Linkfest: Wednesday Updates
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Programming Note: I am trying to clear the decks in anticipation of the Heller decision on Second Amendment rights, expected either today or tomorrow. Once it is handed down, that will be my only blogging project until further notice. Expect little or no substantive blogging for a day or two once the opinion is released.
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ITEM: The Supreme Court denied certiorari in a Sixth Circuit case upholding the federal conviction of a petty pizzeria robber who committed all his crimes in a single state. The federal law in question, the Hobbs Act, borrows the abominable reasoning of Wickard v. Filburn (on my list of Worst Supreme Court Cases) that any activity that can be shown to have even the slightest impact, real or imagined, on "interstate commerce" can be made a federal issue — or a federal crime. The case was noteworthy because one of the judges wrote a concurring opinion lamenting this expansive reading of the Hobbs Act specifically and of Commerce Clause power generally. (He felt constrained by Supreme Court precedent, however, and voted to uphold the conviction — i.e., he refused to be an "activist judge.") U.S. v. Baylor, No. 07-3002 (6th Cir., February 26, 2008) (Via Cato@Liberty.)
ITEM: John McCain has proposed a taxpayer-funded $300 million prize for to anyone who can devise a "better" automobile battery. While such prizes are perfectly reasonable and even laudable in the private sector, I have previously argued against their being underwritten by governments (i.e., taxpayers), since they cannot possibly escape political influences, rent-seeking and mundane Kip's Law arrogance.
ITEM: The technology research firm iSuppi has yet again calculated the "cost" of the Apple iPhone based exclusively on the market value of its physical components. As I previously noted when iSuppi issued comparable research regarding an earlier version of the iPhone, the exercise ignores the additional cost of researching and developing the highly innovative product (i.e., it pretends that entrepreneurship is not a factor of production on a par with raw materials and labor).
ITEM: President Bush has nominated the first female soldier for promotion to full (i.e., four-star) general rank. The promotion of Lt. Gen. Ann E. Dunwoody to head the Army Materiel Command circumvents the long-standing tradition of only granting such rank to combat veterans (women are expressly excluded from combat roles). This landmark development raises yet again the question of why — as a possible compromise and alternative to Don't Ask, Don't Tell — gays aren't also allowed to serve openly in non-combat roles, especially given that the excuse for DADT is a concern for "unit cohesion and morale" under combat conditions. I have repeatedly debunked the "unit cohesion" canard — examples here and here.
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ITEM: The Supreme Court denied certiorari in a Sixth Circuit case upholding the federal conviction of a petty pizzeria robber who committed all his crimes in a single state. The federal law in question, the Hobbs Act, borrows the abominable reasoning of Wickard v. Filburn (on my list of Worst Supreme Court Cases) that any activity that can be shown to have even the slightest impact, real or imagined, on "interstate commerce" can be made a federal issue — or a federal crime. The case was noteworthy because one of the judges wrote a concurring opinion lamenting this expansive reading of the Hobbs Act specifically and of Commerce Clause power generally. (He felt constrained by Supreme Court precedent, however, and voted to uphold the conviction — i.e., he refused to be an "activist judge.") U.S. v. Baylor, No. 07-3002 (6th Cir., February 26, 2008) (Via Cato@Liberty.)
ITEM: John McCain has proposed a taxpayer-funded $300 million prize for to anyone who can devise a "better" automobile battery. While such prizes are perfectly reasonable and even laudable in the private sector, I have previously argued against their being underwritten by governments (i.e., taxpayers), since they cannot possibly escape political influences, rent-seeking and mundane Kip's Law arrogance.
ITEM: The technology research firm iSuppi has yet again calculated the "cost" of the Apple iPhone based exclusively on the market value of its physical components. As I previously noted when iSuppi issued comparable research regarding an earlier version of the iPhone, the exercise ignores the additional cost of researching and developing the highly innovative product (i.e., it pretends that entrepreneurship is not a factor of production on a par with raw materials and labor).
ITEM: President Bush has nominated the first female soldier for promotion to full (i.e., four-star) general rank. The promotion of Lt. Gen. Ann E. Dunwoody to head the Army Materiel Command circumvents the long-standing tradition of only granting such rank to combat veterans (women are expressly excluded from combat roles). This landmark development raises yet again the question of why — as a possible compromise and alternative to Don't Ask, Don't Tell — gays aren't also allowed to serve openly in non-combat roles, especially given that the excuse for DADT is a concern for "unit cohesion and morale" under combat conditions. I have repeatedly debunked the "unit cohesion" canard — examples here and here.
Posted by Kip on
25 June 2008
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