Getting Fiscal
"If Milton Friedman weren't still alive, he'd be spinning in his grave."
posted by James at 1/15/2001 10:55:55 AM

Hailing Move by Greenspan, Bush Presses for His Tax Cut
"And except for some carefully measured statements that largely restated campaign positions, he let the executives themselves do the talking — either because he felt they could better build support for his program or because he does not yet feel comfortable musing about the economy and the markets live on television. 'It would be risky,' one of the executives who attended today's session said. 'He did fine in private. But you know what's it's like — one slip about the dollar, and the markets would be reacting before he ever got out the door.'"

So...we can't entrust the guy with making public economic statements, but we do trust him with nuclear weapons?
posted by James at 1/4/2001 11:10:25 AM

Interesting numbers (from a USCHO post of mine):

Let's compare (based on the FBI's UCR data):

Murders per 100,000 in 1999 in law-and-order, capital-punishment, concealed-carry-legal Texas: 6.1

In liberal, no-death-penalty, tough-gun-laws Massachusetts: 2.0

Now, this is all clearly anecdotal, and there are four states (IA, ID, NH, and ND) with equal or lower rates. But until someone comes up with decent statistics showing that capital punishment is an effective deterrent, I really don't see how anyone can make an argument for the death penalty that doesn't fall back on Judeo-Christian morality. And that argument is so weak that even the Pope doesn't buy it.
posted by James at 1/2/2001 11:01:03 PM