By Jim Harper
If two data points are enough to draw a trend line, the trend I’ve spotted is government seeking to use data mining where it doesn’t work. A comment in the Chronicle of Higher Education recently argued that universities should start mining data about student behavior in order to thwart incipient on-campus violence. Existing technology … [...]
The Government’s Surveillance-Security Fantasies is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
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By Aaron Ross Powell
Libertarianism.org keeps adding new stuff, so if you’re not a regular reader, now’s a great time to become one. This week we added the following: George H. Smith gave us a glance at economic regulations from the past in his new Excursions essay, “Monopolies, Mercantilism, Illegal Buttons, and Saltpeter Men.” Jason Kuznicki published a review of [...]
This Week at Libertarianism.org is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
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By Jason Kuznicki
What is due process? Virtually everyone would agree that “due process” refers to a set of judicial procedures that create at least a strong tendency toward fair results. But why do we have these procedures and not some others? Why do we have trial by jury, and not trial by fire? Why not just flip [...]
This Month’s Cato Unbound: What Is Due Process? is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
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It’s been a busy week over at Libertarianism.org. We began with a new Excursions essay from George H. Smith. Provocatively titled “Fingering the King on the Road to Independence,” Smith’s piece examines how the pre-Revolution Coercive Acts led Americans to blame the king for the conspiracy to strip them of their rights and liberties. We posted two [...]
This Week at Libertarianism.org is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
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By Michael F. Cannon
During last night’s GOP presidential debate, Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney had a polite disagreement over Romneycare’s impact on free-ridership in Massachusetts. The short version: Santorum was right. Romney and …
Romneycare & Free Riders is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
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By Caleb O. Brown
Cato Institute scholars Malou Innocent, Chris Edwards, Neal McCluskey, Ilya Shapiro, Jerry Taylor, Dan Mitchell and Dan Ikenson respond to President Obama’s 2012 State of the Union Address. Video produced by Caleb O. Brown, Austin Bragg and Lester Romero. Cato Institute Scholars on the State of the Union 2012 is a post from Cato @ [...]
Cato Institute Scholars on the State of the Union 2012 is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
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By Michael F. Cannon
Last night, Newt Gingrich praised the Chilean Social Security system, which allows workers to save for their retirements in personal accounts, rather than contribute to the government pension scheme. Several of my Cato colleagues are far more qualified than I am to comment on that system, including Mike Tanner, Jagadeesh Gokhale, and Jose Pinera–who designed [...]
Personal Accounts–for Medicare is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
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By David Boaz
Congratulations to Wikipedia for going dark for a day in protest of the “online piracy” bills being considered in Congress. But what do we do for information today? You know, we’ve gotten used to being able to find information now. So here’s an idea: Try the original encyclopedia, the one written (in most cases, ahem) [...]
Today, at Least, Britannica Rules the Web is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
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By Jason Kuznicki
In recent years, drone warfare technology has made tremendous strides, allowing modern war to be conducted in many respects by remote control. This may seem like a boon to technologically savvy countries like the United States, and in a sense it clearly is. But the moral calculus of war is rarely that simple. While drones [...]
Drone Warfare at Cato Unbound is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
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By Jim Harper
Should information be withheld from academic journals because of the potential that it might fall into the hands of terrorists? The National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) has asked the journals Science and Nature to keep certain details out of reports they intend to publish about experiments that produced a human-transmissible version of a [...]
Withholding Scientific Data: Good Idea or Not? is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
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