Essays

Officer Safety Uber Alles: Christopher Dorner and the “Rickoverian Paradox”

"A citizen or privately employed security guard wouldn’t be able to ram an unidentified truck and open fire on its driver, or spray gunfire in a residential neighborhood, without facing criminal charges. In the official reaction to Dorner’s rampage, we see an unusually candid manifestation of the 'Officer Safety Uber Alles' mentality that defines police work. From their perspective, the population exists to protect and serve the police, rather than the reverse. This brings to mind the concept of Rickover’s Paradox, which I encountered in a science fiction novel decades ago." Continue reading →

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Will Grigg: “No Hesitation”

"Among the training targets are images depicting 'non-traditional threats,' such as pregnant women, children, and grandmotherly women – in other words, 'Little People' – carrying guns. The company’s marketing team explains that the 'non-traditional targets' were created at the request of police officers and trainers, who are seeking to dis-inhibit the killing instincts of police 'when deadly force is required on subjects with atypical age, frailty or condition…. This hesitation time may be only seconds but that is not acceptable when officers are losing their lives in these same situations….'" Continue reading →

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“For Your Own Protection”

"Every day in this supposedly free country, police commit an act that was impermissible for their antecedents in imperial Rome: In the name of 'officer safety,' they handcuff American citizens who are not criminal suspects while conducting investigations. Police also routinely inflict summary punishment – using batons, Tasers, pepper spray, or other means – against those who resist being detained without cause. Within a few years police will have at their disposal handcuffs that can impart electrical shocks to detainees." Continue reading →

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Is the U.S. at War with Al-Qaeda?

"Imagine Ma Barker's gang or a gang of John Dillingers who unilaterally declare 'war' against the U.S. Would the U.S. in turn declare war against them? Metaphorically it might, in order to show a steely determination to capture and stop them. But does their declaration by itself entitle the U.S. to kill them without an attempt to capture them and place them on trial? Certainly not. Lynching is summary execution. No government can be trusted with the power of summarily killing someone, even if that person has 'declared war' on that government. Such a power is too easy to extend and expand and inflict upon the innocent." Continue reading →

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Anthony Gregory: Obama’s Persecution of Bradley Manning

"The word 'hero' is thrown a lot quite a bit, but Manning surely fits the bill. He put his life and liberty at risk to expose what he viewed as very wrong. He exposed the mistreatment of prisoners and murderous strikes conducted by the Bush administration in Iraq and the Obama administration in Afghanistan. He has already paid a price most of us will never know, and the rest of his life he might very well be destroyed. He sacrificed everything for his country, for innocent victims of the U.S. government, and for the cause of truth. His best hope might be that some day a president pardons him." Continue reading →

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The Dorm Boom: Higher Education’s Fellow Traveler

"It’s a curious time for a campus construction boom. Alternatives to a traditional college education are growing every day. Amid the change and uncertainty, real estate developers are rushing to build student housing. Major homebuilding companies like Lennar and Toll Brothers that ramped their businesses up in the single-family housing boom have now shifted their focus to another boom: student housing. While Freddie Mac, a large purchaser of student housing loans, is a bit cautious after purchasing $1.7 billion in loans last year, the private sector is ready to build. Bricks-and-mortar higher education is a bubble searching for a pin. Student housing is going along for the ride." Continue reading →

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Why Bond Market Bulls Are About to Get Crushed

"We have the lowest interest rates in 250 years – lower than at any time since the founding of the country – created by the Federal Reserve forcing interest rates to zero in the short term. In addition, we have the Fed encouraging banks to help lower rates through buying Treasuries. On top of this, we also have some $350 trillion of swaps derivatives of interest rates – more than half of all the derivatives out there are interest-rate derivatives. Banks use these swaps to transmit lower rates to other debt instruments based on what can they can get from the Fed. This drives all rates down. We've seen 30 years of declining interest rates." Continue reading →

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Will Grigg: The Stalinist in the White House

"Until the filibuster staged by Senator Paul – who, despite his plentiful shortcomings, has proven that he has learned much from his heroic father – no Senate Republican had rejected the Stalinist premise that the President can order the summary execution of U.S. citizens. What about the Professional Left – the people who, like then-Senator Obama, were so agitated over the Bush administration’s crimes against the Bill of Rights? They’re too busy debating such weighty matters as the proper honorific by which to address the Dear Leader, or helping the Southern Poverty Law Center draw up 'kill lists' of domestic 'extremists.'" Continue reading →

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North Korea and the United States: Will the Real Aggressor Please Stand Down?

"This historical context results in North Korea taking the threats of the United States very seriously. It knows the US has been willing to kill large portions of its population throughout history and has seen what the US has done to other countries. In 2003, Libya halted its program to build a nuclear bomb in an effort to mend its relations with the US. Then last year Libya was overthrown in a US-supported war and its leader Moammar Gadhafi was brutally killed. While calling for a world without nuclear weapons, President Obama has instead continued Bush’s plan and has increased the budget for nuclear weapons." Continue reading →

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What Could Go Wrong with the Housing Recovery in 2013? Plenty.

"Given the preponderance of housing in bank assets, household wealth, and the perception of wealth, the key policies of Central Planning largely revolve around housing: keeping interest rates (and thus mortgage rates) low, flooding the banking sector with liquidity to ease lending, guaranteeing low-down-payment mortgages via FHA, and numerous other subsidies of homeownership. At least three aspects of this broad-based support are historically unprecedented." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingWhat Could Go Wrong with the Housing Recovery in 2013? Plenty.