Tag Archives: regulation

Murder Free Zones?

Posted on by
Reply

Does Portland State University disagree with the concept of murder free zones?

It seems that a couple of students at PSU wanted to “set up a table on campus” to advocate for the school becoming a Murder Free Zone. The school said, “No, probably not.”

The school insisted that the students hosting the table would themselves become targets of violence: their advocacy of murder free-ness would be “triggering,” it would incite overt violence; the school even suggested that if the thing went forward, the students should have campus security be present to quell any violence that might be triggered.

No, PSU doesn’t disagree with being murder free. That school’s administration was simply satirizing the whole question of gun/murder/anything “free zones.”

Weren’t they?

A Misunderstanding

Posted on by
Reply

Or a non sequitur. A recent Wall Street Journal editorial was headlined thusly: Should There Be a Tax on Soda and Other Sugary Drinks? The subhead had this: Supporters say it is an effective way to cut obesity. Critics say the health benefits are far less than claimed.

The piece then proceeded to a debate between Kelly Brownell, Dean and Robert L Flowers Professor of Public Policy at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy, and William Shughart II, J Fish Smith Professor in Public Choice at Utah State University’s Jon M Huntsman School of Business, among other titles.

Both entirely missed fundamental point. The answer to the headline question can only be a resounding “No.” The debate was a waste of bandwidth and of newsprint and ink because it doesn’t matter whether taxing sodas is an effective way of curbing obesity.

As James Madison once said in the Third Congress about a related subject,

Mr Madison wished to relieve the sufferers, but was afraid of establishing a dangerous precedent, which might hereafter be perverted to the countenance of purposes very different from those of charity. He acknowledged, for his own part, that he could not undertake to lay his finger on that article in the Federal Constitution which granted a right of Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents.

Charity of one sort, or charity of another sort, or simply the Federal government presuming to pressure us toward government’s definition of society, it’s all the same. And so it is with taxing as well as spending. Our tax code, in no way shape or form, should be used to conduct social engineering. Full stop.

Disparate Impact

Posted on by
1

Disparate impact is the racist theory that if practices result in an imbalance (as defined by disparate impact aficionados) in racial representation in this or that arena (see housing, for instance), than the practices must stop until—based solely on race—sufficient races are brought into the arena to achieve an acceptable balance of races. Notice that none of disparate impact has anything to do with the wishes of members of this or that race, already present or absent from the arena. By design, it has nothing to do, also, with the intent of the managers of the arena.

Consider, now, a case brought by

64 organizations alleging that Harvard uses de facto quotas to limit Asian-Americans on campus.

The case was brought to the Civil Rights division of the Department of Education—who promptly dismissed the case, ostensibly because of “pending litigation.” There is a case pending, but as DoE knows full well it’s unlikely to be finally adjudicated for another two or three—or more—years.

Never mind that

Asian-Americans need to score 140 points higher on the SAT than white students to be considered equal applicants on paper, and 450 points higher than African-Americans

and that they’re still underrepresented in Harvard admissions.

Never mind, either, how insulting that 450 point handicap is for blacks–the very group Harvard pretends to be wanting to help.  Or the insult of those 140 points for whites.  But that’s OK, whites have too much privilege; they need to be insulted every now and then.

Apparently, disparate impact is applicable only to certain government-favored groups of Americans. But then, such special treatment is at the very hearts of racism and of bigotry in general.

Justice Anthony Kennedy’s Free Speech

Posted on by
4

Not directly, because this Oregon law predates Kennedy’s Obergefell ruling, but this is the inevitable outcome of his ruling on free speech.

Aaron and Melissa Klein, bakers who refused to make a cake for a same-sex wedding, lost in an Oregon court and have been ordered to pay $135,000 in “emotional damages” to the couple for whom they refused the baking. Administrative Law Judge Alan McCullough, who found for the victimhood couple, ordered the fine, but nothing further.

However, Brad Avakian, Oregon’s Labor Commissioner and Политический Руководитель, and for whom this Administrative Judge works, overruled the omission. On hearing that the Kleins had assured Oregonians in an interview with the Family Research Council that they intended to pursue the matter, he ordered them to speak no further. He gagged them.

So much for freedom of speech in Oregon. So much for freedom of religion in Oregon. Look for this sort of thing to accelerate in the wake of Kennedy’s ruling.

Fools and Statistics

Posted on by
Reply

You’ve already heard about Pseudo-Republican Donald Trump’s remarks about Mexican illegal immigrants and the murderous, drug-hazed rampage in the US he says they’re on. Although he assumes there are some good people among them, too. Real white of ol’ Trump to toss that in.

Now we get Ann Coulter:

I will bet you by the end of the weekend, more Americans will have been killed by Mexicans than by ISIS or by sharks[.]

Coulter is very carefully abusing statistics in the same way that her BFF Trump is doing. What’s the immigration rate—illegal or otherwise—of Daesh or sharks? Compared with the Mexican immigration rate? What per centage of those Daesh or shark immigrants, after entry, become fine, upstanding members of the local community?

What’s the Daesh or sharks per, umm, capita kill rate of Americans compared to that of Mexicans?