Bob Lee Says

Terrific column by my bud Bob Lee.

UNC Boss Holden Thorp is a friend of Bob's, so he's not taking cheap shots. He's just calling the corners.

Here is the hate crime report, on TV.


But it was a hoax. Just totally faked. HuffPo huffed and puffed about the "hate crime," but then when it turned out to be fake HuffPo actually had the gall to say "allegedly faked." You gotta like that: There WAS a hate crime, for sure, but then it was "allegedly faked." Why not "alleged hate crime" in the first place?

So, to review: this was TOTALLY made up, fabricated. And all the haters line up and say, "This fits the pattern. This proves my biases are correct. Only the government can solve this problem."

The truth is that the idea of a hate crime is idiotic. There are crimes. Prosecute them. But don't make stuff up. Or you give reasons to people who want to make stuff up just to get attention.

Assaults do happen. But stuff like this just makes it harder for the actual victims to get justice. And UNC Chancellor Holden Thorp should be ashamed.

Angus Is Right, As Usual!

Holy cow, why so much hatin' on Angus?

Look, the welfare economics case for free trade could be built on (a) the Pareto criterion, or (b) the Kaldor-Hicks Compensation Principle.

As Angus notes, no way you can say moving from protection to free trade is a Pareto improvement. There are winners and losers.

And no Libertarian can invoke the KHCP, because it's collectivist and utilitarian. KHCP does not require compensation be made, and doesn't even require individual consent, and so it is inherently coercive. A majority decides on a policy, and the minority is harmed without its consent. Yes, perhaps the harm was caused by eliminating a policy (protection) that was itself coercive (consumers were harmed without THEIR consent), but you can't get to free trade unless you go the collective-coercion route. Angus is obviously right about that.

Two points: First, less of a problem if compensation is actually made, as I suggested last summer at the Takeaway.

Second, I have a paper coming out in an edited volume that points out the equivalence of KHCP and Coase, in terms of costs (in both cases, you are adding up costs and benefits). Differences are (a) KHCP doesn't require consent or compensation, while Coase requires both, and (b) KHCP faces the Hayek problem, because there are no prices to measure welfare costs. Coase forces bargaining and honest preference revelation, EXCEPT when transactions costs of collective action and preference revelation are too high.

More anti-GOP bias

Why Hate?

My op-ed published today in the Durham Herald.

It's primary day here in NC. Be careful out there.

Roasted Euro-Weenie

"You have the charisma of a damp rag, and the appearance of a low-grade bank clark."

Nobody can ream you a new one like a Brit MP. Even a Brit MEP.

Well played, sir.

(Thanks to Tommy the Gotta Be Brit)

The Grand Game!

It's been a while. But the Grand Game is back! It turns out that the folks who run England's criminal justice system would prefer to prosecute homeowners who try to defend themselves. It makes some sense, I have to admit. Homeowners can't run, and the state can hold them hostage because the state controls title and transfer of title.

Excerpt:

David Cameron has stoked the row over the prosecution of ‘have a go heroes’ by saying that burglars leave their human rights at the door when they break into a property.... The moment a burglar steps over your threshold and invades your property with all the threat that gives to you, your family and your livelihood, I think they leave their human rights outside,” he said.

Keir Starmer, the Director of Public Prosecutions, has criticised the... proposal, saying that the current law for householders accused of attacking intruders: “works very well”.

Last month, Munir Hussain, a businessman, was freed from prison on appeal after being jailed for using a cricket bat to batter an intruder who had broken into his home and tied his family up, leaving the burglar with brain damage.

Mr Cameron has also spoken up in defence of Mylene Klass, the television presenter and musician, who was told off by police for waving a knife at intruders who broke into her garden, describing the warning as “ridiculous”.

Lord Mandelson, the Business Secretary, dismissed Mr Cameron’s suggestion that burglars should forfeit their human rights as a “wonderful sound bite”.

He told the BBC’s Politics Show: “What sort of country is he trying to create?

"Of course it will receive short-term public applause from those who want to get tough on burglars, as we do in our Government, but where's the practical common sense policy thinking?"

Here's my practical common sense policy thinking: If you break into my house, and then threaten and tie up my family, then I am not obliged to be careful in how I react. If I have a bat, or a 2-iron, and I do NOT hit you in the head, as hard as I can, I may get tied up, too. We aren't talking about some guy who got lost. THE INTRUDER TIED THEM UP. Time for Mr. Cricket Bat. Sure, I can't enslave the intruder, or capture him and torture him. But I am not trained to calibrate how hard I hit with the bat.

Anyway, KPC readers, please pick out the most asinine elements of the story, the beyond stupid quotes, and let us know, in comments!

ATSRTWT

(UPDATE: My bad. Nod to my man Craig Newmark.....Furthermore, a commenter on N's Door clarifies that the cricket bat beating took place outside. An interesting question, I guess. Clearly I can beat the guy if he is threatening me. If he runs, maybe not. And once he is outside.... I see the point. Always useful to have a few facts, what?)

Recognize the Honduran Elections

The Presidential election in Honduras was Sunday. Turnout is reported as fairly high (61%) and Pepe Lobo appears to be the clear winner. Many in the Latin American blogosphere are urging that the US not recognize the elections or normalize their relations with Honduras (here is an example).

I just don't understand that. This was a regularly scheduled election.  To the best of my knowledge, neither of the candidates complained that their campaigning was being restricted or that conditions for the vote were unfair. There were tons of rich country observers monitoring the elections. Neither candidate was a "Zelaya guy".

I agree that Zelaya never should have been deported. I am not totally sure whether or not his removal from office (as a separate issue from his deportation) was legitimate. But I don't see how these issues justify not recognizing the results of this election.

Nor am I sure at this point what would satisfy the folks who are advocating non-recognition. 

Are they asking for the election results to be tossed and Zelaya returned to office open-ended? 

Do they think that if Zelaya is re-instated and new elections were held in a month that the outcome would be different?

This is just speculation on my part, but I think Honduras is paying for the past sins of previous US governments in the region. We did horrendous things in Guatemala and Argentina (to name a couple cases I am familiar with), and now people who disagreed with and protested against or grew up resenting our government because of these heinous acts are having their day even though the current situation is not remotely similar.

One of the funniest (at least to me) reasons for not recognizing the results given in the blog post I linked to above is that we should not do so in the name of supporting regional consensus. Meaning I guess that the Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia and Nicaragua bloc should have veto power over US policy in Latin America.

Pot? Meet Kettle!

So in the process of inviting Dutch EU parliment member Hans Van Baalen to leave the worker's paradise of Nicaragua, the deputy foreign minister, one Manuel Coronel Kautz, called Holland a "Paisucho", which is being translated as "shitty little country" or "crummy little country".

The Nicaraguan government has apologized.

Apparently Manuel Coronel Kautz is known throughout Central America for his colorful and folkloric utterances.

People, if Holland is a shitty little country, what in the world does that make Nicaragua?

Anyone? Bueller?

Tanks on the borders of....Colombia?

Everyone's favorite autocrat, Hugo F. Chavez, is mobilizing his military to the Colombian border to heroically repel the expected US invasion.

Ok, now repeat after me: WTF?

Seriously, Hugo, Wassup?

Well, now that he has more or less achieved total power, Venezuela is falling apart.  Output there is still sharply falling and inflation is around 30%. Plus the country is facing water shortages and electricity blackouts. Crime in Caracas is a huge problem.

Although polls in Venezuela vary greatly, Chavez's popularity seems to be significantly falling in the face of all these problems.

I guess there is nothing like a good war scare to divert the populace from blaming you for the deterioration of their quality of life. 

Still it's hard to believe that anyone would seriously expect the US to invade Venezuela. How could we ever get mad at this guy?

Now he's the Answer to the wrong question

People, I am OLD. I have followed Allen Iverson's career since he was a high school phenom in Virginia.

He pretty much has no one to blame but himself, but it is really kind of sad to see him end up this way. After being injured at the beginning of the season, he has played 3 games off the bench for the Grizz and seems to be saying "no mas":

Iverson debuted for the Grizzlies on Monday in Sacramento after missing all the preseason and the season’s first three games with a hamstring injury. The Grizzlies lost to the Kings in overtime, and Iverson immediately questioned his limited role after the game. He also criticized his teammates for not noticing he was open on the final possession of regulation.

“I’m not a reserve basketball player,” Iverson said. “I’ve never been a reserve all my life and I’m not going to start looking at myself as a reserve.”

Iverson made similar comments two nights later after the Grizzlies lost to the Golden State Warriors.

and now?

A frustrated Allen Iverson has left the Memphis Grizzlies and is not expected to return anytime soon, if at all, a source close to the situation told Yahoo! Sports on Saturday.

The Grizzlies granted Iverson a leave of absence to allow him to return to his offseason home in Atlanta. The source said Iverson wants to clear his head and is extremely unhappy about the lack of communication with Grizzlies coach Lionel Hollins over his playing time and role with the team. Team sources told Yahoo! Sports that Iverson did not ask the Grizzlies to waive him, but there was no timetable for his return.

Still, Iverson has done nothing to hide his frustration after he returned from a hamstring injury this week and was relegated to coming off the bench. A source with knowledge of Iverson’s thinking said he “probably wasn’t coming back.”

The crazy thing is, he could be a valuable reserve player, getting say 18-22 minutes per game on a contending team with unlimited chucking privileges, but I guess he can't somehow get over the "insult" that would be. 

To me the only thing stranger than Iverson's fierce pride is the fact that the Grizz signed him to begin with.

Why so glum, chums?

I have been noticing that bloggers who post anything positive about the economic situation are often bombarded with negative and apocalyptic comments. See here and here for examples. The MSM is not exactly cheery either.

Some things are really truly good. For example, output in general and manufacturing in particular are growing again in a lot of economies. It is true that unemployment is quite high and may well rise even higher, but historically, unemployment is a lagging indicator.

The dollar is falling, but in an orderly manner, and its fall appears to be stimulating exports which is good. Interest rates are low and fears of further rounds of mortgage defaults when ARMS are reset to higher rates appear perhaps to be overblown.

Personal savings rates in the USA have risen appreciably.

We do have a very large and growing deficit and we have some policy proposals floating around that may well increase the problem. As Chairman Ben said today, a fiscal exit strategy is going to be important and in my view, the fiscal exit will be much more problematic than the monetary exit.

So I am not claiming we live in Shangie-La or anything, but we were supposedly standing on the brink staring into the void a few short months ago and in actuality things are turning out much better than many feared. So why all the hyper-negativity?

Weekend eye candy

Enjoy, people.

The Public Option in "Action"

Stay boring my friends

more here.

This is Wrong. Duke IS the Douchiest

The Top 25 Douchiest Colleges

(Duke is ranked #2, only because the authors are such haters that they didn't want Duke to be #1 at ANYTHING.)

East meets West

Some people shouldn't travel and some people shouldn't have guests:

"It is the sort of offer that most tourists would jump at: an all-expenses paid return visit to a dream destination, as amends for a sleight by an unscrupulous host.

But not Yasuyuki Yamada, who yesterday turned down an offer of a free holiday in Italy as guests of the country's government after he and his fiancee were presented with an enormous bill at a restaurant in Rome earlier this month.

Yamada, 35, thanked Italy's tourism minister, Michela Brambilla, for the offer but said the trip would be a "useless way to spend Italian taxpayers' money," according to the Ansa news agency.

The couple complained to the police after they were charged €700 – including €207 for a pasta dish and a €115 service charge – for lunch at Il Passetto, a 150-year-old restaurant that counts Grace Kelly, Leonardo DiCaprio and Harrison Ford among its regulars, according to Ansa.

The restaurant attempted to blame the couple, saying they had ordered the priciest items on the menu, including oysters and lobster.

Speaking from his home in Tsukuba, near Tokyo, Yamada said: "I offer my thanks, but I have no intention of accepting it, even if a formal invitation arrives."

The restaurant debacle aside, he said he and his fiancee had enjoyed a terrific holiday and planned to return to Italy, but at their own expense.

A few weeks earlier another Japanese couple had complained about Il Passetto after being given a bill for €352 for a modest meal that included a shared main course.

Health inspectors ordered the restaurant to close after Yamada's complaint but it is expected to reopen soon.

Italian authorities were stung into action amid evidence that their country is falling out of favour among Japan's free-spending tourists.

Many have been put off by reports of poor service and inflated prices. About 1 million Japanese are expected to visit Italy this year, less than half the 2.17 million recorded in 1997.In an open letter published last week, Brambilla apologised for the incidents and urged Japanese tourists to give her country a second chance."

Man oh man. What kind of A-hole charges hapless foreigners 700 euro for lunch? And then when caught blames the victim and leaves it to his government to try and make amends?

But at the same time, what kind of simpering sap PAYS the 700 euro lunch bill? Are you kidding me?

I couldn't decide if this was a "culture that is Italy" or "culture that is Japan" post so I simplified the title.

Hat tip to E.F. Hutton

They Both Got Their Irish Up....And it was the SAME IRISH

"Henry Louis Gates Jr., the black professor at the center of the racial story involving his arrest outside his Harvard house, has spoken proudly of his Irish roots. Bizarrely, he and the Cambridge, MA, officer who arrested him, James Crowley, both trace their ancestry back to the legendary Niall of the Nine Hostages, a famous Irish chieftain." [IrishCentral.com]

Interested in Niall?

"Ruthless" "Cunning" "Brilliant" "Prolific"....All these words are used when describing one of the first great High Kings of Ireland, Niall Noigíallach. Born around 342A.D., Niall was "the son of the Irish High King Eochaid Mugmedon and his second wife, Cairenn. Some wicked-stepmothering from Eochaid's first wife, Mongfind, led to Niall having to overcome his half-brothers - who bore the evocative names of Fergus, Ailill, Fiachrae and, er, Brian - in the battle to be their father's successor."

"The epithet "Nine Hostages" derives from Niall's habit of borrowing people from other kingdoms and refusing to give them back. Different accounts have them coming from a variety of places, but in the best-known version there is one each from the five provinces of Ireland, and one each from the Scots, Saxons, Britons and French. Legend has it that another famous hostage of Niall's was Succat - you'd know him as Saint Patrick.

"Irish sources describe Niall's successful raids on Britain and France, and he was probably involved in establishing a Gaelic kingdom in north Wales. At home, Niall consolidated power in the northern region of Ireland, creating the Uí Néill dynasty that would provide the High Kings of Ireland for centuries. As well as the O'Neills, the Scottish clans MacNeil and MacLachlan can also claim descent from Niall.

"Tradition has it that he died in 405 - though some historians argue for a later date - at sea in the Channel (or in France, or in the Alps, or possibly in Scotland). And despite his rampant and academically proven promiscuity, he was actually succeeded by one of the (presumably rare) young men in Ireland whom he hadn't sired himself - his nephew, Dathi." (source)

You mean this guy Niall STOLE ST. PATRICK, and wouldn't give him back? Now THAT is cold.

(Nod to Kevin L, who only takes hostages when he has to. And he always gives them back)

Fight the Real Enemy: Paintball

I almost can't believe this. But I can believe it.

The incident was in fact pretty bad.

But....paintball? No evidence that the kid who did the shooting ever played paintball, or that there is any connection. They are contemplating banning laser tag, also. Golly.

Jake deSantis quits on the NYT Op Ed Page

Pretty impressive resignation letter.

Email from a new friend.....

Hello Mr. Munger,

I hear you every now and then on 680 AM and usually just turn it off after a few seconds. Why Bill has you on I have no idea. (MY RESPONSE: LAURA, MAYBE IT'S BECAUSE I DO IT FOR FREE?)

Each time I hear news of the nation and of the state it is bad. Every since the election it gets worse and worse. Obama is dead set to ruin all this nation is
about. As for NC, we would have had a chance with McCory. NC really had a chance at getting a conservative in as govenor. Who did we GET. In my opinion we got Perdue because you were so vain as to run when you knew you would never get enough votes to WIN. So we all have to suffer because you took the votes away from McCory that would have made the outcome different. All people like you are about is themselves. This election it was so close and conservatives were so close to make a difference from all the deceit we had with Easley. The lottery money that was to be JUST FOR EDUCATION and now 88 million in going into the general fund. There is no point in listing everything. You are just like Ross Perot. Maybe that is mis. spelled. Just because you think you have the qualifications and ability doesn't mean it should override the risk that you caused us all by running for the office. Maybe you were really out to support Perdue and that's why you ruined it for the conservatives and our state. I really think you just wanted to hear yourself talk and you know because you could run for the office you did. Knowing you would not win and knowing it would cost McCory and the tax payers, but you did it anyway. Hope it cost you in some way that none of us will ever know, because you cost us all the next four years.

Laura Tucker

Dear Laura, my new BFF:

FIRST: Exit polls show that I took LOTS more votes from Perdue than Mccrory. As PPP puts it:

One other interesting finding from our analysis. We pointed out several times last fall that our data showed Michael Munger was pulling more votes from Perdue than McCrory, contrary to the conventional wisdom that Libertarians take from Republican candidates. The county where he ended up doing best? Deep blue Orange, where he pulled 5% of the vote.

I have actually talked to Pat McCrory about this, and he agrees it's true. Had I not run, Bev would have won by more. (Notice that ALL of those words were one syllable; I'm hoping you can actually understand them...). The reason is all the straight party ticket Dem voters. Pat actually won on election day, by quite a bit. But Bev won the early voters, the ones who just showed up to vote for Obama.

SECOND: Bev beat Pat by more than the TOTAL votes that I got, as you can see here.


Bev beat pat by 145,000 votes. I only got a total of 121,000 votes.

That is, if every one (EVERY. ONE.) of the people who voted for me had instead voted for Pat, he still would have lost. And the fact is that MOST of votes came from Perdue. There is no way you can seriously believe I cost Pat the election. It's not even close. No question: most of my votes came from Dems. More than 60% of my voters also voted for Obama.

I'm afraid you are overestimating my impact. To the extent that that is a compliment, I do thank you. But I'm afraid the compliment is undeserved. Still, I do appreciate your kindness in seeking me out this way. Let's talk again soon!

Mike