The Economist's Cookbook

So I have almost a full bookshelf of books that I am trying to get through.

Already reading or own:

Freakonomics - Levitt
Human Action - Mises
After War: The Political Economy of Exporting Democracy -Coyne
Capital and Its Structure - Lachmann
A selection of Clive Cussler, Michael Crichton, and Terry Brooks novels to work through.

Want Buy/Read:

The Politically Incorrect Guide to Capitalism
The Politically Incorrect Guide to The Constitution
Man, Economy, and State - Rothbard
The Ethics of Liberty - Rothbard
The Machinery of Freedom - David Friedman

Any others to add to the list?

...Police style.

Here is an article from Reason Hit & Run that I thought should be passed along.

According to an eight month investigation by the Chicago Tribune, police officers in Chicago meet in a roundtable style discussion to verify their stories and make sure that everything adds up when a shooting takes place involving police officers. Here's the kicker. The investigators will not re-open a case ven when new evidence comes to light.

Fuck the thin Blue Line.

This is an interesting article from the Wall Street Journal Editorial Page about the cost of college and why it has been increasing at a faster rate than inflation.

Here's in interesting tidbit:

"...government handouts are creating the tuition problem. Tuition has risen about three percentage points faster than inflation every year for the past quarter-century. At the same time, the feds have put more and more money behind student loans and other financial aid. The government is slowly becoming a third-party tuition payer, with all the price distortions one would expect. Every time tuition rises, the government makes up the difference; colleges thus cheerfully raise tuition (and budgets), knowing the government will step in.
As a result, "colleges have little incentive to cut costs," says economist Richard Vedder, the author of "Going Broke by Degree: Why College Costs Too Much." Mr. Vedder explains that there are now twice as many university administrators per student as there were in the 1970s."

It would be interesting to see if the pressure for the increase in Gov't. funding is coming from the Public schools or the Private ones. I would suspect that the Private ones are filling a niche market that will increase in line with inflation to kep their prices competitive. And that the Public ones are fighting over funding allocations to grow their own budgets.

So, granted I kinda hate the Republican Party. However for once they are doing something right.

Well I'm sure that it's completely politically motivated, just like everything polititicians do. Here's a link to the Washington Times Article.

Looks like some of the climatologists are willing to actually come out and say that Al Gore is in fact the liar most of us think him to be. I mean it's about time SOMEONE called this guy out on this stuff.

In other news this might be a book worth consuming for the sake of self-enlightenment.

Here is a plug for the book by Michael Crichton:
"Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist's Guide to Global Warming will further enhance Lomborg’s reputation for global analysis and thoughtful response. For anyone who wants an overview of the global warming debate from an objective source, this brief text is a perfect place to start. Lomborg is only interested in real problems, and he has no patience with media fear-mongering; he begins by dispatching the myth of the endangered polar bears, showing that this Disneyesque cartoon has no relevance to the real world where polar bear populations are in fact increasing. Lomborg considers the issue in detail, citing sources from Al Gore to the World Wildlife Fund, then demonstrating that polar bear populations have actually increased five fold since the 1960s. "