This comic was inspired by Sony, but they’re not exceptional. It’s also my first animated GIF Mimi & Eunice. Gear animation modified from Wikimedia Commons.
Haiku:
This is obvious.
Locking up our creations
Won’t make them better.
~*~
This is a syndicated post, which originally appeared at Mimi and Eunice » IP. View original post.
Mimi & Eunice: Locked Up Technology Read Post »
Arnold Kling, at EconLog, relates Scott Sumner’s simple query as to why the 2008 financial crisis has caused such low or negative growth down even unto the present day, and offers four possible answers. I will comment only on one of them:
Because the Fed made forecasting errors. Right-wingers are fond of brandishing charts showing that the unemployment rate with the stimulus is on a worse trajectory than what was forecast without the stimulus. That may or may not be evidence that the stimulus failed, but it is evidence that standard forecasts were not sufficiently pessimistic about the economy. Assuming the Fed used standard forecasts, that would explain the inadequate monetary expansion back then. It doesn’t explain their reluctance to expand now, though.
There are several places where this answer (which Kling does not favor) goes wrong. Most noticeable, to me, regards the possibility that the forecasts “were not sufficiently pessimistic about the economy.” This is not the only possibility. It is not even the most likely possibility.
The problem was that the forecasts were too negative …
Forecasts vs. Policies Read Post »
Had they charged her with the appropriate crime (negligent homicide), they probably would have won the case. But apparently sending her to jail for many years wasn’t enough; they wanted her dead. So, they went for murder despite having no proof of premeditation. The judge should have dismissed the murder charge after the prosecution rested; that he didn’t is a travesty in itself.
There is absolutely no evidence for murder in this case, and anyone who thinks you should convict someone of a crime they didn’t commit because the state failed to charge them with a crime that they did doesn’t deserve to call themselves a libertarian.
On the Casey Anthony trial Read Post »
This one’s going into the book.
~*~
This is a syndicated post, which originally appeared at Mimi and Eunice » IP. View original post.
Mimi & Eunice: Copyright Reform Read Post »
Yahoo News reports the death of a motorcyclist during a protest ride against New York’s helmet laws. While it is certainly tempting to simply cite this as a case of someone “asking for it” and getting it, consider the specifics of this case: Philip Contos was riding without a helmet at this place and at this time specifically because he was protesting against the state. Whether or not he normally wore a helmet, even, is irrelevant. He would not have been riding there and then if not for the state. The sad truth is that protesting laws against risky behavior unfortunately requires actually engaging in risky behavior. I, a nonsmoker, despise anti-smoking laws. How could I protest against these laws, however? By engaging in the banned behavior is the most obvious way. So, too, with helmet laws. At minimum, Contos’s death, whenever it would have happened, would not have happened at that time at that place, under those circumstances, except for the meddling of the busybodies who claim the right to decide what is best for a 55 year old man.
Helmet Laws and Needless deaths Read Post »
