“Politics Is Weird. And Creepy.”

Posted on May 2, 2012 | Comments Off on “Politics Is Weird. And Creepy.”

I have little love for Fox News, or for cable news in general. But Shepard Smith is both hilarious and spot-on in this 30-second clip. Click here if the embedded video doesn’t work.

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Posted in Elections, Media, Political Animals

In Which the World is Both Very Large and Very Small

Posted on April 30, 2012 | Comments Off on In Which the World is Both Very Large and Very Small

This interactive graphic shows the relative size of objects from strings (if they exist) to galactic clusters and beyond. Check it out.

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Posted in Science

CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation

Posted on April 30, 2012 | Comments Off on CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation


Just another week in the world of regulation:

  • 81 new final rules were published last week, down from 84 the previous week. That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every 2 hours and 4 minutes — 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. All in all, 1,195 final rules have been published in the Federal Register this year. If this keeps up, the total tally for 2012 will be 3,707 new rules.
  • 1,210 new pages were added to the 2012 Federal Register last week, for a total of 25,307 pages. At this pace, the 2012 Federal Register will run 77,156 pages.
  • Rules are called “economically significant” if they have costs of $100 million or more in a given year. The 19 such rules published so far in 2012 have compliance costs of at least $15.2 billion. Two of the rules do not have cost estimates, and a third cost estimate does not give a total annual cost. We assume that rules lacking this basic transparency measure cost the bare minimum of $100 million per year. The true cost is almost certainly higher.
  • Two economically significant rules were published last week. There were a total of 8 significant actions last week, as defined by Executive Order 12866. So far, 139 significant final rules have been published in 2012.
  • 27 of last week’s final rules affect small business. So far this year, 243 final rules affect small businesses. 35 of them are significant rules.

Highlights from final rules published last week:

  • Another health care bill regulation was published this week, claiming savings of $1.59 billion in Medicare spending over ten years. If the cost estimates are correct, this is the rare economically significant regulation that saves $100 million or more per year. Since the savings are in government spending instead of compliance costs, I am scoring it as zero-cost for this year’s regulatory compliance cost tally. I do the same with rules that increase spending, but not compliance costs.
  • An economically significant rule from the Food and Nutrition Service will transfer $1.4 billion over 5 years from the federal government to school lunch programs. Compliance costs (paperwork, etc.) are estimated at $3.7 million over 5 years, so I’m adding a fifth of that, or $740,000, to this year’s regulatory compliance cost tally.
  • If you are planning on fishing for any of the 7 species of northeast skate, there are new regulations you should be aware of.
  • The Navy Department is revising its rules for avoiding collisions at sea.

For more data, updated daily, go to TenThousandCommandments.com.

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Posted in regulation

Another Good Month

Posted on April 26, 2012 | Comments Off on Another Good Month

Sometime last night, and for the third time in four months, this blog set a record for monthly traffic.

Thanks for reading, and tell your friends.

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Posted in Housekeeping

CEI Podcast for April 26, 2012: CISPA

Posted on April 26, 2012 | Comments Off on CEI Podcast for April 26, 2012: CISPA


Have a listen here.

After a public uproar over privacy concerns killed the SOPA and PIPA bills, Congress is back with the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act of 2011, or CISPA. Associate Director of Technology Studies Ryan Radia goes over CISPA’s own privacy problems, and discusses the bill’s political prospects.

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Posted in CEI Podcast, Technology

Tagged , , ,

TSA in the News

Posted on April 26, 2012 | Comments Off on TSA in the News

The TSA has been making a lot of headlines lately. None of them are very flattering:

  • A woman going through Madison, Wisconsin’s airport was reduced to tears and was visibly shaking during her pat-down. A fellow traveler took video, which you can see here. Many victims of sexual abuse have reported feeling similar emotions during pat-downs.
  • Dina Frank is 7 years old and has cerebral palsy. She needs leg braces and crutches to walk, and has had a double hip replacement. Since she can’t walk through the metal detectors, she has to get pat-down every time she flies. The screeners were apparently aggressive as well as thorough, and upset the poor child. The screening took so long, her family ended up missing their flight. TSA defended the actions, saying proper procedures were followed.
  • A now-former TSA officer is facing 20 years in prison for trafficking painkillers. Twenty people have been arrested in the case, and two TSA officers have so far pled guilty. If the FDA and DEA weren’t so intent on limiting the supply of pain relief, this black market would never have emerged. And the sentence is entirely out of line for a victimless crime. But it does show that TSA employees are corruptible.
  • Two TSA employees in Los Angeles have also been charged with drug trafficking. They allegedly accepted cash bribes to let narcotics pass through LAX.
  • A Congressman who co-sponsored an anti-TSA bill received a particularly vigorous pat-down, and is calling it assault.
  • An elderly couple with two artificial knees and an artificial hip between them weren’t that surprised to set off a metal detector and be patted down as a result. But they were surprised to go  through multiple pat-downs, and that $300 in cash was stolen.
  • A frequent flyer, feeling harassed in Portland, Oregon’s airport, lost his cool and stripped naked. According to the police report, “Mr. Brennan’s actions caused two screening lanes to be closed and while some passengers covered their eyes and their children’s eyes and moved away from the screening area, others stepped out of the screening lanes to look, laugh and take photos of Mr. Brennan.”
  • And as a bonus, a (non-TSA) London screener gave a surprisingly thorough screening to supermodel Bar Rafaeli, which she remarked “left no doubt about her sexual preferences.”

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Posted in Security Theater

Notable Trees in Arlington, Virginia

Posted on April 25, 2012 | Comments Off on Notable Trees in Arlington, Virginia

Part of my job is to get published. Or, failing that, quoted. Today was not my most influential citation, but it’s still one I’m quite proud of: Dave Barry’s blog over at the Miami Herald website. Click here to see a truly awful pun.

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Posted in General Foolishness

$15 Trillion for… What, Exactly?

Posted on April 24, 2012 | Comments Off on $15 Trillion for… What, Exactly?

In a new study, Cato’s Michael Tanner finds that “Despite nearly $15 trillion in total welfare spending since Lyndon Johnson declared war on poverty in 1964, the poverty rate is perilously close to where we be­gan more than 40 years ago.”

Poverty relief is one of the noblest and most important projects in any society. The only question is how to go about it. Right now, the federal government has 126 different welfare programs; Tanner is kind enough to list them all in a 5-page appendix. Their combined annual cost is $668 billion. That’s a lot of money – about $14,848 for every person in poverty.

The trouble is that the results have been disappointing. The poverty rate is currently 15.1 percent, the highest it’s been in a decade. If the chosen means aren’t achieving the end, then it’s time to choose some different means.

One solution is to make it easier to find a job. About one third of all occupations require a license. The people in charge of handing out licenses are typically members of the occupation, and have a vested interest in keeping potential competitors out. By removing licensing requirements from most occupations, more people can find jobs in fields ranging from interior decorating to hair-braiding to driving a taxi. More competition also means lower prices for consumers, so their dollars go further. That’s important for people who don’t have a lot of dollars.

The regulatory thicket also discourages people from starting their own businesses. Lightening paperwork burdens and compliance costs would make it easier for people to open stores, provide services, create jobs, and lift people out of poverty.

Education is important for getting a good-paying job. But good schools, especially good public schools, are mainly the province of the rich. Introducing some competition into the failed monopoly school system through tax credits or vouchers would do wonders for delivering a better education to the kids who need it most.

There is no single magic bullet to poverty relief. The ideas above are just a start, and a modest one at that. But $15 trillion later, it is clear that the War on Poverty has failed the poor. It’s time to look elsewhere for solutions that actually work.

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Posted in Economics

TSA Pats Down 4-Year Old After She Hugs Her Grandmother

Posted on April 24, 2012 | Comments Off on TSA Pats Down 4-Year Old After She Hugs Her Grandmother

Because Grandma didn’t go through security. TSA officials defended the pat-down, saying it was proper procedure.

Which means it’s well past time to change procedures.

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Posted in Security Theater

Regulation of the Day 219: Cat Cafes

Posted on April 23, 2012 | Comments Off on Regulation of the Day 219: Cat Cafes


In a city as big as Tokyo, there is plenty of room for niche businesses. One niche is the neko cafe; neko is the Japanese word for cat. Besides coffee, the main attraction at cat cafes is, well, cats. Furry friends live in the cafes, and patrons can play with them and pet them while they sip their coffee. They are especially popular with professionals who work long hours and live in apartments too small to have pets.

Animal rights activists want cat cafes to be strictly regulated. They have succeeded in passing an ordinance, set to take effect later this year, that bans animals from being publicly displayed after 8:00 PM. The main targets are pet shops, some of which can be dodgy. But cat cafes are not, and their very existence is threatened; their peak hours are in the evening.

Shinji Yoshida has strict rules for patrons in his cat cafe. If a cat is sleeping, customers shall not disturb it. They are not otherwise to be harassed. And, as animal activists concerned about caged animals have overlooked, Shinji’s feline colleagues also have the run of the place, as well as a giant cat furniture tree.

This is a wise business practice, as well as a humane one. As a cat owner, trust me. If your cats aren’t happy, you won’t be, either.

Still, that’s not enough:

Animal welfare campaigner Chizuko Yamaguchi says the sheer number of customers in cat cafes can make life difficult for the animals.

“From morning to night these cats are being stroked by people they do not know. For the animals, that is a real source of stress,” she said.

Chizuko must not be a cat owner. Cats are less than subtle about avoiding people when they aren’t in a social mood. And cat cafes wouldn’t stay in business for long if the stars didn’t show up; clearly they do. Besides, anyone who has been around a cat knows that they really do enjoy being petted.

One way cats show affection is by literally sitting on you. If they want attention, they are not shy about letting you know. Mine aren’t above waking me up at the crack of dawn with a friendly head-butt, well before the alarm clock goes off. Chizuko’s concerns do not hold ground.

Cats being nocturnal animals, they tend to be more active at night. Not surprisingly, business is best precisely when cat cafes will soon be required to close. Shutting them down early is really the same thing as putting them out of business. Where would the cats go then? Shinji has 13 in his shop.

Times are tough. Jobs are scarce. Animal rights activists and regulators should think about animal and human welfare alike. They should leave cat cafes alone. A lot of cats and a lot of people would all be happier if they did.

(via Jacob Grier)

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Posted in Regulation of the Day