Initial Thoughts on Bob Woodward’s The Price of Politics

I checked out Bob Woodward’s The Price of Politics from my local library this week. Derived from a plethora of interviews, accounts, and documents, the book describes the political negotiations behind the legislations of Obama’s first term. The first 100 pages or so have been about as interesting as I was expecting.

Continue reading Initial Thoughts on Bob Woodward’s The Price of Politics

The Asymmetrical Nature of Good and Bad Guns

In the wake of last week’s tragedy, and the ensuing proliferation of ideological tweets and comments and posts and other ephemeral boastings, I saw multiple arguments of this flavor: “Let’s be real, how often do you hear about some upstanding citizen with a gun saving the day?” Apparently I wasn’t the only one, as Eugene Volokh stated more eloquently:

What examples can one give of civilians armed with guns stopping such shootings? Sometimes, I hear people asking if even one such example can be found, or saying that they haven’t heard even one such example.

Eugene points out that such examples will be inherently rare, “partly because mass shootings are rare, partly because many mass shootings happen in supposedly ‘gun-free’ zones (such as schools, universities, or private property posted with a no-guns sign) in which gun carrying isn’t allowed, and partly for other reasons.”

Some of those “other reasons” may include 1) the difficulty of reporting about any shooting that never even begins to occur because of the possibility that someone may be armed, and 2) the lower level of reporting about any shooting that does begin to occur but is stopped or limited by someone who is armed.

We are talking about a mass shooting that does not happen, and comparing it to a mass shooting that did happen. There is an inherently asymmetrical nature that makes us far more likely to learn about and remember things that did happen – even if they are relatively rare events – compared to things that did not.

Continue reading The Asymmetrical Nature of Good and Bad Guns

Dueling Labor Union Statistics

In the wake of Michigan’s new Right-To-Work law, which was passed in spite of violent Tea Party – I mean union – protests, the usual suspects have been trotting out statistics that make unions look either very good or very bad. Conservatives and liberals tend to like or dislike unions for respective ideological reasons, but they both like to throw out stats to “prove” that their position also happens to be best for everyone.

Conservatives claim that RTW states have lower unemployment and create more jobs. Liberals claim that workers in RTW states have lower wages and fewer benefits. These claims actually might not be at odds; if it’s true that unions collude to raise their own wages to protect their jobs and price others out of the market, it would make sense that the more pro-union states might have higher-paying jobs, but fewer of them. So are both sides right? Or are they both wrong?

Continue reading Dueling Labor Union Statistics

Homeland Security Spending Sprees

When you give governments lots of money to spend, they usually find ways to spend it. This week we learned that the Department of Homeland Security is funding “microphone-enabled surveillance systems on public buses that would give them the ability to record and store private conversations.”

Continue reading Homeland Security Spending Sprees

Two Steps Back For GOP Reform

It’s been a bad week for Republican reformers. First, Justin Amash and Tim Huelskamp were silently kicked out of their House committees. Second, young staffer Derek Khanna was fired (Khanna authored the brave copyright reform memo that I praised along with thousands of others before it was swiftly deleted.)

Some say the conservative committee members were booted for being too far to the right at a time when Republican leadership is trying to compromise on a budget deal. But Amash seems to think it’s because the leadership is more willing to raise taxes than cut the bloated defense budget. If Amash came too close to upsetting the special interests of defense, maybe Khanna came too close to upsetting the special interests of entertainment.

It’s nothing new to see the “party of small government” rejecting attempts by its members to actually turn it in small government directions. But if the GOP needs to become more “moderate/left” to survive, it’s especially ironic that the leadership only seems to be toying with the big-government policies to their left (ex. raising taxes) while rejecting all of the small-government opportunities (ex. cutting defense spending).

Republicans don’t have to embrace taxes and entitlements to attract more voters. Cutting the defense budget, ending the war on drugs, reforming copyright, restoring civil liberties – these are all “small-government” policies that are popular with both liberals and independents. The GOP could embrace these libertarian views and reduce their many hypocrisies while broadening their appeal without compromising their ideals; there are may libertarian-leaning conservatives trying to do just that.

But that requires the GOP to reject the special interests that foster those hypocrisies, and they still seem unwilling to do so. It’s not surprising, but I think it’s a sad and ultimately self-defeating strategy. The battle is yet young, however, and if the reformers’ goals are as self-evident as I think they are, I have hope they will eventually succeed.