Paul Krugman of the New York Times on “An Irish Mirror” and Constantin Gurdgiev of Trinity College, Dublin on “Replying to Prof Krugman”

Hat Tip: Cyril Morong

Third Wheel, by Prabodh.

Yesterday on the radio I heard an interview with Cheye Calvo, mayor of Berwyn Heights, Maryland, who recounted his family’s nightmare as they were attacked by a SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics) team, which assaulted them, abused them, and killed their dogs. It was chilling. Radley Balko of Reason covers the story; “4.5 SWAT Raids Per Day”

After some shocking numbers about the huge numbers of SWAT attacks, Balko notes,

Worse even than those dreary numbers is the fact that more than half of the county’s SWAT deployments were for misdemeanors and nonserious felonies. That means more than 100 times last year Prince George’s County brought state-sanctioned violence to confront people suspected of nonviolent crimes. And that’s just one county in Maryland. These outrageous numbers should provide a long-overdue wake-up call to public officials about how far the pendulum has swung toward institutionalized police brutality against its citizenry, usually in the name of the drug war.

I don’t smoke. I don’t like smoking. I hate the smell it leaves on your clothes when others smoke around you. But that doesn’t change my views about this injustice: “Pub landlord is first person in Britain to be jailed over smoking ban”

‘Ninety per cent of people who come into my pub want to smoke, even the non-smokers think there should be a choice. These laws are ridiculous.’

If you’re like me and don’t like being around a lot of cigarette smoke, don’t go to places where other people smoke.

Thanks, Reason.tv, for a clear explanation!

La Prensa San Diego on El narco: La guerra fallida by former Mexican presidential spokesperson Rubén Aguilar and political analyst and former foreign minister Jorge Castañeda: “The So-Called War on Drugs a Complete Failure”

CNN: “Former Mexican official urges legalizing marijuana”

I have heard Castañeda speak and he is truly exceptional as an analyst and as a speaker. It’s a shame that on the clip here he barely has a chance to make even one point.

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education and the Students for Liberty have filed a joint amicus brief for freedom of association in the case of Christian Legal Society v. Martinez. Both groups deserve support from believers (whether “believers” or not) in the right to freedom of association.

The issue has some complications, but I think that the FIRE and SFL brief makes the case well against attempting to dictate the views of groups that receive official recognition at state universities.

Reason’s Jacob Sullum: “If We Make Sure We’re Not Killing Innocent People, We Might Not Get to Kill Anyone at All“

Michael Moynihan of Reason has been doing some super sleuthing. He wants to know, “Just what makes something humorous?” And now he has the answer: Jonathan Chait, to whom he has awarded the prestigious title of “The Left’s Own Topo Gigo.” If you’re not chortling and guffawing over Chait’s John McCain hand puppet telling the Sarah Palin hand puppet that he picked her as his running mate because “I was a sad, desperate old man trapped in a loveless marriage — I saw you and I saw a second chance,” then you must be like me: stupid and humorless, in the words of Matthew Yglesias, one of the smartest and funniest guys around. So smart and so funny he told my friend Veronique de Rugy to SHUT UP! about tax policy because she’s …. get this!!! … FRENCH. Ha ha! FRENCH!!!! Oh, how we laughed!

But you know, when you keep on having to say, “But I’m funny. Really!,” you ought to wonder whether maybe you’re….well, you’re just not. That you’re crude and boorish and that you really ought to apologize to the person you mocked because of her name and nationality. Or at least that your “humor” is not really suitable for grown-up conversation. (And yes, I do know that they were trying for some sort of “irony,” but they failed utterly [for one thing, saying racism is "unAmerican" and saying Jews and Catholics are "unAmerican" really are different uses of the term].) Moreover, undeniably hidden behind the protestations of humor was a very clear message to someone who disagreed about what the essence of America is [hint: not using the power to tax maliciously to punish people], and that message is:

SHUT THE HELL UP AND GET OUT OF OUR COUNTRY!

Thanks, Jonathan and Matthew, for raising the tone of policy discourse so. You’re great guys. Class acts. Really.

Jonathan Chait disgraces himself once more. First he mocked Veronique de Rugy’s French name, then in his defense he makes fun of the “G” in my name, which I have there to remember my father and to distinguish myself from a lot of others out there with the same name. But whatever.

What’s actually interesting is that he thinks that it’s très amusant to write “Hey, you know what else is anti-American? Being named ‘Veronique de Rugy’” as a so, so witty response to Vero’s criticism of Barney Frank’s “mentality,” because it is allegedly wrong to state that a mentality is unAmerican, but he was very quick to tar advocates of tax cuts as “deeply unpatriotic” after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. He wrote in The New Republic (not available online, as far as I could find), “There is something deeply unpatriotic about K Street’s rush to turn the tragedy into quick profit.” (Note the additional smear: “K Street,” which is in fact dominated by lawyers and lobbyists trying to get a piece of the taxpayers’ dollar, is used as the stand-in for taxpayers who would like to keep more of their money.) But what is the most interesting is how eager he was to smear people who favor tax cuts as “unpatriotic,” which is far stronger than referring to a “mentality” as unAmerican (or, in Vero’s awkward Frenchy phrase, “anti-American”). What can one say?….other than that his friends really ought to stop him before he embarrasses himself again.

UPDATE: Now We Know What Real Humor Is….Or at Least Real Jokes

Some find this a difficult topic to discuss, but it’s going to happen to all of us (well, probably), so it’s childish to avoid it. Yes, I’m discussing death. Jamie Dettmer, a friend and former colleague, has had to deal with this, as have I. His thoughts on the topic, drawing on his experience with his mother, can be found here: “The Gilderdale Case: The Right To Die”

All a part of the U.S. government’s plans to make travel impossible and life unbearable.

John Stossel on Energy Independence

Robert Higgs in Investor’s Business Daily: “The Disappearing Private-Sector Jobs“

From NPR: “Opponents Threaten Court Battle on Health Mandate”

This may not be the deepest analysis of why and how Detroit has sunk so very low, but he hits the nail on the head quite a few times. This video was sent to me by former residents of Detroit who now live elsewhere. It’s an extremely sad story.

Hat Tip: Mike

Two former officials in the government of Vicente Fox have come out in favor of ending the drug war, which is causing enormous harm in Mexico.

Their book, El Narco: La Guerra Fallida (“Narco: The Failed War”) was reviewed January 1 in the Los Angeles Times, “Book takes Mexico drug war to task.”

I met Castenada in Mexico in 2008 at a Cato Institute event, where he made a brilliant case against the current policies. He’s a very impressive thinker.

(Note: I also had discussions in Afghanistan about the disastrous impact of US and European drug policies on that country. The US government is causing tremendous harm worldwide through its drug policies. It’s time to end them. Now.)

I’ve met with some very sharp Afghan policy makers who understand well that the US “war on drugs” has terrible consequences for Afghans, who are victimized by the US DEA and the Afghan government it bullies into suppressing the market, and that it’s buying weapons for the Taliban. I’m hoping to work to prepare a report calling for a special drug regime that would allow Afghan farmers to grow poppies for the legal pharmaceutical market, which would actually increase incomes to farmers (who get a tiny share of the total price of illegal drugs, as most goes to the traffickers who smuggle it out of Afghanistan through Iran, India, Pakistan, and Tajikistan, and then those who ship it to markets in the US, Europe, and elsewhere, not to mention the final dealers), would cut out the profits to the narco-traffickers and terrorist networks, and would undercut the corruption that prohibition brings. It would be a good step toward bring civil peace to a country that has had thirty years of war. They deserve peace, and a change in the policies toward narcotics producers and buyers would be a big step in the right direction.

The New York Times features my friend Hannes Gissurarson of the University of Iceland, who suffered from Britain’s outrageous libel laws, in today’s story: “Britain, Long a Libel Mecca, Reviews Laws“

The French in this is very fast, but my colleague Dr. Emmanuel Martin (editor of UnMondeLibre.org) takes on a smooth French politician, Bernard Deflesselles, member of parliament (Député), right-hand man of the Minister of the Environment, and French reporting counsellor to the United Nations Climate Change conference in Copenhagen, COP15.

So, here it is, cold politics vs. hard facts. (The politician is very good at trying not to let Emmanuel get a word in edgewise, but Manu persists in raising the issues of evidence.)

P.S. Don’t forget to sign the petition against “green protectionism.”