October 11, 2009
Britain's Central Planning Death Panels
October 11, 2009
Free Market M.D.
October 11, 2009
Economies of Scale in Compliance
October 11, 2009
Balan's Challenge
October 10, 2009
The Pleasure of Telling Others What to Do
October 10, 2009
Gonick the Great - and How He Could Have Been Greater
October 9, 2009
More Scott Sumner
October 9, 2009
Not From The Onion
October 9, 2009
Thoughts on a Second Stimulus
America can't provide security to Iraq or Afghanistan, I think its worldwide effects are overrated. China would seem to be the more relevant player near Singapore.
Russ cites in his piece Bruce Bueno de Mesquita's "Logic of Political Survival", which you attacked in your post Data Molesters.
Are the services of bootleggers that much desired to get around Blue Laws? Persons could easily shift their consumption to Saturday or Friday to avoid breaking the law, yet still have alcohol on hand. Blue Laws, I would suppose, do not impose as heavy a cost as prohibition did to induce people to break the law and give rise to an underground industry.
I understand the logic Mr. Roberts uses (sort of a branch off of the political science term the 'Iron Triangle'), with the 'bootleggers' the special interests who benefit from the legislation. Nevertheless, I'm not sure if Blue Laws are potent enough for bootleggers to have an incentive to break the law.
If you'd lived in North Carolina in the 50's and 60's you'd know how much the Blue Laws enhanced the sale of bootleg hooch. Just the fact that liquor couldn't be bought, the forbidden fruit so to speak, made it more desirable on Sunday.
Generally, I agree with the direction of the essay; unfortunately, he got the NCLB/Reading First scandal exactly backwards. Reading First and SBRR was consitently rejecting the constructivist pedagogies because, basically, they didn't work; the publishers and ed schools then forced the hearings to ensure that their own preferred text continued to be used, despite the mounting evidence of their ineffectiveness.
Not that I blame him; it's a fairly obscure topic, the reporting on the subject was notably shoddy and misinformed, so unless you're already knowledgeable about the ins & outs of education policy, you're likely to accept the headlines at face value. Ken de Rosa's summary is a great place to start.