Throttling Small Business in Minnesota
There’s a reason why you’re hearing those radio commercials for Sioux Falls, South Dakota: Minnesota is not a great place to start or run a small business, but South Dakota is. That’s the word from the Small Business Survival Committee, which has recently released its annual index of the 50 states. Minnesota comes in at #42 in the country. Are you surprised to learn that the […]
If you want to eliminate “subsidies” for fossil fuels, open ANWR
Here’s something I forgot to mention in my post on subsidies for energy companies: If you want to reduce the amount of subsidies to oil companies, let them drill on U.S. lands, such as ANWR, which are off-limits to them now. Come again? About a fifth of the money that the Environmental Law Institute considers to be subsidies to oil companies are credits due them under […]
How about no subsidies?
In the comments section [of The Michigan View], “Hugh McD” challenges Henry Payne’s assertions that alternative energy sources are uneconomical. McD says that fossil fuels received a $72 billion subsidy over a six-year period. The source of McD’s statement is the Environmental Law Institute, admits that “green” energy gets a lot of green, even by the institute’s standards: $29 billion–and that for energy sources that supply […]
Nail Clippers Don’t Kill People
During the second half of November, I compiled a series of stories about new “security” measures the Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) has put into place at airports. (You can find an archive of the series, dubbed “The Daily Grope,” here.) Most days, the stories focus on a spcific indignity or misuse of power by the TSA. For this column, I’d like to highlight the TSA’s […]
The Daily Grope: Fourth-Amendment underwear
Do critics of the TSA object to airport security? Hardly; we are pointing out inherent flaws in the status quo government security monopoly. John Fund warns if you think the TSA is badly managed now, just wait until its unionized. Deroy Murdoch calls for being more selective in scanning: “Pre-flight screening has moved from safety to comedy. Before it devolves into tragedy, officials should start profiling terrorists.” […]
The Daily Grope: Is being able to travel a privilege and not a right?
Here’s another round-up of some articles about the TSA’s policy, which might be summed up as “let us play with our X-ray glasses or we will feel you up.” David Harsanyi says that there’s been a switcheroo in the way that lefties and conservatives approach civil liberties. Of lefties, he says, “Not so long ago, the left positioned itself as the defender of innocents against […]
The Daily Grope: The Department of Fear at work
Here’s another collection on the choice between government in your gonads and taking the position of a criminal surrendering to the police. Roger Cohen writes, “Give a bureaucrat a big stick and a big budget, allow said bureaucrat to trade in the limitless currency of human anxiety, and the masses will soon be intimidated by the Department of Fear.” He adds, “When a government has a […]