Month: July 2014

Over the past eight years, the share of Americans
who feel satisfied with the amount of freedom in their lives has

plummeted from 91 percent to 79 percent, according to a Gallup
survey. That may explain earlier polling that found widespread
perception that the
government itself is the largest problem facing the United
States.

Public dissatisfaction may also reflect the reality that the
country’s international rankings in areas including economic
freedom, Internet freedom, and press freedom have slipped
dramatically in recent years. People feel less free because they
are less free.

According to the Gallup
write-up:

Fewer Americans are satisfied with the freedom to choose what
they do with their lives compared with seven years ago — dropping
12 percentage points from 91% in 2006 to 79% in 2013. In that same
period, the percentage of Americans dissatisfied with the freedom
to choose what they do with their lives more than doubled, from 9%
to 21%.

Gallup asks people in more than 120 countries each year whether
they are satisfied or dissatisfied with the freedom to choose what
they do with their lives. In 2006, the U.S. ranked among the
highest in the world for people reporting satisfaction with their
level of freedom. After seven years and a 12-point decline, the
U.S. no longer makes the top quartile worldwide.

At 94 percent and 93 percent respectively, New Zealand and
Australia rank at the top in terms of satisfaction with public
satisfaction with the freedom to choose what they do with their
lives. Australia also ranks third and New Zealand fifth on the
Index of Economic
Freedom, while the U.S. comes in at 12.

According to the 2014 entry
for the United States at the Index of Economic Freedom, “The U.S.
is the only country to have recorded a loss of economic freedom
each of the past seven years. The overall U.S. score decline from
1995 to 2014 is 1.2 points, the fourth worst drop among advanced
economies.”

The The Fraser Institute’s Economic
Freedom of the World: 2013 Annual Report (PDF) is even
tougher, noting that the U.S. slid from third to 19th from 2000 to
2011. While there was widespread slippage, the biggest problem,
noted the report, was with eroding government respect for legal
systems and property rights.

Largely because of revelations of U.S. government surveillance
of the world at large and Americans at home, Freedom House’s
Freedom on the Net 2013
dropped this country’s ranking on Internet freedom from 12 to
17 last year.

Press freedom has also taken a hit. Last year, the Committee to
Protect Journalists
cautioned:

U.S. President Barack Obama came into office pledging open
government, but he has fallen short of his promise. Journalists and
transparency advocates say the White House curbs routine disclosure
of information and deploys its own media to evade scrutiny by the
press. Aggressive prosecution of leakers of classified information
and broad electronic surveillance programs deter government sources
from speaking to journalists.

Then, early in 2014, the U.S. slipped 13 places on
the World Press Freedom Index, compiled by Reporters Without
Borders. The group cautioned that “increased efforts to track down
whistleblowers and the sources of leaks…were warnings to all
those thinking of assisting in the disclosure of sensitive
information that would clearly be in the public interest.”

If Americans are increasingly dissatisfied with the freedom in
their lives, it may well be because, in many ways, government
respect for freedom is slipping away.

A former politician finds a more
honorable profession:

A Nevada-based startup that plans on selling medical
and recreational marijuana products named former New Mexico
governor and U.S. Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson
as its CEO and president, the company announced Tuesday….

Johnson, who owned a construction company that helped build Intel
Corp.’s Rio Rancho, New Mexico, plant before entering politics,
said the company will make marijuana-based oils aimed at helping
children with epilepsy. The two-term governor also said it will
make cough drop-like products for recreational use.

“Couple of things hit you when you try the product. One is, wow,
why would anybody smoke marijuana given this is an alternative?”
Johnson said. “And then secondly, it’s just very, very pleasant. I
mean, very pleasant.”

Last year, the suspension of a
seven-year-old boy from an Anne Arundel County, Maryland, public
school generated significant media attention. The boy’s crime? He
chewed a Pop-Tart into the shape of a gun and reportedly made
shooting gestures at other students.

The incident happened in the wake of the Sandy Hook shooting,
and many people said administrators overreacted out of
paranoid sensitivity to gun violence. School policies prohibit
“lookalike weapons” as well as real ones, even though no one was
ever shot to death by a pastry.

Ever since his suspension, school administrators have tried to
spin the harsh disciplinary measures as a last response to a string
of inappropriate behavior. Earlier this week, a hearing examiner
agreed with the school that the boy’s suspension was justified on
those grounds. According to
The Washington Post:

In a 30-page opinion, hearing examiner Andrew W. Nussbaum
supported a principal’s assertion that the suspension was based on
a history of problems, not the pastry episode. “The evidence is
clear that suspension is used as a last resort,” Nussbaum
wrote.

… In Anne Arundel, the boy’s disciplinary referral used the
word “gun” four times, asserting that the child “chewed his cereal
bar into the shape of a gun” and aimed it at other children. The
document quoted the boy as yelling, “Look, I made a gun!” It cited
classroom disruption as the primary reason for the suspension, and
an administrator noted several previous incidents of disruptive
behavior near the bottom of the form.

In Nussbaum’s opinion, dated June 26, he rejected arguments from
the boy’s family that the school overreacted and that the
suspension arose from a bias against guns. The father said he was
told the day that the boy was suspended that it was for playing as
if he had a gun, not for ongoing problems.

… Robin Ficker, an attorney for the family, said the parents
are hoping for the best when the school board makes its decision.
He argued that the school system tried to change the issue “into a
long-term behavior problem after the fact.”

It’s difficult to believe that the suspension wasn’t really
about the kid’s pretend gun antics, however. Anne Arundel
administrators sent
a letter home to parents in response to the Pop-Tart incident
that clearly indicates they were freaked out about it:

I am writing to let you know about an incident that
occurred this morning in one of our classrooms and encourage
you to discuss this matter with your child in a manner
you deem most appropriate.  During breakfast this
morning, one of our students used food to make
inappropriate gestures that disrupted the class. While no
physical threats were made and no one was harmed, the student
had to be removed from the classroom. 

If your children express that they are troubled by today’s
incident, please talk with them and help them share their
feelings. Our school counselor is available to meet with
any students who have the need to do so next week. 

Administrators suspended the boy for two days and marked his
personal record. His official school files now reference the word
“gun” four times. His parents have asked administrators to expunge
the file; they have refused.

It’s important to remember that there is a seven-year-old boy at
the fruit-filled center of this case study in anti-gun hysteria and
heavy-handedness. I have a hard time believing that anyone has
suffered as a result of his actions other than himself.

Read more from Reason on illogical zero tolerance school
policies
here.

In the enduring spirit of
Frédéric Bastiat’s brilliant work, the Bastiat Prize for Journalism
is given to writers who educate readers by employing Bastiat’s
simple, eloquent and witty explanations of complex economic ideas,
combined with a clear understanding of markets and their underlying
institutions. Open to all published writers. Prizes include $10,000
to the winner, $5,000 for 2^nd Place, and $1,000 for
3^rd. Enter at http://ift.tt/1rqVuXO by
July 31, 2014. 

• President Barack Obama has a message for
  Republicans who oppose his agenda:
  “So sue me.”

• “Over the span of 69 years of American history and 12
  presidencies, President Barack Obama finds himself with President
  George W. Bush at the
  bottom of the popularity barrel.”

• U.S. District Court Judge Reggie Walton
  has demanded that I.R.S. officials appear before the bench and
  explain how the agency lost untold numbers of Lois Lerner’s
  emails.

• Belgium
  defeated the United States 2-1 in extra time in Wednesday’s
  World Cup Round of 16 match. Belgium now advances to face Argentina
  in the quarterfinals.

• Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been
  arrested on corruption charges.

• The Iraqi parliament remains
  dysfunctional.

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Actors have to work with
the physical equipment they’ve been given, naturally. Melissa
McCarthy is a big woman, but her weight has usually been a
background element in her performances – it’s her nimble comic
delivery and buoyant personality that have made her a star. So,
writes Kurt Loder, it’s dispiriting to see her,
in Tammy, stooping to play a character who can only
be described as a fat slob. The movie’s terrible script, a
first-time effort by McCarthy and her husband, Ben Falcone, has the
titular Tammy lusting after pies and donuts and, in one grotesque
bar scene, coquettishly coming on to strangers who reject her out
of hand. It’s hard to say what’s more baffling: that the director –
Falcone again, making an unpromising debut in this function as well
– gives us so many full-length shots of Tammy waddling around in
unflattering getups (black tights at one point), or that McCarthy,
also one of the film’s producers, approved of his doing so.

View this article.