Waiting For The Next Big Thing

Kevin Drum is waiting for the fourth big invention:

Roughly speaking, I'd say there have only been three big GDP-busting inventions over the past few centuries: the steam engine, electrification, and the digital computer.

And speaking of waiting for the Next Big Thing, Sasha Volokh explains that strict libertarians might well oppose a government tax intended to save us from an asteroid disaster.  He expands on that logic in the comments:

My view (which is not unusual for libertarians) is that government occupies no special position. Whether it acts morally is judged by the same standard as whether a group of people, a gang, a mafia, etc., act morally. So, presumptively, taking money from people involuntarily (taxation) is immoral. But I believe that stuff that’s presumptively immoral becomes moral if the result of that rights violation is to protect other rights to a greater extent. So taxation is justifiable if and only if that taxation leads to a greater protection of rights. So to see whether the asteroid program is justifiable, we have to see whether it would protect rights (which would be automatically true if an asteroid impact would violate rights).

Now the harder question: would an asteroid impact violate rights? I’ve presented an implicit view of rights where a violation requires some sort of human action. Probably it would go something like this: a right is an ability to act without interference by someone else. So two issues arise: (1) Why the “someone else”? Why don’t you have a right to act without interference, period? (2) This doesn’t arise in the asteroid hypo, but it arises in other contexts: if “someone else” is necessary, does it have to be someone else’s intentional activity, or something else? (This affects, e.g., what kind of tort and criminal system are justifiable.)

Tentatively, I’ve thought that you at least need interference by some other conscious being (leave aside questions of whether the interference has to be intentional, or whether the act leading to the interference has to be intentional, or whether intent of any kind is necessary). The reason is that I sort of take the natural world to be the background condition of reality: it’s just seemed self-evident to me that, e.g., your right to life isn’t violated when you’re struck by lightning. Among other things, it’s seemed to me that you should have a rights violator for every rights violation, so if no one’s violating your rights, there’s no rights violation.

But maybe I’m wrong about that.

If the government is organized to protect us from each other, he is right; if the government is organized to protect us from actions and events that endanger all, and where free-ridership is an issue, then he is wrong.

Should the good citizens of Ohio be taxed to provide flood insurance to Snooki and the other residents of the Jersey Shore?  Probably not.  Should a rural fire department be obliged to save every house?  Probably not.

But in a urban setting, fire spreads easily.  One would expect the fire department to battle every blaze, even those initiated by lightning.  And one would expect the locals to tax themselves accordingly.

Comments

[peter]

Reminds me of the old joke about the New York Times headline writer: Asteroid hits earth, women and minorities hit hardest.

OT, I think my fellow Jomer would like this clip at Patterico: LUN

[Kevin B]

This guy's a lawyer ain't he? I can tell by the way the prose just flows off the keyboard.

[Kevin B]

By 'this guy', I meant Volokh BTW.

[narciso]

'these are not the droids you're looking for'
seriously, they write this with a straight face, in the LUN

[Robert Buhrman]

Watson will win, because it has a tremendous advantage on the buzzer. If Watson was above his buzz-in threshold, it got in about 80% of the time. That the humans ever beat it to the buzzer was pretty surprising. If you buzz in before the active switch is thrown, you are locked out for 250 ms. Watson's solenoid is directly wired to the active switch, so it can never lock itself out.
The whole match basically comes down to how much of a delay is wired into Watson's buzzer. When the active switch is thrown, lights around the board go on telling players they may ring in. A human with extraordinary
reflexes could react to this in about 150 ms. Watson has a 100 ms delay, so the only way to beat it to the buzzer is to anticipate the lights based on the reading of the clue. Brad and Ken were both great at doing this on the show, but hitting a 100 ms window with any consistency is almost impossible. Brad is better at anticipating the lock-out than Ken is, which is why he creamed him in the $2M tournament final. As much as an advantage as the 100 ms delay is, IBM wanted more. They originally wanted Watson to have zero delay, guaranteeing it the right to ring in whenever it was above its confidence threshold. That would have been a massacre.

[Joan of Argghh!]

By these same lights a government can impose vaccination on a populace, right? The unvaccinated, the "free riders," enjoy a protection from a natural outcome by reason of a protected populace. And we pay for it.

Can it be reasoned that because of new technology and medicine we have a right to not be threatened by our neighbor's lack of vigilance in any area? It's certainly provable that my right to life is threatened by another's action, regardless of their intent.

From there, the corollaries just write themselves, and the slopes start tilting wildly.

Meanwhile, as I watch entire offices of workers shut down for the flu, I think it's my civic duty to go get a flu shot.

[jimmyk]

From Narciso's LUN: "Dems will embrace President Obama's five-year domestic discretionary spending freeze, a move the White House estimates will save $400 billion over 10 years."

Reminds me of the joke about the kid who says to his dad, "Guess what, I saved $1 today by walking to school instead of taking the bus!" Dad: "That's great, son, but you could have saved $10 if you'd walked to school instead of taking a taxi."

[jimmyk]

As for the topic of the post, this is why libertarians can be so annoying. Someone should explain to these "strict libertarians" that libertarianism is not a suicide pact.

[bgates]

Somebody should explain to these non-libertarians that saying "the government shouldn't do it" isn't the same as saying "it shouldn't be done". Anybody is welcome to spend every penny of his own money to make sure that any asteroid that makes it to the earth's surface is really spongy so it soaks up all the glacier melt that's drowning the poley bears.

[PD]

OT: Schools are closed here in Madison today. 40% of the teachers have called in sick.

The public unions are up in arms over Scott Walker's efforts to rein in costs and remove their collective bargaining "rights". There were lots of people protesting at the Capitol yesterday, so much so that traffic up at the Square was a mess.

[Extraneus]

Uh oh.

Poll: Majority of Republicans Doubt Obama's Birthplace

(From Drudge.)

[Extraneus]

Sounds great, PD. Hope he has the stones to hang tough. (I'll bet there are lots of retirees with advanced degrees who'd be willing to jump in and help. None, I'd wager, with an Ed.D.)

[jimmyk]

Well, I'd love to hear an explanation of why there's a difference between a human and an inanimate external threat. And what if we're not sure which it is? Are we allowed to spend tax dollars to find out?

[PD]

Ex, I'm sure the protests were energetic, but I wonder whether they really accomplish anything. There was a marked shift to the right in the last election, and I doubt that a lot of the new Repubs got in on the strength of the union vote.

The state AFL-CIO is running a scare commercial on the radio now (I hear it while Rush is on): "Stop the radical government takeover of workers' rights!" Maybe they need to figure out that one of the reasons we voted as we did was precisely to limit the size of the trough at which the public unions feed.

[Ranger]

PD, funny how they had to resort to the phrase "radical government takeover." Sounds like they know they have lost the public already, and are now trying to sound like a branch of the Tea Party.

[PD]

Ranger, my thought exactly.

[Thomas Collins]

I hope Scott Walker keeps in mind Reagan's stance against PATCO as he faces the teachers' union attempt to emasculate his efforts at budget control. If he stands firm, there will be a lot of tut-tutting about hurting the children, but the children will in fact be better off with a tamed teachers' union and a budget under control.

[Janet]

Poll: Majority of Republicans Doubt Obama's Birthplace

Imagine how high the number would be if the public knew about the entire sketchy narrative & outright lies in Obama's life story.

I'm pretty sure I would answer that I doubted his birthplace because it would be the only opportunity to register as not believing his life story.

[Ranger]

Poll: Majority of Republicans Doubt Obama's Birthplace

I wonder how many Dems believed that "Bush stole Florida." The Dems have only themselves to blame for the state of politics in this country after 10 years of scorched earth tactics.

[NK]

OT-- The OMB's Jack Lew Senate testimony yesterday if it wasn't so terrible in its implications for taxpayers and the nation, would have been hilarious. OMB claims "primary balance" by FY 2017 using EBITA standards. Are you kidding me. Just wish away $640 BILLION in % payments on the national debt by 2016. That's right by 2016 Barry O will have almost tripled % costs from FY 2008. Sen sessions called him on it -- even Kent Conrad thought Lew was nutz. Lew and Barry O are no better than the idiot credit card consumer in 2005 who thought she was OK because she wasn't adding to her card balance and she was paying the minimum interest amount every month. BarryO/Lew need one of those consumer debt advisors to explain to them WHY THAT'S EFFIN' INSANE.

[bunkerbuster]

``Should a rural fire department be obliged to save every house? Probably not.''

A perfect Tea Party slogan. Right on the money. Run with it Tom, please, run with it, though you may want to omit the "probably'' since your constituents revile nothing so much as a lack of confidence in your own moral certitude.

It comes as no surprise whatsoever to me that libertarians are proving such helpful allies to liberals.

As a political force they're pulling the "freedom" fig leaf off of white identity conservatives faster than you can say Ron Paul is a peacenik.

[PD]

but the children will in fact be better off with a tamed teachers' union and a budget under control.

My sweetie once pointed out to a teacher at the school where our children went that if they paid more for their own cadillac health plan, that would leave more money to hire additional teachers.

The teacher was dumbfounded. This thought had never occurred to her. And this was a smart lady.

[clarice]

PD, Today Harold Meyerson of the WaPo pens an editorial comparing your governor to Mubarak. HEH

[PD]

clarice, is it an example of the new tone of civility?

[Rob Crawford]

I wonder how many Dems believed that "Bush stole Florida."

Yeah, but they're ignorant and easily led.

[Janet]

Somebody should explain to these non-libertarians that saying "the government shouldn't do it" isn't the same as saying "it shouldn't be done".

Great line. Government is so busy micromanaging our lives that they can't get their core legitimate functions done anymore.

My city Arlington, VA started a subsidized bike sharing program. Good Lord! Who can't afford a bike? The Goodwill here is overflowing with them.
It is silly & a waste of time & money for a city govt. to be involved in this.

[Rocco]

One could argue that natural disasters have impacted society in positive ways. Did Katrina have a postive impact on the public schools in NO as Duncan suggested? Was the polio vaccine a result of much suffering in the world? Just for a minute let's suppose Saddam had all those WMD that was alleged. Would taking out Hussein prevent his use of the weapons and protect us all? I'm not sure what to make of it yet, just thought I'd throw it out here for consideration. Who knows, perhaps an asteroid strike might bring about that 4th GDP busting invention that would benefit us all? Didn't Schumpeter write about this?

[Ranger]

PD, I wonder what Wisconsin labor law says about illegal work actions. My understanding is that any work stopage requires a majority vote by the members to be legal. A "sick out" of this magnitude requires some form of organization, and could be an illegal work stopage, and possibly grounds to decertify the union.

[Melinda Romanoff]

Janet-

Another option, the local Police department will auction off, from time to time, their unclaimed stolen inventory.

Usually some minor repairs are needed, like Goodwill.

[PD]

Ranger, I'm not sure. If I were the governor, I'd probably be checking whether there is some clause that prohibits this kind of thing, and if so, require that any teacher who called in sick to prove that they were, e.g., with a statement from their doctor.

[Jane (sit on the couch or save your country)]

Wisconsin's Governor was on Greta last night. It didn't sound as if he was planning to back down. He did a nice job.

[Janet]

Yeah Mel. My husband is a big bike rider, but this is part of that green nonsense...& a tiny example of "not bad, but not the government's business".

[Thomas Collins]

So, bunkerbuster, I take it you think that if one's house is burning, one is more likely to be saved by those with a "progressive" mentality than a Tea Party one? Or if one is stuck on the side of the road on a snowy and windy day, a prog is more likely to help out than a Tea Partier? Or if one's family member is in a serious accident, the prog is more likely to bring meals than a Tea Partier?

[Danube of Thought]

Without saying (for the time being) whether I agree with it or not, here is what the Supreme Court said in the 1905 case of Jacobson v. Massachusetts. Jacobson had refused the mandate of a state statute to get a smallpox vaccination (at a time when the disease was spreading) or pay a fine.

Real liberty for all could not exist under the operation of a principle which recognizes the right of each individual person to use his own, whether in respect of his person or his property, regardless of the injury that may be done to others. This court has more than once recognized it as a fundamental principle that "persons and property are subjected to all kinds of restraints and burdens, in order to secure the general comfort, health, and prosperity of the State; of the perfect right of the legislature to do which no question ever was, or upon acknowledged general principles ever can be made, so far as natural persons are concerned."

This is the case that Prof. Charles Fried cited to me as standing for the proposition that the Obamacare mandate does not violate the constitution. (So far as I am aware, the government has not cited it in any of its briefs.) When I suggested that states have police powers that the federal government does not, he said that the case nevertheless establishes that no fundamental right was violated by the vaccination requirement.

Under the common law of England, and now throughout the US, it has long been held that the government can destroy houses in order to save more houses by preventing the spread of an urban fire.

I report, you decide.

[Ranger]

Via Instapundit, a good rundown of reaction to Obama's budget:

http://washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/opinion-zone/2011/02/obama-budget-life-short-eat-dessert-first>Obama budget: Life is short, eat dessert first

AOL News notes that for all the talk of cuts, “President Barack Obama's 2012 budget proposes to spend $3.48 trillion on everything except interest on the national debt. That's a 7 percent increase over what the government spent in 2010. And keep in mind that in 2010, there was a lot of stimulus money flying out the door.”

Remember, this is the guy who in 2008 promised "net spending cuts" from the 2007 budget levels. Since then he has signed into law a 24% increase in spending (not counting the nearly $1 trillion porkulus package), and now wants to add another 7% on top of that.

[Thomas Collins]

DoT, did Professor Fried specifically address Congress's power under the Commerce Clause with you? I have to admit that I haven't read the briefs filed by the lawyers in the ObamaCare cases, but I don't recall any reports on arguments being made that ObamaCare violated fundamental rights. The primary argument I have seen made (by Professor Barnett, among others) is that Congress simply doesn't have power under the Commerce Clause to impose the mandate. Perhaps Professor Fried takes Professor Wechsler's view of Congress having very broad, perhaps non-reviewable, power under the Commerce Clause unless an infringement of a fundamental right is at issue.

[NK]

Governors-- LIBERAL NJ and Wisconsin and kinda liberal Pa. have elected Governors that are -- for now-- taking on public umions and fighting for taxpayers. Think of that. Liberal Illinois responds with a 66% income tax increase and CT with a 20% increase on middle and upper earners. We'll see who's better off in a year or two. I am very confident that NJ, Pa and Wisc will blow the doors off of Ill, and Mass. -- Even Cuomo in NY claims he will let the high income tax surcharge to drop. Limosine Lib in Ct and Ill will of course move to neighboring lower tax states.

[Ranger]

So, just to put the $100 billion in cuts the Republican's want to make in perspective, we would have to cut federal spending by 25%, or roughly $900 billion, to meet Obama's own campaign promise of "net spending cuts" from 2008.

[Army of Davids]

Kudos to governor's Kasich and Walker for taking on the public sector unions.

The asymmetric negotiating priviledges and legacy pension and healthcare obligations are a future weight on taxpayers in state after state.

Public sector unions need to be eliminated. Period.

[Rob Crawford]

So, bunkerbuster, I take it you think that if one's house is burning, one is more likely to be saved by those with a "progressive" mentality than a Tea Party one?

Ignore bubu. He's nothing but an identity liberal who believes all liberals are angels and anyone not liberal is a demon in disguise.

[jimmyk]

Rocco, that sounds a lot like the "broken windows" fallacy.

[MayBee]

Bubu takes it as his personal responsibility to put out rural house fires. It is his obligation, after all.

[PD]

I am very confident that NJ, Pa and Wisc will blow the doors off of Ill

One of the first things Scott Walker did was kill the high-speed rail project for WI, which "sacrificed" $800M in Federal funds. (He said he'd rather use the money for highways and other infrastructure, but the Obama admin. said, essentially, "use it for our boondoggle or you don't get it.) Other states jumped up happily and said, "Hey, if WI doesn't want the money, we'll be glad to prostrate ourselves for it!"

Walker has a a slogan of "Wisconsin: Open for Business" and when IL put through its big tax increase, he invited IL businesses to consider setting up shop in WI instead.

So in both cases, one state is welcoming influx from another state. We'll see whether other states that get the WI high-speed rail funds benefit more than WI does from instituting a business-friendly environment. I have a feeling that sucking the Federal teat for another state's money will be less beneficial than encouraging entrepreneurial enterprises to come in and set up shop.

[Danube of Thought]

TC, we corresponded only be e-mail, following an appearance on Greta in which he flatly and derisively asserted that there was no chance the courts would invalidate the law. (This was pre-VA and pre-FL.)

I understood his point to be implicitly that the Commerce Power extends up to the point where fundamental rights are violated.

As far as I can remember, the states' briefs did not allege such a violation, but I'm not certain of that. I thought they would make a 14th Amendment "liberty" argument based on the some emanations and penumbras from the language in Roe v. Wade and a number of other cases, but if they did it at all it wasn't emphasized.

[Threadkiller]

">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_arc_waste_disposal"> Title of link

Plasma arc gasification is a waste treatment technology that uses electrical energy and the high temperatures created by an electric arc gasifier. This arc breaks down waste primarily into elemental gas and solid waste (slag), in a device called a plasma converter. The process has been intended to be a net generator of electricity, depending upon the composition of input wastes, and to reduce the volumes of waste being sent to landfill sites.

That is a Big Thing.

Jane, don’t forget to chew out Ext for a birther post on a non-birther thread. ;-).

[Rick Ballard]

Ranger,

Doesn't the $100 billion pertain to this year's continuing resolution rather than next year's budget?

[Thomas Collins]

Thanks, DoT. It wouldn't surprise me if the plaintiff's challenging ObamaCare do not address or downplay the fundamental rights argument. Orwell might have said that some emanations and penumbras are more equal than others in the view of modern judges, and I suspect the plaintiffs have concluded that a fundamental rights argument wouldn't work in this context.

On the matter of Congress's power under the Commerce Clause, Barnett is being very modest and continually emphasizes that holding that the mandate is unconstitutional doesn't require overturning existing case law. Those challenging the mandate are generally very careful to emphasize that they don't think invalidating the mandate breaks new constitutional ground. In part, those arguments may be targeted at Federal District and Appeals Court judges (arguing to them that there is no SCOTUS precedent that binds them), but I suspect it will also be emphasized when the case gets to SCOTUS (that is, the plaintiffs will argue to the SCOTUS Justices that in striking down the mandate, they would not be making a significant departure from existing Commerce Clause jurisprudence).

[Janet]

One of the first things Scott Walker did was kill the high-speed rail project for WI, which "sacrificed" $800M in Federal funds.

One of our counties here turned down fed money for education. You got money, but you had to do what they said...hire more teachers. Well after the hiring, your county was stuck paying all these teachers with your own tax dollars for years to come.

"We'll install this money eating machine in your state for free! 10 union guys will be hired to install it! What a gift!!"
p.s. after installation you will be required to feed the money eating machine.

[Ranger]

Doesn't the $100 billion pertain to this year's continuing resolution rather than next year's budget?

Posted by: Rick Ballard | February 16, 2011 at 10:42 AM

Yes, I was just using the figures for comparison purposes. When Obama claims the Republican cuts are too deep, he is essentially admitting that he was lying about every wanting to make "net spending cuts" from the 2008 level.

[Annoying Old Guy]

Janet;

Exactly. It's all in the time scale. WI will be worse off in the short term for not getting the high speed rail money, but much better long term when they don't get stuck with cost overruns and maintenance expenses. But it's hard to claim long term negative costs, which is why we're in this mess.

[Porchlight]

I'm glad WI turned down the money, but this WH will probably find a way to punish states like WI that refuse Fed money for Fed boondoggles, and grant favors to states that do as they're told.

[PD]

WI will be worse off in the short term for not getting the high speed rail money, but much better long term when they don't get stuck with cost overruns and maintenance expenses.

The whole thing was a fraud as far as I can tell. Without an exception that I can remember, supporters of this project said that it would create jobs. As opposed to, say, being needed because it would provide *transportation*.

Yeah, that's right. The reason to build a high-speed rail isn't because it'll provide rail facilities, it's to boost job creation.

No wonder the public unions were for it. They figured they'd get the jobs. We even were treated to the head of some public union in MN lambasting Walker for killing this great job-laying goose. Hey, guy in MN, here's my message to you: Butt out.

[Jim Rhoads a/k/a vjnjagvet]

PD said:

Ranger, I'm not sure. If I were the governor, I'd probably be checking whether there is some clause that prohibits this kind of thing, and if so, require that any teacher who called in sick to prove that they were, e.g., with a statement from their doctor.

The Madison Super of Schools was right on this:

Earlier Tuesday, Nerad said teachers who take a sick day will be asked to show proof of a medical reason. Those who don't could face sanctions such as docked pay. Teachers aren't able to take a personal day with less than three days' notice.

HTTP Althouse

[Jim Rhoads a/k/a vjnjagvet]

Hi-speed rail is no different in principle than Alaska's Road to Nowhere.

[Danube of Thought]

TC, I think your point is vitally important. No one can seriously contend that upholding the mandate would not require an extension of existing law, whereas striking it down would be fully consistent with stare decisis. The biggest weakness in the government theory is that if one accepts it then there simply is no limit on what congress can require individuals to do.

[Ranger]

Via Instapundit:

http://volokh.com/2011/02/16/testifying-today-before-the-house-judiciary-committee/>Randy Barnett cuts to the core of the mandate argument:

Here’s a thought experiment. Imagine that I tell you 100 things that you may not do tomorrow. For example, you cannot run on a treadmill, eat broccoli, buy a car, and 97 other things. While your liberty would be restricted, there would still be an infinite number of things you may still do.

Now suppose I tell you 100 things that you must do tomorrow. You must run on a treadmill, eat broccoli, buy a car, and 97 other things. These 100 mandates could potentially occupy all your time and consume all your financial resources.

You can see why economic mandates such as the individual mandate in Obamacare are so much more onerous than either economic regulations or prohibitions, and why so dangerous an unwritten congressional power should not be implied.

[jimmyk]

That is a Big Thing.

But is it a "big f-ing deal"?

If they give that $800M to other states (rather than just not spend it), that will be further proof, as if any is needed, that there's no cost-benefit analysis underlying the high-speed rail nonsense. And further proof of the ratchet effect that once spending goes up, it's very hard to get rid of it.

[Annoying Old Guy]

Apparently it's catching - Florida Governor kills high speed rail project.

[Neo]

The Supreme Court of Minnesota on Thursday upheld the drunk driving conviction of a man caught asleep behind the wheel of a vehicle that would not start.

They beclown themselves.

They should be removed from the bench because they could commit a crime in the future

[Henry]

Gov Walker reining in the unions is for the remainder of the current biennial budget and will be voted on this week. Expect bigger sparks to fly when he announces the budget going forward on Tuesday next week.

[Rocco]

jimmyk...you're right. I guess destroying wealth in order to create more wealth is absurd. If breaking windows creates wealth, why not break them all?

[Mark Folkestad]

Jim Rhoads, are you sure that you don't mean Alaska's "bridge to nowhere"? And if you do, I've got a major bone to pick with you if you haven't been to Ketchikan and seen the situation.

PD, I'm a Minnesotan for a few months yet, and I agree with you about the wisdom of Walker's action. Do you want me to butt out?

[Melinda Romanoff]

TK-

I don't see any efficiencies listed at that Wiki. Still digging but am leaning towards the "Hmmmmmm." camp, as in "This is a very nice, expensive, and Green furnace you have here".

[Mark Folkestad]

Neo, my cousin's business partner had a one inch bronze pistol replica confiscated by TSA two years ago. That is yet another example of brainless authorities. Years ago, a game warden threatened to ticket me because I had a mouse trap in my boathouse, violating the law prohibiting traps within a hundred feet of public watercourses outside of the trapping season. It didn't matter that nothing larger than a mouse could get in the boathouse, or that a weasel or muskrat could easily get loose from my mousetrap.

[Rob Crawford]

They beclown themselves.

Doesn't that depend on the text of the drunk-driving law(s)?

If it literally says you cannot be "behind the wheel" while intoxicated, isn't that true and a valid conviction in this case?

If it says you cannot be "in control of a vehicle" while intoxicated, isn't that true and a valid conviction in this case?

Ah, yes, from the story:

we hold that a jury could reasonably conclude that Fleck was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of being in physical control of a vehicle under the influence of alcohol

He should have gotten in the back seat. Or just walked up to his apartment. Or not gotten drunk.

[Rob Crawford]

If you have a beef with anyone in Minnesota, it's with the legislature that wrote the law, not the courts that properly enforced it.

[Neo]

Conclusive proof the the US Nation Debt is causing Global Warming

[Rick Ballard]

Mel,

Every time "reducing volume sent to landfills" is used in cost/benefit projections, a BS detector blows up and has to be replaced. It's no worse than supersonic choo choos though. I sure hope they build the Boston-DC line first - I find the thought of 1,000 tons hurtling through the NE towards the Capitol at 150 MPH with union folks at the controls intriguing.

[Ignatz]

Well all those smart states aren't really saving the taxpayers much money cause the feds just reroute their money to our $60-100 billion CA hi-speed rail boondoggle, which the dumbass voters of CA have already funded to the tune of a $10billion bond measure in 2008.
If they ever developed a train that could use red ink as fuel they might actually have something.

[Captain Hate]

Rob, not to be overly dense or argumentative but how can anybody be in physical control of a car that won't start? I'll admit the guy isn't the most sympathetic individual with multiple DUIs and probably locking him up will benefit society; I'm just not sure that he really violated that particular law.

[NK]

Boy JOMers are the best-- you guys all point out how "taking" Fed money for teachers, high speed rail etc winds up being a loser--big loser in some cases for state/local taxpayers. AND-- turning down the money,gets you a better deal from the Feds. case in point, Gov. Christie blows up a new rail tunnel project to manhattan. Less than 3 months later NJ's Dem Senators come back with a new Amtrak proposal that doesn't put NJ taxpayers on the hook. Why? the AFL/CIO construction union thugs need the jobs for members, otherwise, their ranks drop even more. So the Dem Senators produce for the Unions but leave the state taxpayer alone. We'll see if they can ultimately produce the Fed dollars, but Menendez is in a tight re-election next year, he'll do whatever he has to do to get the funding. Keeping spreading the truth JOMers, some day enough people will catch on what a racket governmrnt spending is. Criminal realy.

[Janet]

We are going backwards in time. There was once a train that came out to my neighborhood from DC but they did away with it to build ROADS!
...and I've got my neighbor starting a green compost bin with kitchen waste on the side of his house. I'm gonna have to borrow your mouse trap Mark. There is a reason garbage was hauled away from urban areas. Have we forgotten everything? Libs are really just 'feel good/sounds nice' stupid.

[Captain Hate]

Oh Happy Days. I just heard on the radio that Preznit Splutnik will be coming to Cleveland State University next month to take part in a discussion of how to secure support for his re-election from the usual groups increase jobs. I'm sure that won't do a thing as far as clogging up traffic downtown during rush hour ::rolleyes::

[Janet]

Go Captain! Ask him the name of the babe he use to date at Columbia.
"She had dark hair, and specks of green in her eyes. Her voice sounded like a wind chime."

[Captain Hate]

LUN for an amazingly rapid turn of events

[Captain Hate]

Sorry Janet but I feel nauseous just by the mention of his name.

[Janet]

Sorry Janet but I feel nauseous just by the mention of his name.

Yeah, so true. Can't fault ya for that.

[Neo]

Now the harder question: would an asteroid impact violate rights?

That's nothing. Consider the rights of the HIV virus. They talk at biodiversity conferences about stamping out HIV.

[Rob Crawford]

Rob, not to be overly dense or argumentative but how can anybody be in physical control of a car that won't start?

He was in the driver's seat. If the standard is "in control of the vehicle", then that's about as clear an example as you'll find. If he'd been parked on the top of a hill, put it in neutral and released the parking brake, wouldn't he be responsible for what happened?

Yes, none of that happened, but if the drunk had simply walked back to his apartment (he was in his own parking lot!) and gone inside, he'd never have been in trouble. Instead he did exactly what we've all been told not to do since before we could reach the pedals: he got behind the wheel of a car.

Don't like the result? Talk to the legislature to get the law changed or clarified.

[Ignatz]

First, at AmSpec Peter Ferrera dismantles Barry's insane new budget disaster and then George Gilder describes the destruction of CA through AB 32 and other nut-cake environmental idiocies and also explains how CA's lunatics will effect the rest of you poor folks nationwide.

[Pagar]

"the Dem Senators produce for the Unions"

There is a chance this week to deal the unions a setback. Make sure your Congressperson knows how many votes will be lost if he/she supports the union ripoff of America.

"This week, when the House marks up the FAA Reauthorization legislation they will address an important provision. It involves repealing a labor-backed National Mediation Board (NMB) rule defining the circumstances under which a collective bargaining unit can be established."

I can't imagine a safer time to vote against unions that are ripping off the American taxpayer, than while unions get bonuses while taxpayers get shafted.

[Captain Hate]

No I actually like the result; particularly because driving is a privilege granted by the state and they can do whatever they want to ensure the safety of others from idiots behind the wheel.

[jimmyk]

Less than 3 months later NJ's Dem Senators come back with a new Amtrak proposal that doesn't put NJ taxpayers on the hook.

The NJ taxpayers will be on the hook for their share of this plus all the other goodies doled out to other states by our "generous" (with other people's money) Federal government. This seems to me a worse outcome, since the NJ taxpayer has no control over the total.

[jimmyk]

driving is a privilege granted by the state and they can do whatever they want to ensure the safety of others from idiots behind the wheel.

Captain, are you being serious here? It's a defensible view, I suppose, but once we start granting the state the ability to dispense privileges (as opposed to enumerated powers), it's a slippery slope to serfdom.

[Ignatz]

--The NJ taxpayers will be on the hook for their share of this plus all the other goodies doled out to other states by our "generous" (with other people's money) Federal government.--

Think I asked this before and there may be a good answer, but why do they have to build a multi billion $ under-river tunnel rather than a presumably less costly bridge? Right of way and land acquisition costs costs are higher than miles and miles of tunneling?

[Captain Hate]

jimmyk, I've never been against the state licensing people commandeering over a ton of metal on roads they construct. If you restrict it to a few obvious things like that serfdom stays way far in the distance.

[angellight]

"While the Obama budget does far more to maintain public investment and does endorse some progressive means of deficit reduction — like ending billions of dollars of taxpayer support for the oil industry — it also includes a number of cuts to social services that assist working class and low-income Americans." He also proposes to do away with tax breaks, tax loopholes, and tax shelters so that Everyone (rich and rich corporations, not just the working poor and middle class) will have to pay their fair share of taxes!

To Really Fix Economy Here are "Five ideas:

1. Rein In The Military Budget: Neither the president’s budget or the House CR cuts the overall level of defense spending. In fact, Defense Secretary Robert Gates’s request for the Pentagon budget is a whopping $553 billion — “the largest request ever” by the Pentagon and the largest adjusted for inflation since World War II. CAP Senior Fellow Lawrence Korb has laid out $1 trillion in defense reductions that can be made over the next 10 years by phasing out outdated programs and resizing our military. This comes out to roughly $100 billion a year, which is approximately how much funding is being proposed to be cut from the Pell Grant program." Oh by the way, as in Egypt, there is a lot of Cronisim going on in handing out defense contracts!

2. Reduce Or Eliminate Subsidies To Big Agribusiness: The federal government “paid out a quarter of a trillion dollars in federal farm subsidies between 1995 and 2009.” “Just ten percent of America’s largest and richest farms collect almost three-fourths” of these subsidies. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) has proposed — as a part of her progressive deficit reduction plan — a fifty percent cut in federal direct support for agriculture, which would save $7.5 billion in 2015.

3. Reduce Or Eliminate Wasteful Tax Expenditures: The CAP paper “Cracking the Code: A Closer Look at Tax Expenditure Spending” notes that “special credits, deductions, exclusions, exemptions, and preferential tax rates provide more than $1 trillion in subsidies intended to support public objectives,” yet are ineffective and should be reduced or eliminated. Eliminating this tax expenditure could save $100 billion, for example.

4. Enact A Financial Transactions Tax: A “0.25 percent tax on trades of stocks, bonds, derivatives, and other Wall Street financial instruments” would do little to nothing to reduce commerce or productivity but would generate “between $50 billion and $150 billion annually,” according to a CAP analysis.

5. Empower Medicare To Negotiate For Lower Drug Prices: One of the main drivers of the growing U.S. budget deficit is health care costs. While there are a number of things that can be done to streamline the efficiency of our health care system, like introducing a public option or even moving towards a Medicare-for-all system, one policy option that would be very simple to enact and would not require any sort of increased spending or expansion of government would be to simply allow Medicare to use its bulk purchasing power to negotiate with drugmakers for lower prices. Rep. Peter Welch (D-VT) estimates that doing this could save as much as $156 billion over 10 years.

While gradually reducing the U.S. budget deficit over time is a worthwhile goal, it’s important to remember that the deficit was not caused by funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, students taking summer Pell Grants, or the LIHEAP program. Rather, the U.S. budget deficit is largely a result of massive tax cuts for the wealthy, two prolonged wars, an ever-expanding Pentagon budget, and a recession caused by Wall Street. It is only fair that those who caused the problem are those who have to pay to fix it."

http://thinkprogress.org/2011/02/15/five-progressive-deficit-ideas/

[Danube of Thought]

Seems to me that driving on publicly-funded roads could properly be described as a privilege.

[Extraneus]

"progressive means of deficit reduction"

= Failure to tax more.

Didn't even have to read the rest.

[Threadkiller]

Mel, if you don’t like Wikipedia, try http://www.netl.doe.gov/technologies/coalpower/gasification/gasifipedia/7-advantages/7-3-2_waste.html "> Gasifipedia .

Lots of charts, but I too have not seen a true energy recovery that pays for the system’s operation. The argument is that at least you are condensing the trash into almost nothing so you don’t need giant landfills. As a benefit you can produce energy from the process.

Recovering energy from MSW in Waste-to-Energy (WTE) plants reduces the space required for land filling and offsets the use of fossil fuels for electrical production. When compared to combustion for processing of MSW, gasification decreases air/water emissions. Within this context, gasification uses oxygen and water vapor to produce a combustible synthesis gas (syngas) from organic compounds in the MSW, which can be used to generate electricity, produce chemicals, liquid fuels, hydrogen (H2), etc. Syngas produced from MSW by a gasifier is cleaned up more economically and using simpler systems compared to combustion exhaust gases due to the syngas being more condensed. The conversion of energy in gasification is also much more efficient than the thermal conversion offered by combustion.

Here is a terrific ">http://www.lakecountyfl.gov/pdfs/solid_waste_task_force/zero_waste_plasma_arc.ppt"> Power Point on Gasification.

[Army of Davids]

Eliminate public sector unions and you go a long way to righting the sinking US ship.

The asymmetric political negotiating priviledges they enjoy need to go away.

[Captain Hate]

angelight only shows up after the mendacious mulatto has stepped on his johnson. Nice to see what the turfing point are though; boring and stupid as always.

[Threadkiller]

How to vote “Yes” before you vote “No” and make people believe you really mean “No.”

">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v17-mFbiYXQ"> Tom McClintock on extending the PATRIOT Act - HR 514

">http://mcclintock.house.gov/2011/02/on-extending-the-patriot-act---hr-514.shtml"> Text of Tom McClintock’s speech

">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCpSPE2AZIs&feature=relmfu"> Gratuitous interview of McClintock by Judge Napolitano

Good stuff.

[NK]

Ignatz-- there is no debate that the new Hudson rail tunnel is an excellent infrastructure project. It is productive for the economy and cost efficient (moreso if there were no union only bid requirements.) The issue who will pay and who has the risk of overruns. You know, I favor this sort of government financed infrastructure-- it benefits a broad class of productive citizens -- again it would be better if we manadated best pricing including non-union. BUT our idiot politicians squander the possibility of these worthwhile infrastructure projects by spending almost 10% of GDP-- 40% of the Federal budget on transfer payments-- Soc Sec, Medicare and the worst Medicaid which is welfare for life for people who won't or can't get a real job. We spend a lot on "people" and it's eating into the capital needed to grow the real economy -- and guess what-- the economy is ultimately people. I don't make up Iron Laws of economics-- they just are.

[Threadkiller]

--"mendacious mulatto"--

[Ignatz]

--Ignatz-- there is no debate that the new Hudson rail tunnel is an excellent infrastructure project.--

OK, I'll take your word for that, NK, but it doesn't answer my question which is would it be an even more super-excellent, as in cheaper, project if it was a mundane boring bridge over the river rather than a sexy tunnel underneath it.
It may make perfect sense to make it underground, but as we all know many if not most gov projects have little to do with sense of any kind and they seem to invariably go for the most expensive, gold-plated boondoggle available even when there are cheaper and better alternatives.

[Rob Crawford]

Hey, anallight -- we don't care what talking points Think Fascist is publishing.

[Pagar]

More union employees ripping off American taxpayers at LUN.

Totally unbelievable!

[Extraneus]

= Failure to tax more.

Of course I meant

"progressive means of deficit reduction"
= Increased taxes.

[Danube of Thought]

Rather, the U.S. budget deficit is largely a result of massive tax cuts for the wealthy, two prolonged wars, an ever-expanding Pentagon budget, and a recession caused by Wall Street.

Rank falsehood. This dolt seems unaware of the existence of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, for openers.