R21 Week in Review 6.9.02

SILICON VALLEY, WASHINGTON, & HOLLYWOOD

ReplayTV Users: "We Are Not Thieves"
Hollywood doesn't want us to skip commercials. Next thing you know the media companies will want to outlaw trips to the bathroom.

FCC spares cable from open access
The major problem with the forced open access position is that is takes a static view of innovation and treats each network as a separate industry.

Tech Policy's Dirty Dozen
Are we prepared for technology to wallow in the regulatory morass that the telecom and biotech industries endure? I can’t think of a greater danger to the dynamism and growth of the tech industry.

Digital TV battles
More on the war between Silicon Valley & Hollywood

THOUGHT LEADERS

Milton Friedman opines
The only way to control congress’s spending is the same way you control a teenager’s spending—reduce their allowance.

Ed Crane on liberty, etc.
Cato’s values are: individual liberty, limited government, free markets, the rule of law, and a civil society.

Goldwater vs. conventional wisdom
In the 40 years since the Goldwater campaign, the free market has gone from fading relic to the centerpiece of American economic and political thought.

LAWYERS & POLITICIANS

America's #1 Domestic Problem
Americans are not losing their minds, but they are afraid of using their minds. They are afraid to exercise judgment--afraid of being sued.

Trial Lawyers dominate congress
The fact that the trial lawyers have such influence over the political system should keep you up at night.

BICKERING ON GLOBAL WARMING

Global Warming heating up again?
This is absolute insanity and shows that the Kyoto crowd has no sense of economics or even basic skills in prioritization.

Non-ideological takes on global warming
They dislike the anti-business rhetoric and economic ignorance of the environmental movement.

Modeling global warming is imperfect at best
The problem is that all this hysteria was based on a computer model which had been shown to be incompatible with factual data.

THE PROBLEM WITH DRUGS & ELECTRICITY

The media on drugs
The central dilemma of American medicine: How does a system with a vast tax subsidy to channel every ache and pain through the insurance system make sure consumers are careful about bringing cost and benefit into balance?

Who turned out the lights?
The problems were not inherent with deregulation, but rather with the way California implemented its reforms…

BUSINESS & ECONOMICS

Laffer curve at work
States that raised taxes to balance their budgets dug deeper financial holes.

Views on the dollar
If the U.S. wishes to maintain our leadership role in the world economy, we've got to proceed undaunted in our pro-growth agenda.

Corporate Integrity
The reputation of commerce in the US has been blackened by a long run of disasters…

NATIONAL SECURITY

FBI's new powers: sky remains intact
Let’s get a grip. The FBI is changing no laws, but is merely lifting self-imposed restrictions…

FBI's new powers not needed
William Safire's NY Times piece takes aim at the FBI's new powers. He says the expansion of power will not help to stop terrorists, but it will harm America's democracy.

War and civilian leadership
Civilian control of generals during a time of War is essential to the proper prosecution of conflicts…

INTERNATIONAL

Relax: it's just nuclear deterrence at work
Frustrated though it is, India will be deterred from launching a military offensive by two things—nuclear weapons and American soldiers.

MAD or mad?
Will the cold war idea of mutually assured destruction keep the nukes on the shelf in this conflict? Only if both sides adhere to reason.

Africa--Still haven't found what it’s looking for
Mr. O'Neill had his own lyrics of course -- that "It's trade, not aid" that will help Africa. Sadly, the real U.S. position is "It's trade not aid . . . and by the way, we won't trade."

JP: Europe still matters!
The failure to engage with Europe is crucial: the War on terrorism cannot be fought unilaterally. And if Europe is not engaged, the War will begin to go adrift.

SCIENCE & SORCERY

Do you believe in ghosts?
The social sciences have had considerably less success than their counterparts in the physical and biological sciences, leaving us at the close of the 20th century with a plethora of life-threatening problems and social scientists groping for answers in what many observers see as a desperate race against time.

Scientism
Scientism is a scientific worldview that encompasses natural explanations for all phenomena, eschews supernatural and paranormal speculations, and embraces empiricism and reason as the twin pillars of a philosophy of life appropriate for an Age of Science.

Crossing Over crosses the line
Fooling people into believing that you are talking to their dead loved-one to garner TV ratings crosses the line.