Free Republic

The Washington Post reported that The Department of Transportation has some pretty big ideas about the future of transportation. Before diving into a thicket of transportation data and questions, a hefty new federal study makes a traffic projection that could get a chuckle, even from folks in Nebraska: Omaha, the new Los Angeles. That’s by 2045, the study says, when traffic congestion in Omaha (current population of 435,353) could be just as bad as it is in L.A. (current population of 10 million). The provocative prospect of gridlock in the heartland sets the stage for a 316-page document produced by...

In West Virginia, a pharmacist used a .45 to stop an attempted robbery.  There is little doubt about what happened.   The case is noteworthy for a number of reasons.  From wvmetronews.com: PINCH, W.Va. – Investigators with the Kanawha County Sheriff’s Department say a pharmacist who shot a man who later died will not be charged with a crime. Detectives said surveillance video at Good’s Family Pharmacy in Pinch shows the masked man pulled out a gun after he entered the pharmacy at about 9:45 Wednesday morning and pointed it at workers. The pharmacist, who has a legal conceal carry permit,...

I cannot tell a lie: I am an extremist. As an amateur actor, I have certain beliefs that I hold dear. I detest drama and tragedy; I really only like comedy, both musical and non-musical. I believe the stage is for laughter and song, for tap dances and pratfalls. I won’t spend my money buying tickets to see a sad show, and I certainly don’t like to waste eight weeks of my life rehearsing to perform in one. Many would call these views extreme. As a trade compliance manager, I have spent my career – my “day job,” if you...

As the graphic from TSA shows, they interdicted over 2,200 firearms, mostly loaded, from travelers' carry-on bags, holsters, pockets and a few other places and items last year.  No doubt most of the interdicted firearms were those inadvertently brought into the security checkpoint by someone who otherwise could legally carry the firearm.  The top ten airports are all in places with lots of permit holders.  Three in Texas, three in Florida, one each in Arizona, Georgia, Tennessee, and Colorado.  The Crime Prevention Research Center shows that there were 11.1 million concealed carry permits in the  United States in July...

US Macro Collapses To 11-Month Lows, 88% Of Data Has Missed In February Despite the total and utter cognitive dissonance of talking-heads on mainstream media channels, the US economic data is not 'strong', is not 'goldilocks', is not 'decoupled', is not 'solid'. In fact, it's absolutely terrible. Bloomberg's US Macro data indicator which tracks both beats-and-misses and improvement/deterioration in data - is at 11-month lows. February alone has seen 29 data items miss expectations (from retail sales to industrial production)with only 4 data points beating expectations (including the constantly revised nonfarm payrolls data which so many hang their hat on)....

In 1958, Congress passed an "act to prohibit the introduction, or manufacture for introduction, into interstate commerce of switchblade knives, and for other purposes,".  It was signed by President Eisenhower.  At the time, many congressmen still believed in limited government, and the act did not apply to intrastate sales or possession.  Most states, however, followed the federal lead. The law was created by a media push of yellow journalism and false statistics.   There was no logic or reason for the law.  There was no outbreak of "switchblade violence" nor do switchblades differ in any significant way, for criminal purposes,...

As Republican hopefuls Governor Scott Walker (R-WI) and Governor Bobby Jindal (R-LA) showed themselves to be spineless against the far right by refusing to refute Rudy Giuliani’s cheap and obviously empty Palinesque attack on President Obama’s patriotism, Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) tried to walk a finer line. He demonstrated how to be weak and spineless while playing more subtly with Palin fire by laughingly suggesting that while he has “no doubt” Obama loves this country (not one high profile Republican seems capable of saying Obama loves this country for sure), his polices are so terrible for the nation. Rubio told...

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is scheduled to attend a private dinner Wednesday with longtime advocates of supply-side economics. The gathering, set for the upscale “21” Club in Manhattan, is the latest effort by the potential Republican presidential contender to bolster his relationships with the GOP’s anti-tax wing. It also reflects the interest business-friendly conservatives have in his possible candidacy, in spite of the recent ascent of former Florida governor Jeb Bush. Economists Larry Kudlow, Arthur Laffer, and Stephen Moore will host Walker, according to several people with knowledge of the event. For decades, that trio of friends — all associated...

If you were to build a city from scratch, using current technology, what would it cost to live there? I think it would be nearly free if you did it right. This is a big deal because people aren’t saving enough for retirement, and many folks are underemployed. If the economy can’t generate enough money for everyone to pay for a quality lifestyle today, perhaps we can approach it from the other direction and lower the cost of living. Consider energy costs. We already know how to build homes that use zero net energy. So that budget line goes to...

We’ve seen an incredible amount of research hours and dollars being poured into an area where the ‘miracle material’ graphene converges with what some may call a ‘miracle technology’ in 3D printing. In this space, a whole slew of groundbreaking applications and processes may emerge as a better understanding of graphene, and how to 3D print it come about. We’ve discussed a company called Graphene 3D Lab in the past. They have been producing a graphene nanocomposite filament for typical FDM/FFF 3d printers. The problem with this filament, however, is the fact that most of the desirable properties of graphene,...

[snip] Conclusion - The evidence we have assembled and reviewed suggests there is little direct connection between poverty, education and participation in terrorism and politically motivated violence. Indeed, the available evidence indicates that, compared with the relevant population, participants in Hezbollah’s militant wing in the late 1980s and early 1990s were at least as likely to come from economically advantaged families and have a relatively high level of education as they were to come from impoverished families without educational opportunities. We should caution, however, that the evidence we have considered is tentative due to data limitations. In addition, our focus...

The White House Science and Technology Advisor, says an initiative is underway “with the goal of ensuring a climate smart citizenry in the United States.” “In December of last year the White House Climate Education and Literacy Initiative was launched--with the goal of ensuring a climate smart citizenry in the United States,” Dr. John Holdren says in a White House video released last week. “Whenever I can I use opportunities like this ‘Ask Dr. H’ initiative to communicate about climate change and the strong scientific underpinnings of our actions to combat it.” “Based on our scientific understanding of climate change...

China's Real Estate Market Crashing... Real Estate is the single biggest domestic lending segment in China. Combined with deflation in Iron Ore, Steel, Copper, and other industrial metals China's collateral quality is looking very very shaky compared to loan volume... SNIP While the world's attention is glued to events in Greece, the real action continues to evolve quietly thousands of kilometers east, in China, where the near record surge in new loans remains unable to offset the dramatic slowdown in shadow banking issuance. And while China's bubble-chasing, animal spirits have recently reoriented themselves from real estate to the stock market,...

Yesterday, a train derailed in West Virginia — and exploded. It was carrying more than 100 tons of crude oil, and it burst into flames after going off the rails outside of Charleston. Miraculously, no one was killed, though hundreds were evacuated and one man was hospitalized. Social media users were understandably alarmed by the magnitude of the fire, and photos of the incident quickly spread — looking more like a scene from an action film than anything else. The crash, which could contaminate the entire local water supply, is more than just a West Virginia-specific disaster: It's a reminder...

A very well written comment in the Economist refers to the Gun Watch article on the comparison of European Murder rates to those in the United States.   It is so well done that I will quote it in its entirety.  From the Economist comments section, kudos to guest-sosaoel: I'll give the author credit for trying to be reasonable as well as thanks for having the integrity to try shooting for himself. However I must correct a number of glaring errors. We oppose gun control because it has never been credibly demonstrated to work. Ever. Yes, there have been some...

Political insanity 101 “Democracy is cancerous, and bureaus are its cancer… Bureaus cannot live without a host, being true parasitic organisms… A bureau operates on opposite principles of inventing needs to justify its existence… Bureaucracy is wrong as a cancer, a turning away from the human evolutionary direction of infinite potentials and differentiation and independent spontaneous action to the complete parasitism of a virus… the renunciation of life itself, a falling towards inorganic, inflexible machine, towards dead matter… Bureaus die when the structure of the state collapse. They are as helpless and unfit for independent existence as a displaced tapeworm,...

At about $50 a barrel, crude oil prices are down by more than half from their June 2014 peak of $107. They may fall more, perhaps even as low as $10 to $20. Here’s why.

This is an update to article written a few years ago. Everybody knows that retail and institutional investors are usually late to a trade. When they decide to buy, the wise guys are distributing or selling their shares to them and locking in their gains. When they sell, the wise guys are accumulating or buying their shares from them, again locking in their gains. How do the wise guys pull it off? The answer lies in the combination of reflexive human behavior and the use of high frequency, algorithmic (HFA) trading. With the advance of computer trading on a massive...

Friends don't let friends vote RINO... I don't give a damn how much moolah Jeb Bush is currently shaking out of people with more money than sense... it's impossible to picture this charmless Gee-Oh-Pee establishment tool in the White House: not only does the Republican base despise him, but no Bush is going to beat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election.  I actually consider her a more flawed candidate than most do, but you can't run a clown who's practically family with the Clintons and expect him to take the requisite fight to Shrillary by discussing her serial scandals/failure.  And the Clinton...

US Federal Judge Andrew Hanen is of the US District Court in Brownsville, Texas and was appointed by George W. Bush, has issued an injunction against the President until the case has made it's way through court. Twenty-six states have filed this case stating that the President have over stepped his authority on immigration action. These are Republican held states. The injunction was just filed yesterday. http://www.scribd.com/doc/255994877/Memorandum-Opinion-And-Order-Texas-v-United-States Judge Hanen said in the ruling according to Huffington Post: that the 26 states who brought the suit had standing to do so, and indicated he was sympathetic to their arguments. In December,...