Month: December 2013

• Keep your eyes on the skies in
  Alaska, Nevada, New York, North Dakota, Texas and Virginia. Those
  are the states selected by the federal government for
  drone test sites.
• The incoming mayor of Boston is not on board with the police
  there getting
  AR-15 rifles.
• As said police continue their efforts to militarize, 2013 saw
  the
  fewest number of police killed by firearms since 1887. More
  were killed in car crashes. Overall deaths in the line of duty are
  the lowest since 1959.
• But what about those on the other side of that thin blue line?
  In Seattle, shootings by the police accounted for
  one-fifth of all homicides in the city, six out of 29. Police
  officials there blame poor management of those with mental
  illnesses.
• The latest stupid revelation from the unexplored innards of the
  Affordable Care Act is that next year vending machines will be
  required to show
  calorie counts for the products inside. This is expected to
  cost vendors (and therefore consumers) about $25 million a
  year.
• France’s proud rejection of Economics 101 continues apace. The
  government has given approval to a
  75 percent tax on the rich. It has also ordered car services
  like Uber to institute a
  15-minute wait before picking up riders in a completely
  undisguised move to protect taxi drivers from competition.

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Some knucklehead threw a brick
through Ira Stoll’s car window the other night while the vehicle
was parked on the street in Washington, D.C. But this isn’t a
column about how criminals are knuckleheads or about how the D.C.
government is foolish to require out-of-town visitors to leave
valuable bait for criminals on display overnight behind glass
windshields, Instead, Stoll stops to marvel at the modern
technology and free market competition that combined to get the car
fixed, curbside, in less than three hours from when the police left
the scene—and on a holiday weekend, no less.

View this article.

According to a CNN/ORC International survey
released today, only 17 percent of Americans support the war in
Afghanistan and most Americans want the troops there home before
the December 2014 deadline. The war may be the most unpopular in
American history.

From
CNN:

Just 17% of those questioned say they support the 12-year-long
war, down from 52% in December 2008. Opposition to the conflict now
stands at 82%, up from 46% five years ago.

“Those numbers show the war in Afghanistan with far less support
than other conflicts,” CNN Polling Director Keating Holland said.
“Opposition to the Iraq war never got higher than 69% in CNN
polling while U.S. troops were in that country, and while the
Vietnam War was in progress, no more than six in 10 ever told
Gallup’s interviewers that war was a mistake.”

The CNN/ORC International poll is the latest poll
suggesting that Americans are becoming increasingly disillusioned
with an interventionist foreign policy. Earlier this month, the Pew
Research Center released its poll examining how American’s view the
United States’ place in the world. For the first time in the
history of the poll (almost fifty years), more than half of the
respondents agreed with the statement, “The U.S. should mind its
own business internationally and let other countries get along the
best they can on their own.”

Not only do more than half of Americans as a whole support being
less involved abroad, more than half of Republicans and
Independents also believe that the U.S. should mind its own
business:

About half of independents (55%) and Republicans (53%) and 46%
of Democrats say the United States should mind its own business
internationally. In 2002, following the 9/11 attacks, 27% of
independents, 22% of Republicans and 40% of Democrats wanted the
United States to mind its own business internationally.

That most Americans are fed up with the war in Afghanistan and
want the U.S. to mind its own business is good news for
non-interventionist Republicans such as Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.).

It is good news that most Americans oppose an interventionist
foreign policy and that the vast majority do not support the
longest war in U.S. history. Unfortunately, foreign policy is only
one of
the issues on which the opinions of American lawmakers differ
from those of the American public.

The new year provides a perfect
time to turn a new leaf… whether you like it or not. Before
diving headfirst into 2014, you may want to exhaust all your
desires to put groceries in plastic bags, talk on the phone while
driving, use a tanning bed, question a convicted felon, or buy
incandescent light bulbs. At all different levels of government,
these activities and products are about to banned.

4. Los Angeles Bans Free Plastic Bags

Los Angeles is about to become the nation’s biggest city to ban
free plastic groceries bags.
According to the Los Angeles Times, any business
caught violating the law will “face a fine of $100 after the first
violation, $200 after the second and $500 after the third. Fines
would be imposed for each day the violation continues.”

The crusade against plastic grocery bags is not exactly popular.
A Reason-Rupe poll conducted earlier this year
found that “60 percent oppose a ban on plastic bags in all
grocery stores and other retailers in the city or town where they
live.”

Likewise, although the initiative enjoys large support from
environmentalists for ostensibly cutting down on waste. The
sentiment is nice, but ReasonTV suggests
this is just “feel-good legislation,” because plastic bags actually
have a negligible on the environment.

3. The Illinois Twofer: Phone Calls While Driving,
Minors from Using Tanning Beds

It’s about to be a long winter for image-conscious Illinois
teens. As of Wednesday, no one under the age of 18 will be allowed
to use a tanning bed, even with parental consent. A local ABC
affiliate reveals
how detrimental this will be to many small businesses in the state.
Pushing tanning salons to the brink cannot help Illinois, which
already bears high
unemployment and
burdens on businesses.

But that’s not all. Come New Year’s Day, talking on the phone
(unless it’s hands-free) while driving in will become a punishable
offense with a
$75 ticket. Illinois joins a growing number of states with
similar prohibitions, despite murky evidence about their
effectiveness. Reason‘s Peter Suderman addresses
how laws banning cell phone use while driving have failed across
the board to reduce crashes. Likewise, former Reason
staffer Radley Balko highlights
research that indicates that bans “actually may prompt a slight
increase in road crashes.”

2. Rhode Island “Bans the Box”

Rhode Island will become the fourth state to “ban
the box.” The law prohibits employers, whether public or
private, from inquiring about a potential employee’s criminal
background during the application process. They will have to wait
until interviewing an individual to ask. Law enforcement agencies
are exempt from the law,
according to the Society for Human Resource Management.

This type of legislation is well-intentioned in its effort to
help reintegrate convicts into society, but it doesn’t address the
problem of harsh laws that imprison non-violent offenders. After
all, Department of Justice data
shows that an increasing proportion of the roughly 1.5 million
individuals in state and federal prisons are behind bars for
non-violent crimes. Instead, Rhode Island is following a trend of
creating an even more complex set of laws that infringe on the
rights of business owners.

1. The Feds Black Out Incandescent Light
Bulbs

Not unlike Canada or the
People’s Republic of China, our own federal government is
phasing out incandescent light bulbs. The
Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 already killed off
100-watt and 75-watt bulbs, but 2014 will mark the end of 60-watt
and 40-watt bulbs.

The majority of Americans are in for a rude awakening about
this. Computer World
reports that as many as 60 percent of consumers are unaware of
the ban. They will likely not realize its impact “until a few
months into the next year when those light bulbs are bought and not
replaced,”
explains The Sentinel.

The Heritage Foundation
warns of how serious of an impact this government overreach
will have. The feds not only used scare tactics to constrict
consumer choice and distort market forces, but have forced
“unnecessary job losses from traditional incandescent manufacturers
in the United States. After already closing factories in Kentucky
and Ohio, General Electric recently announced that it is closing
its major incandescent factory in Winchester, Virginia—a factory
that employed 200 people and the last major incandescent
manufacturing facility in the United States.”

The new year provides a perfect
time to turn a new leaf… whether you like it or not. Before
diving headfirst into 2014, you may want to exhaust all your
desires to put groceries in plastic bags, talk on the phone while
driving, use a tanning bed, question a convicted felon, or buy
incandescent light bulbs. At all different levels of government,
these activities and products are about to banned.

4. Los Angeles Bans Free Plastic Bags

Los Angeles is about to become the nation’s biggest city to ban
free plastic groceries bags.
According to the Los Angeles Times, any business
caught violating the law will “face a fine of $100 after the first
violation, $200 after the second and $500 after the third. Fines
would be imposed for each day the violation continues.”

The crusade against plastic grocery bags is not exactly popular.
A Reason-Rupe poll conducted earlier this year
found that “60 percent oppose a ban on plastic bags in all
grocery stores and other retailers in the city or town where they
live.”

Likewise, although the initiative enjoys large support from
environmentalists for ostensibly cutting down on waste. The
sentiment is nice, but ReasonTV suggests
this is just “feel-good legislation,” because plastic bags actually
have a negligible on the environment.

3. The Illinois Twofer: Phone Calls While Driving,
Minors from Using Tanning Beds

It’s about to be a long winter for image-conscious Illinois
teens. As of Wednesday, no one under the age of 18 will be allowed
to use a tanning bed, even with parental consent. A local ABC
affiliate reveals
how detrimental this will be to many small businesses in the state.
Pushing tanning salons to the brink cannot help Illinois, which
already bears high
unemployment and
burdens on businesses.

But that’s not all. Come New Year’s Day, talking on the phone
(unless it’s hands-free) while driving in will become a punishable
offense with a
$75 ticket. Illinois joins a growing number of states with
similar prohibitions, despite murky evidence about their
effectiveness. Reason‘s Peter Suderman addresses
how laws banning cell phone use while driving have failed across
the board to reduce crashes. Likewise, former Reason
staffer Radley Balko highlights
research that indicates that bans “actually may prompt a slight
increase in road crashes.”

2. Rhode Island “Bans the Box”

Rhode Island will become the fourth state to “ban
the box.” The law prohibits employers, whether public or
private, from inquiring about a potential employee’s criminal
background during the application process. They will have to wait
until interviewing an individual to ask. Law enforcement agencies
are exempt from the law,
according to the Society for Human Resource Management.

This type of legislation is well-intentioned in its effort to
help reintegrate convicts into society, but it doesn’t address the
problem of harsh laws that imprison non-violent offenders. After
all, Department of Justice data
shows that an increasing proportion of the roughly 1.5 million
individuals in state and federal prisons are behind bars for
non-violent crimes. Instead, Rhode Island is following a trend of
creating an even more complex set of laws that infringe on the
rights of business owners.

1. The Feds Black Out Incandescent Light
Bulbs

Not unlike Canada or the
People’s Republic of China, our own federal government is
phasing out incandescent light bulbs. The
Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 already killed off
100-watt and 75-watt bulbs, but 2014 will mark the end of 60-watt
and 40-watt bulbs.

The majority of Americans are in for a rude awakening about
this. Computer World
reports that as many as 60 percent of consumers are unaware of
the ban. They will likely not realize its impact “until a few
months into the next year when those light bulbs are bought and not
replaced,”
explains The Sentinel.

The Heritage Foundation
warns of how serious of an impact this government overreach
will have. The feds not only used scare tactics to constrict
consumer choice and distort market forces, but have forced
“unnecessary job losses from traditional incandescent manufacturers
in the United States. After already closing factories in Kentucky
and Ohio, General Electric recently announced that it is closing
its major incandescent factory in Winchester, Virginia—a factory
that employed 200 people and the last major incandescent
manufacturing facility in the United States.”