Long time no blog

Well, it's been a long year. Suffice to say, our local chapter had plenty of events, and with summer around, I'm going to get back into this.

From the "why even bother" files

Not really legally related but an interesting problem. California State Senator Alan Lowenthal feels that electric cars are too quiet and proposed a bill, which passed and is up with the governor.

It would establish a committee to study the issue and recommend ways the vehicles could make more noise. The recommendations would be due by 2010.

Now, I can surely think of one way for full electric cars to make noise. The concern is that blind and visually impaired people would not be able to hear a car approaching and could be hit. Here's my question: couldn't that be solved by regular tort liability? The car companies would be better at figuring out what's the appropriate noise level to do things, versus the state of California (potential for 50 different nonsensical state regulations as well).

If you think the problems we create are bad, just wait until you see our solutions

First of all, I love the new Despair, Inc. demotivator. I have a nice Government one sitting right on my desk.

Citizens from the city of Plainfield fought to keep a Wal-Mart and a Lowe's out. People wanted industry instead. They won and instead they got RPM Recycling, a metal-shredding plant that now creates noise like a freight train and frequent explosions. Now, of course, people want the city to stop the new plant. Wonder what will come next.

Goldwater the Neocon?

I've been reading Barry Goldwater's autobiography, and I was disturbed to find that he was against the War Powers Resolution, which allows the President to use military force for up to 60 days without Congressional approval. His main criticism is that this limits the President's power to wage war, and that the only constraint on the commander-in-chief power is when the voters kick him out.

I was very perplexed after reading this because Ron Paul has invoked Goldwater's name so many times. Despite Goldwater's views on reducing the size of government, he appears to have no problems with an expansive U.S. military force and Congress' inability to pass a declaration of war. Maybe Ron Paul needs to find a new historical figure to appeal to.

Death and Taxes

The traditional line is that only two things are inevitable, death and taxes. But according to George Will, this overlooks a key difference between the two: death doesn't get worse every time Congress meets.

And you can get good campaign mileage by inflating your resume

A find by Ricky, Obama has the solution to stop drilling in ANWAR.

Legally Changing Your Name

Eugene Volokh has an article about name changes that were so weird, the judge refused to grant them.

A different 'race to the bottom'

India historically had a huge ancient caste system, mostly in part due to implication from Hindu beliefs regarding reincarnation (think of it as an expansion of the European "Divine Right of Kings" concept). Once the British left, India formed a very socialist government, including a number of tiers for status, lower ones receiving more favorable quotas ("reservations") in education and public-sector jobs.

The problem is that India doesn't have the US equivalent of a Regents of the University of California v. Bakke so it actually is quotas. And these quotas are quite lucrative. In fact, last year there was riots in Rajasthan by "members of a caste who are demanding to be socially downgraded in order to gain government jobs and university places."

At the same time, there is a clear backlash going on (both in India and in elsewhere), but a bigger problem for India may be a reduction in standards to get those students in. In 2006, the government proposed a 27.5% quota for Other Backwards Classes (OBCs) on top of the 22.5% for the lower ranked "scheduled" castes. There were massive riots by doctors, lawyers, and students in response.

There is a clear self-interest in organizations getting themselves rated lower in status. In the US, this also shows up in which ethnic groups are separated out in race and ethnicity calculations. For example, should it be just Hispanics or split even further? USC does but most places I know of don't split Indian, Pakistani or Sri Lankan into a separate South Asian category.

Reading list experiment

Neil and I are planning on conducting a little experiment. Looking at Ron Paul book The Revolution, Paul finishes with a reading list of 48 books. We have taken a bet as to the number of books that are located at USC. The book must be physically located on the campus library to count.

Currently, we are 6 1/2 books, Neil taking 6 and under with myself taking 7 or over. Sadly, even with such a poor percentage, I suspect he may win.

I offer the comments for others to make bets and to offer other similar reading lists that may be of interest.

The Dark Knight

The Dark Knight was far more disturbing than I anticipated. The Joker is completely different from the Jack Nicholson version.

Reasons why I like the new Joker:

He burns big piles of money, so at least someone is trying to stop the inflation of the U.S. dollar.

He has a very strong understanding of game theory, notably the prisoner's dilemma

He pushes Batman to the edge and forces Batman to engage in warrantless wiretapping.

Wayne Allyn Root

"Get out your wallet. Look inside. Vote for me. And I promise to stay the hell out of there."
-Wayne Allyn Root

I hope he gets a chance to run as the Libertarian party president in the near future. In the meantime, Bob Barr is still growing on me.

There's No Such Thing as a Free Lunch

Eating at Togo's reminded me of Milton Friedman's famous quote that there's no such thing as as free lunch. I thought this was just a clever phrase he made, but George Stigler recounts how that line is actually based on a real restaurant near U Chicago.

There was a restaurant/bar nearby which gave free sandwiches every day at lunch time. The trick was that they made the sandwiches extremely salty, so that the customers would buy beers and other drinks as soon as they started eating. The restaurant then increased the price of the beers so that it covered the price of the sandwiches.

When Stigler, Friedman, and other faculty members were eating, one of them commented on how great it is that lunch is always free. To which Friedman responded, "There's no such thing as a free lunch."

Internet (Eminent) Domain Name?

I saw an ad for the U.S. Marines and noticed that their website is www.marines.com. I wonder if the government can extend its eminent domain power to websites as well as private property. Suppose that someone bought the domain www.marines.com before the U.S. government got to it, could it take that name if it paid just compensation?

Given the broad meaning of "public use" that was applied in Kelo v. New London, I wouldn't be surprised if it could be argued that a website can be taken for public use. Anyone know if eminent domain has expanded to include internet use as well?

Price Predation

I was having a conversation with someone earlier about monopolies, and everyone seems to believe that a big companies have the power to lower their prices until their competitors go out of business.
This rarely, if ever, happens, since it imposes massive costs on the company (which probably has a huge market share and is sustaining far more losses) and the promise of a monopoly price comes in the long term future. Furthermore, even if the large company succeeds, if another company rises up, the monopolist has to do the whole thing over again.

But Posner described with an interesting way some businessmen got around price predation. If a businessman is about to start a new company in a market he knows is run by a monopoly, and one he knows is going to try to use price predation, he should just short sell stock in the monopoly. That way, when he enters the market, the monopolist will start selling below cost and cause its own stock to fall. The new business will be hurt by the price predation, but the businessman makes a fortune from short selling. Once the new business fails, start another new business, short sell the monopolist, and repeat.

Bob Barr and the IRS

This one actually from Ricky on Bob Barr and excess government control.
I didn't get a chance to put of Christmas lights this year, so I haven't been able to check on the accuracy of his claim.

Conservatism and Pessimism

George Will explains why he became a conservative:

"Rooting for the Cubs of the late 1940s and early 1950s, I became gloomy, pessimistic, morose, dyspeptic-in a word, conservative."

I'd always thought that conservatives were supposed to be the optimistic ones. People on the Left are always complaining about how they're being oppressed by corporations, white people, and the bourgeois. I also find that white people on the Left are especially gloomy because they're always feeling guilty because they think they're the cause of the current condition of African Americans, the environment, and whatever else is a victim this season.

Conservatives on the other hand are generally people of faith who believe that hard work will pay off in a free market economy. Shouldn't they be the optimistic ones?

But maybe Will is referring to conservatives of the 1940's, who were understandably gloomy under FDR and Truman. In that case, we'd all be pessimistic.

American Dad

I used to think that shows like American Dad and the Colbert Report weren't very funny. Now I'm finding that as I became more conservative, they're hilarious. I'm not sure if this is a good sign since the main purpose is to exaggerate right wing tendencies. On the other hand, I also read an article that the most devout Christians are the ones who like Ned Flanders on the Simpsons.

Anyone else notice this phenomenon, that the people being made fun of like the characters that are designed to insult them?

John Lott the Debunker

I've heard a lot of people criticize Freakanomics and its claim that abortion reduces crime because the children who would have grown up to be criminals were aborted 18 years ago. Most of the criticisms I've heard center around attacking utilitarian logic and that we shouldn't kill one fetus to save several murder victims.

John Lott's Freedomnomics has the first criticism I've seen that focuses on real statistical data. He begins with an interesting finding:
Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973.
For children born between 1969 and 1973, by the time they reached the ages of 18-25, the rate of murder was normal.
For children born between 1974 and 1978, by the time those children reached 18-25, their rate of murder was dramatically higher.

Lott's explanation is that legalizing abortion has led to more children being born out of wedlock, since it caused increased promiscuity among young people. The number of children born into single parent homes increased, and those children started committing lots of crimes.

I'm not sure how convincing this long logical chain is, but that's mainly because I don't know if abortion actually caused lots of children to be born out of wedlock. This sounds correct, but he's the first person I've encountered to make this claim.

Anyone have thoughts on whether or not there is a causal connection between making abortions more accessible and having more single parent families? The economic explanation presented is that abortions reduce the "cost" of sex since both parties no longer have to worry about raising a child, and that this has therefore led to an explosion in irresponsible sex and actually more teen pregnancy.

How to stop a lien

I recommend Richard Epstein's Supreme Neglect for anyone interested in property rights and looking for fascinating examples of how far the government will go to avoid a takings claim.

My favorite case he describes is Armstrong v. United States. Essentially, the U.S. had purchased boats to use for the Navy. But there were actually still liens on the boats, the U.S. hadn't fully purchased them yet. So what does the U.S. do? Sails the boats out of the state, thereby ending the lien. Really, the government just set sail for international waters.

Most of the cases are the same as the one's we covered in Property, except Epstein explains the correct result the Court should have reached. I was most interested in the sections where he expands the application of takings to rent control, intellectual property, and of course, all taxes.

The Milton Friedman Institute

The University of Chicago announced plans to open the Milton Friedman Institute in honor of their most famous Nobel Prize winning faculty member. And then I read this in the Chicago Tribune
More than 100 professors signed a letter criticizing the naming of the institute after Milton Friedman.

And here I was, reflecting on Jonah Goldberg's book, wondering if liberals really were all that fascist. I apologize for doubting you Goldberg.


My favorite part of the faculty letter was that they claim Friedman's work and research has been to everyone's detriment...worldwide. Apparently Keynes is still believed to be a wonderful economist who helped people around the world. I'm sure he appreciates their thoughts while he's burning in hell.