subset of a label, you have walled yourself off.

Not them. You.

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Thinking about it just now, that raises a fascinating question.

Which is worth more, a moral code handed to you or one earned through personal experience?

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I'm not asking you to follow my code.

I'm not even asking you to allow me to follow my code.

I'm telling you that I won't follow your code just as you would tell me that you won't follow mine.

Now we could find what we agree on and work from there, or you could spend effort telling me why your enlightenment requires my sacrifice.

I think the former would be more productive, but I would enjoy your frustration at the latter too.

Tags: competition ∙ make things better ∙ rivals ∙ yesterday ∙ incentives ∙ government ∙ economics ∙ smaller government ∙ individual rights ∙ religion ∙ personal morality ∙ sexuality ∙ honor ∙ honest ∙ conservatives ∙ monolithic block ∙ Christians ∙ pagans ∙ blacks ∙ Hispanics ∙ Republicans ∙ Democrats ∙ women ∙ men ∙ moral code ∙ enlightenment ∙ sacrifice ∙ Crux Files

“The Tragedy of the Commons in the American Prison System”

Tags: clipping ∙ Mises Institute ∙ legislators ∙ police officers ∙ incentives ∙ courts ∙ judges ∙ prosecutors ∙ prison system ∙ drug warriors ∙ Bruce Benson ∙ David Rasmussen ∙ drug users ∙ mandatory minimum sentences

J Scott Armstrong: Fewer Than 1 Percent Of Papers in Scientific Journals Follow Scientific Method

❝❝According to Armstrong, very little of the forecasting in climate change debate adheres to these criteria. “For example, for disclosure, we were working on polar bear [population] forecasts, and we were asked to review the government’s polar bear forecast. We asked, ‘could you send us the data’ and they said ‘No’… So we had to do it without knowing what the data were.”

According to Armstrong, forecasts from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) violate all eight criteria.

“Why is this all happening? Nobody asks them!” said Armstrong, who says that people who submit papers to journals are not required to follow the scientific method. “You send something to a journal and they don’t tell you what you have to do. They don’t say ‘here’s what science is, here’s how to do it.'”

Digging deeper into their motivations, Armstrong pointed to the wealth of incentives for publishing papers with politically convenient rather than scientific conclusions.

“They’re rewarded for doing non-scientific research. One of my favourite examples is testing statistical significance – that’s invalid. It’s been over 100 years we’ve been fighting the fight against that. Even its inventor thought it wasn’t going to amount to anything. You can be rewarded then, for following an invalid [method].”

“They cheat. If you don’t get statistically significant results, then you throw out variables, add variables, [and] eventually you get what you want.”

“My big thing is advocacy. People are asked to come up with certain answers, and in our whole field that’s been a general movement ever since I’ve been here, and it just gets worse every year. And the reason is funded research.”❞❞
     — Allum Bokhari

Tags: skimmed ∙ clipping ∙ J. Scott Armstrong ∙ Allum Bokhari ∙ climate change ∙ forecast ∙ scientific method ∙ incentives ∙ politically convenient ∙ non-scientific research

Keep law simple and absolute.

Tags: Official Authorities® ∙ for your own good ∙ uniform rule of law ∙ deductions ∙ waivers ∙ progressive rates ∙ abatements ∙ incentives ∙ special recognition ∙ government grants ∙ government funding ∙ private enterprise ∙ special rights ∙ bad law ∙ progressive ∙ income tax ∙ exceptions ∙ legislators ∙ campaign contributions ∙ non-profit foundations ∙ charity ∙ ☆

We say that the United States relies on the uniform rule of law. Then we look for loopholes.

Tags: Crux Files ∙ taxes ∙ fairness ∙ bad law ∙ loopholes ∙ deductions ∙ deductions ∙ abatements ∙ incentives ∙ special rights ∙ special recognition