MedWorm provides a medical RSS filtering service. Over 6000 RSS medical sources are combined and output via different filters. This feed contains the latest medical blog items that have been tagged with 'defense'. Sat, 03 Sep 2011 01:57:35 +0100 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5181762&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F2wBwW5zdM10%2F By Malou InnocentOver the past decade, American taxpayers have lost as much as $60 billion dollars to massive fraud and waste in the nation building campaigns of Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a report released today by the Commission on Wartime Contracting. The independent panel confirms much of what we already know about rent-seeking in wartime; nevertheless, the panel details specific reconstruction projects and programs that display a stunning array of mismanagement: A modest $60 million agricultural development program in northern Afghanistan expanded to the south and east to the tune of $360 million. The cash-for-work program was intended to distribute vouchers for wheat-seed and fertilizer in drought-stricken areas. Today, the program spends $1 million a day. The panel reports,... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5181762 Wed, 31 Aug 2011 18:54:37 +0100 5181762 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5096465&cid=t_184420_113_f&fid=38236&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.healthcareitnews.com%2Fblog%2Fhealth-information-exchange-current-projects-inspiring-future-pathways There’s been a lot of talk lately about the future of health information exchange (HIE)—what it will mean 10, 15 or even 20 years down the road. There is no question that providers recognize the importance of HIE, and realize in combination with electronic health records (EHRs) that it will transform the practice of medicine. The question is whether providers are fully aware of the many HIE projects on the ground right now that already are beginning to impact patient care. read more (Source: Healthcare IT News Blog) Healthcare IT News Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5096465 Thu, 04 Aug 2011 13:07:33 +0100 5096465 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5096169&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FZOrZ812LqXk%2F By Benjamin H. FriedmanThe legislation signed by President Obama yesterday, as a solution to the debt ceiling debate, includes the possibility of cuts to military spending. But as Chris Preble points out, the legislation guarantees no defense cuts. Republicans will try to dump all the required cuts on non-defense areas. And the White House has already distanced itself from the prospect of any real defense budget cuts, as did Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta. Both support only the first round of cuts, which will at best halt Pentagon growth at roughly inflation. On The Skeptics blog, I take a more detailed look at deal’s likely impact on military spending. I also examine its political effect, arguing that it will cause at least four political fights. The first concerns war fun... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5096169 Wed, 03 Aug 2011 16:29:42 +0100 5096169 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5077659&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FqQqjfL3BAxo%2F By Doug Bandow Many advocates of promiscuous military intervention angrily reject the claim that America is an “empire.” Granted, the U.S. doesn’t directly rule its imperial dependents. But Washington policymakers do insist on maintaining a military presence wherever and whenever possible, irrespective of America’s defense needs. The Obama administration’s attempt to pressure the Iraqi government into “inviting” the U.S. to remain is almost comical. Rather than requiring Baghdad to demonstrate why a continuing American presence is necessary, U.S. officials have been begging to stay. Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates said: “I hope they figure out a way to ask.” His successor, Leon Panetta, recently blurted out: “dammit, make a decision.” However, it is Washington t... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5077659 Thu, 28 Jul 2011 19:16:07 +0100 5077659 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5057714&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FJnvIEsa1Mhk%2F An op-ed by Peter Singer and Michael O’Hanlon in today’s Politico questions the impact of spending cuts on the military. “Substantial defense budget cuts are possible, make no mistake,” the Brookings’ scholars concede, “But they could mean loss of capability, and some may increase security risks.” Another Brookings scholar, Robert Kagan, is more emphatic, telling Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post that “[The proposed cuts are] utterly irresponsible and dangerous to national security.” Max Boot agrees. Cuts of up to $1 trillion over the next 10 years “would be nothing short of a disaster.” Lawmakers who are considering such cuts, Boot claims, “are flirting with eviscerating American combat capabilities — and with it t... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5057714 Fri, 22 Jul 2011 17:53:00 +0100 5057714 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5050526&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FkEln6-tme7A%2F Stories in DoD Buzz and the Christian Science Monitor this week cover a new Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessment report on the Pentagon’s 2012 budget request. Both articles focus on the insightful section of the report explaining how the post 9-11 defense spending explosion has barely increased our war-fighting capacity. Unfortunately, both echo the report’s claim that all money spent on cancelled programs is money wasted and an indictment of the Pentagon acquisition system (page 36 and 37). Here’s how the Monitor put it: The new spending involves considerable waste, the report says. The Pentagon has spent nearly $50 billion since the 9/11 attacks on weapons systems that it never used due to technological failures or cost overruns, according to the study. “These are weapon... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5050526 Thu, 21 Jul 2011 12:57:56 +0100 5050526 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4975839&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FjqIiiUmeSBM%2F By David BoazSince New York passed a law extending marriage to same-sex couples, Republican presidential candidates have been mostly silent. But not Rep. Michele Bachmann, who has had a long and strong interest in gay rights issues. In an interview on Fox News Sunday she endorsed both New York’s Tenth Amendment right to make marriage law and the federal government’s right to override such laws with a constitutional amendment, confusing host Chris Wallace: WALLACE: You are a strong opponent of same-marriage. What do you think of the law that was just passed in New York state—making it the biggest state to recognize same-sex marriage? BACHMANN: Well, I believe that marriage is between a man and a woman. And I also believe—in Minnesota, for instance, this year, the legislature... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4975839 Mon, 27 Jun 2011 15:50:06 +0100 4975839 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4960202&cid=t_184420_122_f&fid=36582&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FSharpBrains%2F%7E3%2FKL0ko4TEcXU%2F A couple of very interesting recent announcements show (in a military context) how well-targeted brain training can complement and augment existing approaches, both to help “normal” and “clinical” populations, in ways that silo-based, rear-mirror thinking often misses: U.S. Department of Defense Awards $2 Million to Brain Plasticity Inc. to Study Impact of Brain Training for Traumatic Brain Injuries (press release): “Brain Plasticity Inc. (BPI), a technology incubator dedicated to the discovery and development of novel technologies that harness the basic principles of brain plasticity to improve the lives of people with neurological and psychiatric disorders, was recently awarded a $2 million grant from the United States Department of Defense.” “The grant will fund a two-year... SharpBrains blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4960202 Thu, 23 Jun 2011 11:21:27 +0100 4960202 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4911450&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FmxymmNehZsA%2F By Malou InnocentAs confirmed by yet another U.S. government report, this one prepared by the Democratic majority staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, America’s nation-building mission in Afghanistan has had little success in creating an economically viable and politically independent Afghan state. The Washington Post’s Karen DeYoung writes: The report also warns that the Afghan economy could slide into a depression with the inevitable decline of the foreign military and development spending that now provides 97 percent of the country’s gross domestic product. [Emphasis added] U.S. leaders could look at that statistic and justify prolonging the mission. In fact, the report suggests, “Afghanistan could suffer a severe economic depression when foreign troops leave in 2014... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4911450 Wed, 08 Jun 2011 17:10:41 +0100 4911450 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4911464&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FYbQmO1Im2Eg%2F By Tad DeHavenLast week, the House passed a $40.6 billion Homeland Security appropriations bill for fiscal 2012. The Constitutional Authority Statement for the bill cited Congress’s authority to appropriate money and the General Welfare Clause. Citing the General Welfare Clause might be appropriate for activities associated with the common defense of the nation. However, it is not an appropriate justification for something like the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Assistance to Firefighters Grant program, which distributes federal taxpayer money to local fire departments. Firefighting is a purely local concern and should be funded by those who benefit from a local fire department’s services. Why in the world am I paying federal taxes in Pennsylvania to a bureaucracy in Washingto... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4911464 Tue, 07 Jun 2011 12:40:45 +0100 4911464 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4883556&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F4gQD5uysK4k%2F By Tad DeHavenLast week, a motion to proceed on a budget resolution introduced by Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) was decisively defeated in the Senate (7 in favor, 90 opposed). Paul’s proposal would have balanced the budget in five years (fiscal year 2016) through spending cuts and no tax increases. Social Security and Medicare would not have been altered. Instead, the proposal merely instructed relevant congressional committees to enact reforms that would achieve “solvency” over a 75-year window. That’s hardly radical. Paul’s proposed spending cuts were certainly bold by Washington’s standards, but they weren’t radical either. For example, military spending would have been cut, in part, by reducing the government’s bootprint abroad. From the Paul proposal: The ability to ut... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4883556 Tue, 31 May 2011 19:14:12 +0100 4883556 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4872067&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fz-y_2tycP0U%2F By Christopher PrebleFormer Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty’s brief visit to Cato yesterday elicited some snide commentary in the blogosphere, especially this piece by the Huffington Post’s Jon Ward. Ward notes how the just-declared presidential candidate has been pretty adept at annoying audiences with his answers to questions. This one rankled the questioner, and a number of others in the auditorium. I’m not one who is going to stand before you and say we should cut the defense budget. [...] I’m not for shrinking America’s presence in the world. I’m for making sure that America remains the world leader, not becoming second or third or fourth in the list. One can sort of forgive a governor for not knowing much about foreign policy, although governors ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4872067 Thu, 26 May 2011 17:53:25 +0100 4872067 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4862509&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F3XLKKkQF-xs%2F By George Scoville DON’T FORGET: Today at 2:00 p.m. Eastern at Cato, former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty will detail specific spending cuts Congress can make as it tries to rein in the size and scope of the federal government in “Limiting Government: What Washington Can Learn from Minnesota.” Tune in at our live events hub, or watch on Facebook. It’s not low taxes that caused the Greek crisis, but high spending. A new Internal Revenue Service account reporting rule would drive out foreign capital. A defense budget that does not force trade-offs assumes the United States can take on any mission, and that all are necessary. If the Affordable Care Act is so great, why are so many people seeking waivers? Wednesday Links is a post from Cato @ Liberty - Cato Institu... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4862509 Wed, 25 May 2011 16:00:32 +0100 4862509 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4852841&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FnU1nadyGicA%2F By Christopher PrebleWhen President Obama meets with British Prime Minister David Cameron in London, they should focus on the two wars that involve both the U.S. and British militaries (Afghanistan and Libya). But these discussions will take place in the context of diminishing British military capability. At a time when the United States should be shedding some of the burdens of policing the globe, and encouraging other countries to step forward to defend themselves, the British are moving in the opposite direction. They are cutting their military, and tacitly becoming more dependent upon U.S. power. The end result will be a United Kingdom that is less able to assist us in the future. The United States today spends far more on its military than does the United Kingdom, and the gap is like... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4852841 Mon, 23 May 2011 15:39:42 +0100 4852841 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4852844&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FTwPlOqQeK_0%2F By Doug BandowIn the midst of difficult domestic political battles, Barack Obama begins a lengthy European trip today.  He should encourage the continent to increase its defense capabilities and take on greater regional security responsibilities. Presidential visits typically result in little of substance.  President Obama’s latest trip will be no different if he reinforces the status quo.  His policy mantra once was “change.”  No where is “change” more necessary than in America’s foreign policy, especially towards Europe. Despite obvious differences spanning the Atlantic, the U.S. and European relationship remains extraordinarily important.  The administration should press for increased economic integration, with lower trade barriers and streamlined regulations to encoura... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4852844 Mon, 23 May 2011 14:10:00 +0100 4852844 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4848093&cid=t_184420_131_f&fid=35007&url=http%3A%2F%2Fbooks.mcgraw-hill.com%2Fmedical%2Fommbid%2Fblog%2F2011%2F05%2F20%2Fimmune-deficiency-in-abetalipoproteinemia%2F Abetalipoproteinemia, caused by mutations in the gene encoding microsomal triglyceride transfer protein, causes fat malabsorption, pigmentary degeneration of the retina, progressive ataxic neuropathy, and acanthocytosis. Many of the features are caused by secondary vitamin E deficiency. It has now been recognized that patients also have immune defects with altered presentation of self and microbial lipid antigens by CD1 molecules, caused by an increased degradation of CD1 molecules (Zeissig et al., 2010, J Clin Invest 120:2889-99).  Calogera M. Simonaro  et al. hypothesized that inflammation was involved in the bone and joint pathology of mucopolysaccharidoses. They bred MPS VII mice with mice deficient in Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4), and showed decreased bone pathology. This effect was ... The OMMBID Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4848093 Fri, 20 May 2011 21:55:16 +0100 4848093 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4820821&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FQ-ymWDORPMA%2F By Benjamin H. FriedmanIf you like bloated nuclear arsenals, executive discretion to wage endless war, large checks to countries that aid our enemies, and institutionalizing hostility toward gays in the military, you will love the defense authorization bill passed yesterday by the House Armed Services Committee. Below are the lowlights. For slightly better news from the Appropriations Committee on homeland security spending, skip to the end. The bill contains a provision replacing the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force against the perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks and their hosts. The Committee evidently found that legislation, which the last two administrations have used to justify all manner of power grabs, insufficiently open-ended. They add groups “affiliated” with al Qae... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4820821 Fri, 13 May 2011 11:14:55 +0100 4820821 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4813544&cid=t_184420_131_f&fid=35007&url=http%3A%2F%2Fbooks.mcgraw-hill.com%2Fmedical%2Fommbid%2Fblog%2F%3Fp%3D1367 Immune and inflammatory reactions are increasingly being linked to inborn errors of metabolism. It is well known that mevalonate kinase deficiency causes an auto-inflammatory syndrome. It has now been shown that the NALP3 inflammasome, which acts as an intracellular sensor for the innate immunity, is the missing link between a lack of geranylgeranyl pyrophosphate (downstream of mevalonate kinase), and the activation of caspase-1 leading to increases in IL-1β (Pontillo et al., 2010, Eur J Hum Genet 18:844-7). Posted by Philippe Campeau, MD (Source: The OMMBID Blog) The OMMBID Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4813544 Wed, 11 May 2011 00:54:22 +0100 4813544 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4794837&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FRacTWK9nNPo%2F By William A. NiskanenMartin Feldstein, a distinguished economist and a former colleague, made a surprising case for maintaining a large U.S. defense budget, despite a huge federal budget deficit, in the annual Irving Kristol lecture Thursday night at the American Enterprise Institute. On one point, he was clearly right: we can afford it. “There is no danger of bankrupting ourselves by so-called ‘imperial overreach’ when we spend less than 5 percent of GDP on defense” (in fact, 5.6 percent of GDP in 2010). But he failed to make a convincing case that we should spend this much for defense, especially given the dire outlook for federal deficits and the debt. In 2010, U.S. real (inflation-corrected) spending for national security was over twice the annual spending during the Ford and ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4794837 Sat, 07 May 2011 02:29:49 +0100 4794837 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4789207&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fcst2r3NddJM%2F By Benjamin H. FriedmanThe tendency to treat Osama bin Laden’s killing as national holiday akin to V-E day is both understandable and unfortunate. Everyone with a sense of justice appreciates the death of mass murderers, particularly the terrorist sort. But celebrating as if we killed Hitler or won a war plays into al Qaeda’s self-serving myth. Paul Pillar put it well: An unfortunate irony of the huge reaction to the killing of Bin Ladin is that it continues to give him in death what he worked so hard to achieve in life: the status of arch foe of the most powerful nation on earth. It is a status that conforms with Bin Ladin’s narrative of himself as the leader of the Muslim world, protecting that world against the predations of the Judeo-Christian West, the leader of which is the... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4789207 Thu, 05 May 2011 18:36:02 +0100 4789207 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4775373&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FIn343nt1Z4k%2F By George Scoville Habeas corpus applies to anyone, citizen or not, in custody under American law, no matter what President Bush and President Obama decree. House Republicans’ cuts to the Department of Education, which will spend over $70 billion next year, didn’t even amount to $1 billion. “Regardless of whether Pakistan gets its way, its impudence in pushing Afghanistan to abandon America exposes the real balance of power in the region.” “It doesn’t make a lot of sense to refer to a government whose intelligence service assists military efforts by al Qaeda and the Taliban against U.S. troops in Afghanistan as an ‘ally.’” Here are five ways to cut military spending today without changing our strategic focus: Monday Links is a post f... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4775373 Mon, 02 May 2011 14:29:08 +0100 4775373 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4762747&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F4D2pubWPm0Q%2F By Justin LoganToday in Politico I have an op-ed titled “How Washington changed Obama.” In the piece, I argue that the recent appointments of Leon Panetta as secretary of defense and Gen. David Petraeus as director of the CIA, combined with revelations in the recent New Yorker article by Ryan Lizza, suggest that President Obama has given up on changing U.S. foreign and defense policy: Panetta is a dubious choice to fulfill Obama’s recent pledge to trim military spending. Any secretary charged with realizing that pledge would need extraordinary credibility with Capitol Hill Republicans, many of whom are determined to continue raining money on the Pentagon regardless of the nation’s parlous fiscal position. Despite having once been a Republican, Panetta ran for Congress as Democr... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4762747 Thu, 28 Apr 2011 16:04:31 +0100 4762747 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4758753&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fwhen-patients-attack-is-self-defense-legally-dangerous%2F2011.04.27 Sideways Shrink posed a great question recently in a comment on my post “When A Thick Skin Helps.” The question was whether or not physicians are allowed to hit a patient who tries to assault them. Certainly, physical assaults on patients are not the standard of practice in psychiatry or any other medical specialty. Psychiatrists do undergo some training about physical management of violent patients: I remember in residency we had to get trained in “take down” and restraint procedures. As a group we practiced applying pressure point joint locks on each other in order to make a patient break a grip on us, and to do two person restraints to hold someone immobile until security could arrive. None of this involved any “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”-type ku... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4758753 Wed, 27 Apr 2011 19:00:00 +0100 4758753 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4758739&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FUzDsC43VEhQ%2F By Christopher PrebleThe report that Leon Panetta will be appointed Secretary of Defense, and Gen. David Petraeus will become the new CIA director, does not come as a huge surprise. But I worry that President Obama’s decision to fill these positions from within his administration signals an unwillingness to rethink U.S. foreign policy. Such a reevaluation is desperately needed. Leon Panetta brings some experience in national security affairs to DoD, including his stints at CIA and on Capitol Hill, and as a member of the Iraq Study Group. His more relevant experience, however, may be as Director of the Office of Management and Budget in the Clinton administration. Bob Gates effectively shielded the Pentagon from spending cuts, but that merely postponed the reckoning that Panetta ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4758739 Wed, 27 Apr 2011 15:04:46 +0100 4758739 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4719882&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F8cM-DqmEp10%2F By George Scoville Penalizing millionaires won’t help President Obama get re-elected, but partnering with Republicans on corporate tax reforms and spending cuts would boost the economy — and his prospects. Of course, both Republicans and President Obama will have to stop pretending to cut defense spending if either want the economy to recover. Chasing the energy independence white rabbit isn’t helping much, either. Soaking the rich definitely won’t work. When you look back at the grueling [sic] debate over an underwhelming $38 billion in spending cuts, you realize the fight was never about cutting spending–it was over how much to grow the size and scope of government: Friday Links is a post from Cato @ Liberty - Cato Institute Blog (Source: Cato-at-liberty) Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4719882 Fri, 15 Apr 2011 16:57:51 +0100 4719882 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4714725&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FJEepNZs3JeA%2F By David RittgersThe Wall Street Journal law blog has a piece up on how the budget crisis is impacting public defenders: Funding constraints have prompted states and counties to lay off public defenders, hold the line on salaries, and reduce the amount defenders can spend case investigators and staff training, the WSJ reports. Public defenders maintain that they should be insulated from budget cuts for two reasons, the first being that they were sorely underfunded before the recession came along.  Secondly, they point to the fact that states have a duty, enshrined in Gideon v. Wainwright, to provide indigent criminal defendants with the right to counsel. Stephen J. Schulhofer and David Friedman recently published a Cato Policy Analysis, Reforming Indigent Defense that proposes a free mark... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4714725 Thu, 14 Apr 2011 16:29:23 +0100 4714725 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4714726&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fnj_4KnPBahk%2F By George Scoville One thing is clear after President Obama’s speech yesterday: He envisions a smaller national debt, but a much bigger government. One percent is better than nothing, but it’s still pretty close to nothing. One thing is clear about climate change: it’s causing a rising tide of red ink in Washington. See the forthcoming book Climate Coup: Global Warming’s Invasion of Our Government and Our Lives and join us for the accompanying book forum, featuring MIT meteorologist Richard Lindzen and American Meteorological Society fellow Bob Ryan, on Wednesday, May 4 at 4:00 p.m. Eastern. Complimentary registration is required of all attendees by 12:00 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday, May 3. If you cannot join us in person, we hope you’ll watch live online. One can... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4714726 Thu, 14 Apr 2011 14:23:25 +0100 4714726 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4704622&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FsekdUPDCf4M%2F By Christopher PrebleLast week I expressed my disappointment with Paul Ryan’s budget plan, specifically about his unwillingness to cut military spending. Some people think that he does cut spending through his acceptance of Secretary Gates’s $78 in “cuts.” (see, for example, Sen. John Sununu; Sen. Joseph Lieberman, AEI’s Gary Schmitt and Tom Donnelly; and the Heritage Foundation’s Baker Spring). So either I am wrong, or they are. Let me try to set the record straight. First, all of Ryan’s other savings — savings which I support — were projected either against the Obama administration’s FY 2012 budget or against the current budget baseline. For example, according to Ryan’s own “Key Facts” his plan “Cuts $6.2 trillion in government spending over the next d... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4704622 Tue, 12 Apr 2011 16:02:15 +0100 4704622 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4684273&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FtiywFcd5qAI%2F By Christopher PrebleFor all the boldness of Rep. Paul Ryan’s proposal to reduce projected federal expenditures by $6 trillion, an initiative that I support, the Pentagon’s budget emerges essentially unscathed in Ryan’s plan. This is a mistake on both fiscal and strategic grounds. Significant cuts in military spending must be on the table as the nation struggles to close its fiscal gap without saddling individuals and businesses with burdensome taxes and future generations with debt. Such cuts will also force a reappraisal of our military’s roles and missions that is long overdue. The Pentagon’s base budget has nearly doubled during the past decade. Throw in the costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, plus nuclear weapons spending in the Department of Energy, and a smattering ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4684273 Wed, 06 Apr 2011 15:39:01 +0100 4684273 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4684764&cid=t_184420_150_f&fid=35777&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FPharmalot%2F%7E3%2F3CWkAaWSr94%2F A small, but controversial non-profit group has just won a symbolic - and potentially significant - victory thanks to the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, which has determined its comb can be listed as an alternative to pharmaceutical treatments containing an insecticide banned by dozens of countries for agricultural use (see this). The comb is cleared by the FDA for screening, detecting and removing head lice and their eggs (read here). The move comes after nearly two decades in which the non-profit, called the National Pediculosis Association, has tussled with drugmakers and government agencies over the insecticide. Known commercially as Lindane, the chemical has been widely used as an agricultural tool around the world, but is also a key component in a topical loti... Pharmalot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4684764 Wed, 06 Apr 2011 14:51:51 +0100 4684764 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4684278&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FM-AHhGfm6-Y%2F By George Scoville Republicans have a big opportunity to undo Obamacare and reform Medicaid and Medicare all at once. It's a good thing, too, because we're facing a big debt crisis and if we don't change course, federal spending will crest 42% of GDP by 2050. There's also a big elephant in the room in an excessively complicated tax code. One has to wonder if the Republicans intend to put the big sacred cow of defense spending on the table. Unrelated to the budget, education choice proponents scored a big victory in the U.S. Supreme Court yesterday in ACSTO v. Winn, a decision that upheld education tax credits: Tuesday Links is a post from Cato @ Liberty - Cato Institute Blog (Source: Cato-at-liberty) Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4684278 Tue, 05 Apr 2011 14:13:52 +0100 4684278 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4658365&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FDOoaNeXsr-o%2F By George Scoville Please join us on Thursday, April 7 at 2:00 p.m. ET for "The Economic Impact of Government Spending," featuring Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN), Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX), former Sen. Phil Gramm, former IMF director of fiscal affairs department Vito Tanzi, and Ohio University economist and AEI adjunct scholar Richard Vedder. We encourage you to attend in person, but if you cannot, you can tune in online at our new live events hub. The last time we saw a green energy economy was in the 13th century. This isn't quite what we meant by "defense spending." For a refresher, see this itemized list of proposed cuts that could save taxpayers $150 billion annually. "Prosperity reigns where taxes are low and right to work prevails." In case you missed it last Friday, che... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4658365 Wed, 30 Mar 2011 15:32:15 +0100 4658365 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4653303&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FxVmzFqAFTaU%2F By Tad DeHavenLast year the House Republican leadership created the GOP’s “YouCut” website, which offers several possible spending cuts for citizens to vote on. The cut with the most votes goes to the House floor for an up-or-down vote. It’s a decent idea, but unfortunately, most of the cuts the GOP have offered thus far only amount to chump change. This week the House Republican leadership finally put the Pentagon on the YouCut chopping block. However, the possible cuts suggested by the GOP are pathetic: 1. Reduce the Department of Defense’s printing and reproduction budget by 10 percent ($36 million in savings in fiscal 2012). 2. Reduce spending for Defense studies, analysis and evaluations by 10 percent ($24 million in savings in fiscal 2012). 3. Restrict payout of annual nati... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4653303 Tue, 29 Mar 2011 21:26:56 +0100 4653303 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4653313&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FfcHyBTaElD0%2F By Caleb O. BrownThe Weinberger-Powell Doctrine offers Congress and the President five key hurdles before military force should be employed. Chris Preble, in this new video, runs through the reasons why President Obama's Libya incursion fails the Weinberger-Powell test. You can subscribe to our YouTube channel, too. Five Rules for Going to War is a post from Cato @ Liberty - Cato Institute Blog (Source: Cato-at-liberty) Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4653313 Tue, 29 Mar 2011 14:38:11 +0100 4653313 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4615080&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FOdE0M9UYEOc%2F By Christopher PrebleThis morning at the Skeptics, I blogged about a series of questions raised by the ongoing military operations against Libya. But I left room for one big question: Is the Weinberger/Powell Doctrine dead? Actually, it isn't a question. It's a statement: the doctrine that sought to prevent the United States from engaging in risky and counterproductive missions that had nothing to do with protecting U.S. vital interests (e.g. Lebanon 1983; Somalia, 1991; and Kosovo, 1999) is dead. Shovel dirt on it. To review, the doctrine was first coined by Ronald Reagan's Secretary of Defense, Caspar Weinberger, in a speech at the National Press Club in 1984. Weinberger was aided by a rising military officer, Colin Powell, who later adapted the concepts for his own purposes as National ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4615080 Mon, 21 Mar 2011 16:00:55 +0100 4615080 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4615081&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FMS8NpV5DC1U%2F By George Scoville "The New Health Care Law: What a Difference a Year Makes," featuring a keynote address from constitutional attorney and counsel in Florida v. HHS David Rivkin, and panels including economist and former CBO director Douglas Holtz-Eakin, Cato director of health policy Michael F. Cannon and vice president for legal affairs Roger Pilon, and many more, begins at 1pm Eastern today. Please join us as we stream the event at our new live events hub, or watch on Facebook. If you prefer television, the forum will be broadcast live on C-SPAN 2. "The next time gun-control advocates point to violence in Mexico and call for more restrictions on gun sales or a revived assault-weapons ban, they should consider that the problem may not be with the laws on the books, but with those who enf... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4615081 Mon, 21 Mar 2011 14:46:35 +0100 4615081 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4605812&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FjPnfq1s6ZeU%2F By George Scoville "If financial institutions are indeed better than consumers at managing interest risk, then those companies should be able to offer consumers attractive terms for doing so — without the moral hazard of an enormous taxpayer backstop." We should be thankful that the president is spending time on his golf game. After all, he recently reinstated military tribunals at Guantanamo Bay and has continued the use of extra-constitutional prisons in the U.S. after the Bush era. "It’s odd that debate here centers on a no-fly zone, a form of military intervention that shows support for rebels without much helping them." Does Haley Barbour really want to cut defense spending? Or is he just really politically astute?  Thursday Links is a post from Cato @ Liberty - Cato Institute ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4605812 Thu, 17 Mar 2011 14:31:19 +0100 4605812 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4517155&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FNV_eKlWr4R0%2F By Malou InnocentRolling Stone reporter Michael Hastings—yes, that Michael Hastings—has written another investigative article on U.S. operations in Afghanistan, centered again on a general in the theatre.  The revelations are perhaps more shocking than those that resulted in General Stanley McChrystal’s dismissal last summer. His newest bombshell alleges that the U.S Army illegally engaged in “psychological operations” with the aim of manipulating various high-level U.S. government officials into believing that the war was progressing in order to gain their continued support.  The list of targets includes members of Congress, diplomats, think tank analysts, and even Adm. Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Join Chiefs of Staff.  Over at The Skeptics, I attempt to put this in context:... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4517155 Thu, 24 Feb 2011 21:30:32 +0100 4517155 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4512381&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fx40GdSOQs4Y%2F By Justin LoganIn January, Robert Kagan of the Brookings Institution wrote an epic-length cover story for the Weekly Standard urging that not only should military spending not be cut, but that it should be increased.  I disagreed, and responded with an article in the April 2011 issue of the American Conservative that is now available online.  Here's the basic gist: [Kagan's] argument centers on three claims. First, [he] alleges that America faces a dire threat environment in which a more restrained strategy would only amplify the dangers. Second, he argues that cutting military spending can’t solve our fiscal dilemma. And finally, he asserts that America simply cannot change its grand strategy, for we have always been interventionists. Each claim is wrong: America could make substantia... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4512381 Wed, 23 Feb 2011 20:57:28 +0100 4512381 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4489636&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fe2n1jTBYksY%2F By Christopher PrebleIn testimony yesterday before the House Armed Service Committee, Defense Secretary Robert Gates stated that the United States has an “interest” in keeping troops in Iraq past the agreed date of withdrawal, December 31, 2011.  Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) pressed Gates by asking: How can we maintain all of these gains that we've made through so much effort if we only have 150 people there and we don't have any military there whatsoever," Hunter asked. "We'd have more military in Western European countries at that point than we'd have in Iraq, one of the most central states, as everybody knows, in the Middle East? The logic of Rep. Duncan’s question provides some interesting context. His logic implies that the thousands of U.S. troops stationed in wealthy, develo... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4489636 Thu, 17 Feb 2011 20:48:45 +0100 4489636 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4489639&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FflxXVeCtyNA%2F By Christopher PrebleI'm a bit late to the party in commenting on the passage of the Rooney Amendment, a successful effort on the part of 2nd-term Republican Tom Rooney (R-Fla.) to strip funding for the F-136, an engine that the Pentagon doesn't want for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. A few additional thoughts: unlike nearly all other amendments to the CR, Rooney's passed, and fairly easily. Part of the reason is strong administration support for the effort, key especially to securing votes from Democrats -- those who don't have F-136 plants in their districts, that is. But Gates had signaled his displeasure many times previously, so that alone doesn't explain this rare victory for budget hawks. I would guess that an additional factor is the slew of new Republicans elected on a platform of... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4489639 Thu, 17 Feb 2011 17:50:00 +0100 4489639 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4489649&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fw5pRyeEeLFg%2F By John SamplesThe Harris Poll finds that most Americans favor cuts in foreign  economic  aid, foreign  military  aid, spending by  the  regulatory agencies generally, space  programs, subsidies  to  business, and federal  welfare  spending. All good stuff. On the other hand, a significant plurality opposes cuts in defense spending. Fewer than one in four favor cuts in federal education spending or health care. 11 percent favor cutting Social Security payments. Over one-third favor spending more on education, health care, and Social Security. How seriously should we take these results? Simple observation of Congress suggests that most Americans are not willing to pay more taxes. The Obama administration found that in focus groups Democrats were not willing to raise taxes on anyo... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4489649 Wed, 16 Feb 2011 20:51:16 +0100 4489649 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4477694&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FjGjH1L4H8ho%2F By Benjamin H. FriedmanMonday was budget day, where the President sends Congress the budget he would like it to pass and reporters and analysts scurry around reacting, as if the he were issuing stunning edicts rather than predictable suggestions . Due to a Healy-esque aversion to this species of DC pageantry, I was not planning to comment. Then I read this oped in Politico where James Fly and John Noonan of the neoconservative Foreign Policy Initiative flack for the President’s defense budget.  It demonstrates the intellectual poverty of the case for current defense spending so well that I decided to discuss it. Fly and Noonan first claim that the White House wants to cut defense spending by $78 billion over five years, repeating the President’s talking point and labeling the redu... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4477694 Tue, 15 Feb 2011 14:07:15 +0100 4477694 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4477699&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FTiVWVOvmBW8%2F By Christopher PreblePresident Obama might want it to appear as though he is reining in defense spending with his budget submission for FY 2012, but his approach to the Pentagon’s budget reveals the opposite. Perhaps the president hopes that his adoption of the faux cuts that Secretary Gates put on the table last month will be seen as responsible. Perhaps he is taking a prudent first step and signaling to the military, and its suppliers and contractors, that the days of double-digit increases are over. That may be; but far deeper cuts are warranted. . If the president had truly wanted to send a signal, he would have followed the advice of his own deficit reduction commission and endorsed far deeper cuts in military spending. The Department of Defense will spend $78 billion less over the ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4477699 Mon, 14 Feb 2011 17:48:26 +0100 4477699 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4459940&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FXouYMfmSkGU%2F By Tim LynchA Seattle police officer was caught on tape kicking a man who was lying face down on a sidewalk with his hands already handcuffed behind his back.   Whether the off-duty cop was drunk and badgering some women, as some witnesses claim, would make the incident even worse--because the handcuffed "suspect" may well have believed he was coming to the woman's defense from some creepy guy.  In any event, kicking handcuffed persons who are not doing anything is unprofessional and illegal. Cato held a forum on filming the police and that event can be viewed here. Seattle Cop Caught on Tape is a post from Cato @ Liberty - Cato Institute Blog (Source: Cato-at-liberty) Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4459940 Thu, 10 Feb 2011 19:45:20 +0100 4459940 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4382749&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FvbTJ4BCKkfc%2F By Christopher PrebleThe calls for cutting the federal budget continue to build in Congress as the new GOP members try to make good on their promise to rein in the deficit.  And, right on time, the latest issue of the Weekly Standard features an article by Robert Kagan critiquing the chorus of calls for cuts to military spending.  I think Kagan’s critique is reasonably fair, certainly more so than others of the recent past.  But his basic premise, that national security spending is unrelated to the national debt, simply is not true.  At the The Skeptics, I address this: It is of course true that entitlements and mandatory spending pose the greatest threat to the nation’s fiscal health, but $700+ billion [in defense spending] isn’t chump change. The question of what we should spe... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4382749 Fri, 21 Jan 2011 17:48:42 +0100 4382749 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4338068&cid=t_184420_113_f&fid=38236&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.healthcareitnews.com%2Fblog%2Fhit-task-force-guidance-health-it In September 2010, Vivek Kundra, the Federal Chief Information Officer, and I issued guidance articulating five key health IT policy and technology principles for Federal health IT projects. read more (Source: Healthcare IT News Blog) Healthcare IT News Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4338068 Tue, 11 Jan 2011 18:52:45 +0100 4338068 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4318315&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FRL1Ek73Yq44%2F By Christopher PrebleSecretary of Defense Robert Gates is poised to axe or significantly restructure a number of high-profile weapons platforms, and otherwise rein in the Pentagon’s budget. The reports present these initiatives as intended to preempt greater scrutiny of the military’s budget by Congress. The cuts will be announced later today, but it seems pretty clear that Gates will call for terminating the unnecessary Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle (EFV), a Marine Corps program that is more than 176 percent over its original per-vehicle cost. Unhappily for taxpayers, the Pentagon has already spent $3 billion on the program, which has managed to deliver only prototypes. The Marine Corps’s version of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter will also be delayed, according to... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4318315 Thu, 06 Jan 2011 16:47:36 +0100 4318315 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4300511&cid=t_184420_83_f&fid=34856&url=http%3A%2F%2Finsidesurgery.com%2F2010%2F12%2Fvascular-surgeon-dr-jonathon-woodson-named-assistant-secretary-defense-health-affairs%2F Vascular surgeon Dr. Jonathon Woodson has been confirmed to occupy the top physician post in the Department of Defense. Dr. Woodson, who is also a Brigadier General in the US Army Reserves is an Associate Dean at Boston University School of Medicine. (Source: Inside Surgery) Inside Surgery blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4300511 Fri, 31 Dec 2010 04:14:40 +0100 4300511 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4277816&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FEFJAtFg6yIg%2F By Christopher PrebleSpurred on by a new release of documents from the archives, the past few weeks have witnessed a renewed interest in the military-industrial complex (MIC), the term forever associated with Dwight David Eisenhower. Or, at least, that should be the case. Eisenhower – the West Point graduate, career military officer, and hero of World War II – was one of the first to ever use the phrase, in a televised Farewell Address to the nation on January 17, 1961. Over the years, however, the MIC has become a mantra for progressives and left liberals, usually used in tandem with an assault on private enterprise, writ large, or as part of an elaborate conspiracy theory that equates crony capitalism with market economics. The left’s capture of the term has ena... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4277816 Tue, 21 Dec 2010 17:44:08 +0100 4277816 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4237873&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FU3uOfiXo-54%2F By Andrew J. CoulsonHe did it on the campaign trail in 2008, he did it in his first year in office, and how he’s done it again: speaking at the Forsyth Technical Community College in North Carolina yesterday, President Obama praised post-Sputnik federal education initiatives aimed at improving achievement in math and science. The trouble is, those investments—the National Defense Education Act—failed. Having already demonstrated the decline in achievement that followed the passage of the NDEA two years ago, I won’t re-hash it here. I’m left to wonder though, what the next two years are going to be like. If the president is still recycling campaign speeches about programs that never worked in the first place, is this what we can expect for the next two years? P... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4237873 Tue, 07 Dec 2010 16:24:38 +0100 4237873 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4230138&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=34765&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhcrenewal.blogspot.com%2F2010%2F12%2Fhealth-it-defenders-kybernetik-uber.html In my Jan. 2010 post "More on Perversity in the Healthcare IT World: Is Meditech Employing Sockpuppets?" I'd written that:... I welcome anonymous comments and have a thick skin - to a point. When the comments go ad hominem or perverse, I do consider deleting them.However, when such comments are potentially revelatory of major issues, I promote and amplify them - as now.This is one of those situations.Regarding my Dec. 1 post "The Economist, Information Privacy, Microsoft, and Technological Determinism: An Online Debate", a defender of what I once termed "Kybernetik über alle" ("Cybernetics over all", as opposed to "primum non nocerum" - "first, do no harm", as in this post) has fallen to new depths of perversity in the unconditional defense of HIT.Some anonymous commenter actually replied... Health Care Renewal blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4230138 Sat, 04 Dec 2010 17:32:00 +0100 4230138 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4225217&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FUkRufmYMYEU%2F By Christopher PrebleAlthough the Bowles-Simpson deficit reduction commission has come up short of the 14 votes among its members that it needs to force Congress to vote up-or-down vote on implementing its recommendations, the debate over ways to cut spending will certainly continue. Of particular note is the emerging consensus that military spending cannot be held sacrosanct in the search for savings. Over at The National Interest Online, I try to shed some light on the actual scale of the cuts proposed by various deficit reduction reports. Kim Holmes and others affiliated with the Defending Defense alliance claim that the cuts are deep, indisciminate, and dangerous. I show that the proposed cuts, even if they were to materialize, would bring U.S. military spending back to 2006 or 2007 le... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4225217 Fri, 03 Dec 2010 20:44:11 +0100 4225217 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4219730&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F3BFss3qvpBg%2F By Christopher PreblePresident Obama’s Fiscal Commission’s report is out and they have wisely kept military spending on the table. Having not seen the accompanying list of specific cuts, it seems that rather than micromanage DoD’s decisions with respect to which weapons systems to cut or keep, the commissioners have laid down a different marker: find the cuts that make sense, but understand that the business-as-usual of the past decade is over. The report fixes on a number of spending cuts and reforms that Benjamin Friedman and I call for in the Cato Policy Analysis “Budgetary Savings from Military Restraint” including cuts to the civilian workforce (see recommendation 1.10.4). They also hold fast to the proposition that all spending must be on the table, and reject out of ha... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4219730 Wed, 01 Dec 2010 16:46:27 +0100 4219730 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4214075&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FHTAgh2Zoqq4%2F By Malou InnocentFor years I have told anybody who would listen how U.S. efforts to stabilize Afghanistan contribute to Pakistan’s slow-motion collapse. Well it appears that my take on the situation was not so over-the-top. Amid some 250,000 confidential diplomatic cables released by online whistleblower Wikileaks, former U.S. ambassador to Pakistan Anne W. Patterson warned in cable traffic that U.S. policy in South Asia “risks destabilizing the Pakistani state, alienating both the civilian government and the military leadership, and provoking a broader governance crisis without finally achieving the goal.” On one level, this cable underscores what a disaster American foreign policy has become. But on another level, the leak of this and other cables strikes me as�... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4214075 Tue, 30 Nov 2010 17:37:02 +0100 4214075 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4214077&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FkYG4Ricx5uQ%2F By Christopher PrebleThat is the headline of a press release announcing the results of a recent Rasmussen poll. The survey of likely voters finds that 58 percent recognize that the United States spends more on its military than any other country in the world. The headline writers have obviously taken this as a positive. I think one can just as easily spin it in the other direction. It is deeply disturbing that 19 percent of Americans think that some country spends more than us, and that another 24 percent are unsure. I don’t think this is just a reflection of my recent penchant for finding the dark lining in every silver cloud. If I were a professor teaching a course in U.S. military history, I’d be distressed if 19 percent of my students thought that Robert E. Lee was ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4214077 Tue, 30 Nov 2010 15:56:03 +0100 4214077 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4197027&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F0GgZvvfEk2s%2F By David BoazLibertarians often debate whether conservatives or liberals are more friendly to liberty. We often fall back on the idea that conservatives tend to support economic liberties but not civil liberties, while liberals support civil liberties but not economic liberties — though this old bromide hardly accounts for the economic policies of President Bush or the war-on-drugs-and-terror-and-Iraq policies of President Obama. Score one for the conservatives in the surging outrage over the Transportation Security Administration’s new policy of body scanners and intimate pat-downs. You gotta figure you’ve gone too far in the violation of civil liberties when you’ve lost Rick Santorum, George Will, Kathleen Parker, and Charles Krauthammer. (Gene Healy points out th... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4197027 Wed, 24 Nov 2010 17:16:09 +0100 4197027 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4190132&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F8iLCUwDSaaQ%2F By Caleb O. BrownU.S. Representative Barney Frank (D-Massachusetts) believes that cutting the military means rethinking the purpose of our military. He argues that the far-flung adventures that have killed thousands of American soldiers and consumed trillions of dollars simply haven’t been justified by U.S. defense needs. He also takes issue with President Obama exempting military spending from his so-called “spending freeze” proposed earlier this year. He spoke at the Cato Institute November 19, 2010. Barney Frank: Cut Military Spending by Following Cato Plan is a post from Cato @ Liberty - Cato Institute Blog (Source: Cato-at-liberty) Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4190132 Mon, 22 Nov 2010 16:10:09 +0100 4190132 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4175673&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F3fpiOCDUAVM%2F By Christopher PrebleOver at National Journal‘s National Security Experts blog, Megan Scully notes the military spending cuts contained within a proposal by Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson, the co-chairs of the president’s deficit reduction commission. Scully asks: “How feasible would it be for lawmakers to make these kinds of cuts to defense?…What kind of sway will fiscal hawks have in the next Congress – and will it be enough to push through sweeping defense cuts over the objections from pro-defense members of their party?” Government spending across the board must be cut, I explain, beginning especially with entitlements.  I continue: Other spending must also be on the table, however, and that includes the roughly 23 percent of the federal budget th... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4175673 Wed, 17 Nov 2010 18:31:09 +0100 4175673 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4159210&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fz9zLzPhzDlk%2F By Michael D. TannerMy colleagues, Dan Mitchell, Jagadeesh Gokhale, Michael Cannon and Chris Edwards have already provided their thoughts on the chairman’s mark released yesterday by the bipartisan deficit reduction commission.  A few additional thoughts: The commission provides a good-faith look at the magnitude of the problem we face, and the magnitude of cuts necessary to bring spending down to even 21 percent of GDP (and it really should be far lower).  In doing so they show just how unserious Republicans are in proposing a paltry $100 billion in spending cuts.  And the commission makes it clear, unlike Republicans, that both entitlements and defense spending must be on the table. The commission also starts the debate in a useful direction by implicitly acknowledging that their ne... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4159210 Thu, 11 Nov 2010 20:46:26 +0100 4159210 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4158813&cid=t_184420_139_f&fid=38879&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FVirologyBlog%2F%7E3%2FTmOWer8-iJc%2F Antibodies are an important component of the host defense against viral infection. These molecules, produced 7-14 days after infection, neutralize viral infectivity, thereby limiting the spread of infection. Antibodies are thought to neutralize viral infectivity in several ways: by forming noninfectious aggregates that cannot enter cells, or by blocking virion attachment to cells or uncoating (figure). A new mechanism has just joined this list, in which antibody bound virions are degraded in the cell cytoplasm. A cytoplasmic protein called TRIM21 (tripartite motif-containing 21) was recently found to bind with high affinity to the conserved regions of antibody molecules. The presence of this activity in many mammalian species suggested that there could be ways that antibodies operate withi... virology blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4158813 Thu, 11 Nov 2010 18:34:51 +0100 4158813 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4151791&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fcuring-the-common-cold-from-the-inside-out%2F2010.11.09 Antibodies can fight viruses from within infected cells, reported researchers who now believe that treatments could be applied to viral diseases like the common cold, “winter vomiting,” and gastroenteritis. Previously, scientists thought that antibodies could only reduce infection by attacking viruses outside cells and by blocking their entry into cells. Once inside the cell, the body’s only defense was to destroy the cell. But protection mediated by antibodies doesn’t end at the cell membrane. It continues inside the cell to provide a last line of defense against infection. Researchers at the U.K.’s Medical Research Council’s Laboratory of Molecular Biology showed that cells possess a cytosolic IgG receptor, tripartite motif-containing 21 (TRIM21), whic... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4151791 Tue, 09 Nov 2010 21:00:00 +0100 4151791 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4151757&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FbqJ7Qd5olO4%2F By Tad DeHavenFollowing last week’s electoral victory, the House Republican leadership has been talking up its pre-election pledge to return federal spending to 2008 levels. As I’ve previously discussed, the Republicans are only talking about non-security, discretionary spending. This category of spending represents a relatively small portion of the overall federal budget, and would only shave about $100 billion off of what the president wants to spend. A better idea would be to cut total spending to 2008 levels. Excluding interest, the president has proposed spending $853 billion more in fiscal 2011 than the government spent in fiscal 2008. The following table shows the increases by department. As the chart shows, federal spending for the Pentagon alone is set to increase by $126 bil... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4151757 Tue, 09 Nov 2010 17:01:44 +0100 4151757 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4119077&cid=t_184420_109_f&fid=34750&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpsychcentral.com%2Fblog%2Farchives%2F2010%2F10%2F29%2Fwhite-house-policy-adding-to-stigma-of-suicide%2F A Department of Defense task force dedicated to preventing suicide in the military recently released a report with some disturbing facts. The report acknowledges that the physical and psychological demands on our volunteer fighting forces are huge. Between 2005 and 2009 alone, more than 1,100 soldiers committed suicide. That is one soldier dying by suicide every 36 hours. The report notes that the rate of suicide deaths in the Army has more than doubled. The task force mentions numerous research reports that have documented the psychological and emotional injuries — “the hidden wounds of war” — that have devastated many military members and their families. Personnel who are deploying — as well as those left behind — are under stress because of an imbalan... World of Psychology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4119077 Fri, 29 Oct 2010 17:07:46 +0100 4119077 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4118892&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FCjXKzstA1Yk%2F By Michael F. CannonHere’s a poor, unsuccessful letter that impressed the relevant New York Times reporters, but not their editorial overlords: It may seem counter-intuitive that bleeding-heart anti-hunger groups and “Big Food and Big Beverage” would ally to oppose Mayor Bloomberg’s request to prevent New Yorkers from using food stamps to purchase sugary sodas [“Unlikely Allies in Food Stamp Debate,” October 16].  Yet the “bootleggers and Baptists” theory of regulation explains that this “strange bedfellows” phenomenon is actually the norm, rather than the exception. Most laws have two types of supporters: the true believers and those who benefit financially.  Baptists don’t want you drinking on the Lord ’s Day, for example, while bootleggers profit from the a... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4118892 Thu, 28 Oct 2010 13:52:24 +0100 4118892 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4105673&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=39261&url=http%3A%2F%2Fvactruth.com%2F2010%2F10%2F25%2Fmind-virus-mothers-pharma-department-of-defense%2F Conclusion At first glance, the initiative sounds like a positive way to help families take good care of their precious new babies. Strategic text message reminders are sent about getting enough sleep, scheduling well-baby check-ups with their health care provider … and injecting their precious new baby with lots and lots of vaccines.  Do new moms really need a reminder to take a nap?  Do fresh-from-the-womb little people really need toxic doses of aluminum, mercury, and other chemicals that don’t belong in their tiny bodies? One hundred seventy-seven nations around the world (http://newsbusters.org/blogs…) offer paid maternity leave for new moms.  What does our country offer?  A few dozen text messages laced with publicly and privately funded propaganda to push thei... vactruth.com blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4105673 Mon, 25 Oct 2010 16:33:47 +0100 4105673 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4097906&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FnaJcNTL0PJA%2F By Christopher PrebleYesterday, Prime Minister David Cameron announced Britain’s biggest defense cuts since World War II. The cuts affect the British military across the board. The Army will shed 7,000 troops; the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force will each lose 5,000 personnel; the total workforce in the Ministry of Defence, including civilians, will contract by 42,000. The Navy’s destroyer fleet will shrink from 23 to 19. Two aircraft carriers — already under construction — will be completed, but one of the two will be either mothballed or sold within a few years. Whether the one remaining flattop in the British fleet will actually deploy with an operational fixed-wing aircraft is an open question. They’ve decided to jettison their Harriers; a technological marvel ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4097906 Thu, 21 Oct 2010 16:56:31 +0100 4097906 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4074024&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F5v9OuZ4Vkyw%2F By Justin LoganBill Kristol has a plan to help the US military George F. Will has called neoconservatism “a spectacularly misnamed radicalism” whose adherents are “the most radical people in this town.”  (It is a shame that the Heritage Foundation has fallen so far from its sensible opposition to the neoconservative vision and evidently bought into the neoconservative program in toto.) Like other radicals, however, they are pretty good at politics, which is clear from reading their latest offering, a talking points document [.pdf] produced by the “Defending Defense” initiative intended to demonstrate that U.S. military spending is not that large and should not be cut. I have several things to say about the document, but all of the internet sniping and providing adversa... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4074024 Fri, 15 Oct 2010 19:06:10 +0100 4074024 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4036624&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FRrvAJEDU3Ng%2F By Benjamin H. FriedmanBloggers have already noted the most glaring problems with Arthur Brooks, Edwin Feulner and Bill Kristol’s Monday Wall Street Journal op-ed, “Peace Doesn’t Keep Itself,” which worries that conservatives are figuring out that trying to run the world is not conservative. The op-ed pretends that the fact that defense spending isn’t the largest cause of the deficit means it isn’t a cause of the deficit. It obscures the fact that we spend more on defense than we did in the Cold War by counting the defense budget as a portion of the economy without noting the latter has grown faster than the former. So I can limit myself to less obvious angles. The first is that neoconservatives like Kristol are for increasing the defense budget no matter what. For them ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4036624 Wed, 06 Oct 2010 19:19:51 +0100 4036624 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4003292&cid=t_184420_109_f&fid=34750&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpsychcentral.com%2Fblog%2Farchives%2F2010%2F09%2F27%2Fsoldiers-dont-trust-the-military-to-help-with-suicide%2F From the “Not really surprising” file… Returning soldiers and military veterans don’t really hold much hope or trust in the military to help them with their mental health needs — especially suicidal thoughts — according to a new report. And why would they? The military is their employer. Would you feel comfortable talking to your bosses about all of your mental health issues? And not just mild stuff either, this is the serious depression, “I want to kill myself” stuff. Most of us would be extremely uncomfortable with such a conversation. We would be even more uncomfortable with such a conversation knowing it is being recorded in our work record, and will follow us around for the rest of our professional career. This is exactly what happens ... World of Psychology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4003292 Mon, 27 Sep 2010 16:36:28 +0100 4003292 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3999002&cid=t_184420_88_f&fid=39185&url=http%3A%2F%2Fedwinleap.com%2Fblog%2F%3Fp%3D1293 Elijah's weapon of choice for flashlight wielding intruders This morning I worked day shift.  To allow my wife and children a little more sleep in the pre-dawn stillness,  I poked around the house with a flashlight, gathering stuff and attempting not to fall over a cat on the dark stairs. While downstairs, putting on my shoes around 6:30, I heard tentative steps down the stairs.  I looked up to see Elijah, my 11-year-old son, walk into the dining room, eyes squinting…with a machete in his hand. ‘Uh, what’s up?’  I asked, hoping that he wasn’t having a dream of combat in which I would become the ‘black knight.’ ‘I wasn’t sure who was using a flashlight,’ he answered calmly. I hugged him and said, ‘I am so proud of you... edwinleap.com blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3999002 Sat, 25 Sep 2010 02:47:07 +0100 3999002 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3976488&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fp-ygwsIAFco%2F By Justin LoganI was privileged last night to get an advance look at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs’ new study on public opinion.  I was struck by several things. First, the report reflects a strong desire to get our own house in order.  Asked the question whether it “is more important at this time for the United States to fix problems at home or address challenges to the United States from abroad,” a stunning 91 percent selected the former, with only 9 percent pointing to the latter.  (In 2008 the numbers were 82-17.) That said, there is not as much appetite for cutting the defense budget as I would like to see: When asked whether defense spending should be expanded, kept about the same, or cut back, 43 percent of Americans prefer to keep spending about the sam... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3976488 Thu, 16 Sep 2010 15:36:59 +0100 3976488 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3929216&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FBp2yAZnzcZo%2F By David BoazI once went to another Washington think tank to hear an advertised lecture by David Friedman, “author and professor of law and economics at Santa Clara University.” The great libertarian author of The Machinery of Freedom, speaking at a liberal-establishment Washington think tank? Cool. So I showed up early, took a seat by the wall, and was crushingly disappointed to discover that the speaker was in fact some other David Friedman, who was decidedly no libertarian, and I was pinned in and couldn’t leave. They told me later that an intern got the wrong bio off the web. Always blame the intern. So anyway, I just wanted Cato-at-Liberty readers to notice that our new paper “Reforming Indigent Defense: How Free Market Principles Can Help to Fix a Broken Syst... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3929216 Thu, 02 Sep 2010 20:06:37 +0100 3929216 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3924888&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F7haUacb_mtQ%2F By Tim LynchWe know that most of the people arrested and prosecuted in our criminal courts are indigent.  We also know that indigent legal representation is scandalous in many places around the country.  What to do?  The conventional remedy to this problem has been a plea to spend more money on our overburdened public defender organizations.  However, a new Cato paper takes a fresh look at this subject and proposes an entirely new model for the delivery of indigent legal services — defense vouchers that will empower defendants to choose their own attorneys.  Authors Stephen Schulhofer and David Friedman explain how such a system could be implemented and why it can be expected to provide an effective cure for the major ills of indigent defense organization. From the Executive Su... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3924888 Wed, 01 Sep 2010 18:29:49 +0100 3924888 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3925054&cid=t_184420_136_f&fid=37846&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhealthinfoispower.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F09%2F01%2Fcall-to-action-protect-expand-u-s-federal-ovarian-cancer-research-funding%2F Do you live in AL, CA, HI, IL, IA, KS, KY, MD, MI, MO, NH, ND, PA, TX, UT, VT, WA or WI? If so, one of your Senators sits on the U.S. Senate Defense Appropriations subcommittee that determines how much funding is given to the Department of Defense Ovarian Cancer Research Program. Ask your [...] (Source: Libby's H*O*P*E*) Libby's H*O*P*E* blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3925054 Wed, 01 Sep 2010 17:42:46 +0100 3925054 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3907571&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36050&url=http%3A%2F%2Fblisstree.com%2Flive%2Four-5-favorite-local-tv-commercials-from-childhood-%25e2%2580%2593-what-are-yours%2F Somebody stop us: We cannot stop searching for our favorite cheesy local/regional TV commercials from our childhood hometowns. You know, the ones with really high-quality production values, classically-trained actors, and demure used car salesmen that only you and the people you grew up with remember? We bet a slew of your own nostalgic TV ads will come to mind if you really sit and think about them. (Do this while at work – we did!) And when you find those old-timey commercials on YouTube, paste the link in the comments section below, along with any memories you’d like to share, and we’ll publish your retro hometown TV commercial on Blisstree! To put you in the proper old-school mood, here are 5 TV gems spanning the country – from the good ol’ days of Blisstree staff... Breastfeeding 1-2-3 blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3907571 Thu, 26 Aug 2010 16:25:29 +0100 3907571 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3902887&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F7cw2y1Jr3nI%2F The Washington Post reports today on an article coming out in Foreign Affairs in which Deputy Defense Secretary William J. Lynn III reveals a successful 2008 intrusion into military computer systems. Malicious code placed on a thumb drive by a foreign intelligence agency uploaded itself onto a network run by the U.S. military’s Central Command and propagated itself across a number of domains. The Post article says that Lynn “puts the Homeland Security Department on notice that although it has the ‘lead’ in protecting the dot.gov and dot.com domains, the Pentagon — which includes the ultra-secret National Security Agency — should support efforts to protect critical industry networks.” The failure of the military to protect its own systems creat... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3902887 Wed, 25 Aug 2010 11:30:00 +0100 3902887 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3880833&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FO5CVs43bK3M%2F On Saturday the Washington Post published a letter I wrote chastising their editorialists for inventing defense budget cuts: The Aug. 12 editorial “Mr. Gates’s rough cuts” and David S. Broder’s Aug. 12 column, “Gates’s budget warning shot,” applauded the defense secretary for his plans to cut spending even though the plans will do no such thing. As Mr. Broder wrote, Mr. Gates proposed closing the U.S. Joint Forces Command and shedding contractors and generals in the Pentagon’s employ. But neither piece noted that these proposals are part of a plan to shift some Pentagon spending from administration to force structure — not to cut total spending. The impetus for the cost-shifting plan is the White House’s reluctance to increase Pen... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3880833 Tue, 17 Aug 2010 20:03:56 +0100 3880833 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3865250&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FW0v93u2pNHc%2F By Christopher PrebleKudos to the Financial Times (subscription may be required) for figuring out what most other journalists and editorial writers haven’t seemed to grasp concerning Robert Gates’s economy initiative at the Pentagon. [H]is aim is not to cut the overall budget radically; it is merely to achieve savings in the military bureaucracy and thus, against a background of broader fiscal constraint, protect spending on new weapons and other outlays.  (my emphasis) The reforms in and of themselves are “commendable,” the FT notes, but they don’t amount to very much in the grand scheme, and they therefore do not go nearly far enough. Indeed, as I and others have noted, U.S. military spending will continue to rise if Bob Gates gets his way. This isn&#8217... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3865250 Fri, 13 Aug 2010 18:45:25 +0100 3865250 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3854511&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F2O3tV3JtrjA%2F By Christopher PrebleDefense Secretary Robert Gates has again made headlines with a proposal to slow the growth of the Pentagon’s budget — already higher than at any point since World War II — by cutting overhead, waste and a top-heavy command structure. The proposed shuttering of Joint Forces Command (Jif-Com) has elicited most of the press attention today, and prompted an impassioned plea from Virginia politicians, including Gov. Bob McDonnell, that the command remain open. Unhelpfully for Gov. McDonnell, outgoing Jif-Com head James Mattis (who will assume the title of CENTCOM), reportedly supports Gates’s decision. But this isn’t the first time that opportunistic politicians have latched onto defense spending as a way to sprinkle economic benefits to their... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3854511 Tue, 10 Aug 2010 14:52:57 +0100 3854511 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3816386&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FO8CPlyKoLGg%2F By Christopher PrebleOver at National Journal’s National Security Experts blog, this week’s question focuses on the recently released Hadley-Perry “alternative QDR.” Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. of NationalJournal.com asks: The U.S. military is already unaffordable — and yet it needs to be larger to sustain America’s global leadership, especially in the face of a rising China. That’s the bottom line from a congressionally chartered bipartisan panel, co-chaired by Stephen Hadley, George W. Bush’s national security adviser, and William Perry, Bill Clinton’s Defense secretary. The report, released July 29, is the independent panel’s assessment of and commentary on the Pentagon’s own Quadrennial Defense Review, released earlier this ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3816386 Tue, 03 Aug 2010 17:21:29 +0100 3816386 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3798545&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FG8BQaaqVDIY%2F By Christopher PrebleDefense News today features a story that unintentionally provides an window into what is wrong with the Washington Foreign Policy Establishment (WFPE)— a group of supposedly smart people that has repeatedly failed to come up with a credible plan that may enable the United States to shed some of the burdens of global governance. Indeed, the key take away from a report to be released tomorrow (“The QDR in Perspective: Meeting America’s National Security Needs in the 21st Century”), is that we shouldn’t try to shed such burdens. This message is particularly curious given that even some long-time proponents of America-As-World-Government are beginning to rethink their positions. I wasn’t expecting much, but when I perused a draft that was... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3798545 Wed, 28 Jul 2010 17:44:18 +0100 3798545 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3764184&cid=t_184420_109_f&fid=34750&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpsychcentral.com%2Fblog%2Farchives%2F2010%2F07%2F18%2Farmy-suicides-hit-all-time-high%2F For the month of June, the U.S. Department of Defense reported late last week that the number of soldiers who took their own lives — those who committed suicide — was an astonishing 32 individuals, 21 of whom were on active duty (but only one-third of those on active duty were serving in either Iraq or Afghanistan). This corresponds to the ongoing record-setting of the number of suicides in the past year — 245 who died in 2009 and the 145 who have committed suicide already in 2010. At the rate of suicides so far this year, 2010 will exceed 2009 in suicides. Who does the Army blame for this rise in suicides? Why, the people who commit suicide, of course, and the very culture they work to instill from Day One in boot camp. Tim Embree of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans o... World of Psychology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3764184 Sun, 18 Jul 2010 17:30:39 +0100 3764184 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3753806&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F2DOL3wUwygM%2F By Christopher PrebleThe good people at the Stimson Center’s Budget Insight blog invited me to contribute a guest post discussing the Sustainable Defense Task Force report  Debt, Deficits, & Defense: A Way Forward. Here’s an excerpt: The most common response [to the report] has been some sympathy for our argument that military spending should be subjected to the same scrutiny that should be applied to other government spending. There are still a fair number of people, however, who share our concern about the deficit, but who counter “But I want a strong defense.” Who doesn’t? The task force report was written with a single consideration in mind: in what ways, and where, could we make cuts in military spending that would not undermine U.S. security? [...] A leading c... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3753806 Wed, 14 Jul 2010 12:33:04 +0100 3753806 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3703109&cid=t_184420_151_f&fid=35818&url=http%3A%2F%2Frecoveryissexy.com%2F10-alcoholic-myths-2%2F The alcoholic denies there is a problem in many statements to themselves and others. I have heard all of these statements and more by people who later decided they were alcoholic. "I’m not a real alcoholic. I haven’t missed a day’s work in five years." "Real alcoholics lose their jobs, houses and families. That hasn’t happened to me." "Drinking is part of the culture where I work." "I only drink because I’m under pressure at work." "I have a drink to escape from my partner’s nagging." "It’s not my fault I got into an accident. The other driver was going too fast." "I’ll stop drinking as soon as I get out of this relationship." "I’ll be fine as soon as I... Recovery Is Sexy.com blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3703109 Sun, 27 Jun 2010 17:38:00 +0100 3703109 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3699476&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FgvS3WnBFqk8%2F By Justin LoganJosef Joffe famously referred to the U.S. presence in Western Europe as “Europe’s pacifier.” The idea was that you stick the American pacifier in there and the *cough* recurring problem emanating from Europe goes away.  After the Cold War ended, and the official reason for the NATO alliance blew away as if in the wind, we never considered letting the alliance go with it.  That tells you something.  Instead of coming home, we pushed NATO “out of area” rather than allowing it to go “out of business.”  Christopher Layne argues that this was all by design.  U.S. policymakers never intended to allow Europe to establish its autonomy and worked diligently to ensure that efforts at autonomous European defense would fail.  They succeede... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3699476 Fri, 25 Jun 2010 16:38:04 +0100 3699476 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3665959&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F_1D6SgH6YJw%2F By David RittgersThe Heritage Foundation and National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) made a stir by announcing their joint report, Without Intent: How Congress is Eroding the Criminal Intent Requirement in Federal Law. The report highlights the growth of federal criminal provisions in the 109th Congress. Many criminal statutes are drafted without the traditional requirement of criminal intent. When there is no requirement that the government prove you “willfully” or “knowingly” broke the law, mistakes are treated the same as intentional criminality. Some laws are written so broadly that it is impossible for anyone to know what conduct is illegal. Criminal provisions are included in statutes that are never reviewed by the judiciary committees of either chamber of Co... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3665959 Tue, 15 Jun 2010 18:30:37 +0100 3665959 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3648481&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F4ZCAYfHGVlc%2F By Tim LynchJohn Lee still has his life and four children still have a father because Mr. Lee  had a handgun when three criminals tried to kill him and take his money. When John Q. Citizen takes out a gun and the criminals flee, reporters don’t consider the incident “news” (at least when there are no injuries)–so guns are typically on the evening news when they are used by criminals.  As a result of that skewed coverage, it is no wonder that many people have a negative view about firearms. On June 17, Cato will be hosting a forum about guns, crime, and self-defense.  Speakers include John Lott, Jeff Snyder, and Paul Helmke of the Brady Campaign. For related Cato scholarship, go here. (Source: Cato-at-liberty) Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3648481 Wed, 09 Jun 2010 18:37:17 +0100 3648481 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3625434&cid=t_184420_83_f&fid=34856&url=http%3A%2F%2Finsidesurgery.com%2F2010%2F06%2Fscientist-gina-solomon-detail-short-longterm-health-effects-bp-oil-spill%2F Natural Resources Defense Council’s Gina Solomon and the Environmental Protection Agencies Hugh Kaufman discuss the health risks accompanying the massive and still continuing BP oil spill, including exposure to volatile hydrocarbons such as benzene and contamination of the Gulf food chain. (Source: Inside Surgery) Inside Surgery blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3625434 Thu, 03 Jun 2010 02:51:26 +0100 3625434 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3621650&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FO96s-evLfTs%2F By Doug BandowJapanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has resigned, just eight months after leading his party to a landslide victory.  The Democratic Party of Japan meets Friday to replace him.  The finance minister, Naoto Kan, is the favorite, though nothing is certain.  The party is an amalgam of factions and the party secretary general, Ichiro Ozawa, who did the most to bring the DPJ to power, also is stepping down. Prime Minister Hatoyama was hit by a campaign scandal—a regular of Japanese politics.  But the most important cause of his resignation was his botched handling of American bases on the island of Okinawa. In early 1945 Okinawa became the first part of the Japanese homeland to fall as the U.S. closed in on imperial Japan.  Washington held onto the island after the war... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3621650 Wed, 02 Jun 2010 14:53:36 +0100 3621650 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3607479&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FjRZQEtb54Ec%2F By Christopher PrebleThe key theme that the Obama administration wants us to take away from the National Security Strategy (PDF) is “burden sharing.” The United States, the document explains, can no longer afford to be the world’s sole policeman. We need capable and willing partners to preserve global peace and prosperity. These are valid concerns. Unfortunately, the Obama administration lacks a vision for addressing them. Real change can only come from a fundamental reorientation of our current approach. We need a new grand strategy predicated on restraint both at home and abroad. Instead, for all the talk of new directions, the Obama administration has given us more of the same. In geopolitics, as in life, actions speak louder than words. So long as the United States sp... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3607479 Thu, 27 May 2010 19:01:04 +0100 3607479 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3577386&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fmvnx1vOBDkY%2F This report is indicative of a broad effort developing across the political spectrum to fix a federal criminal code that has become disconnected from traditional notions of punishing blameworthy conduct. Northwestern Law’s Searle Center on Law, Regulation and Economic Growth held its 2009 Judicial Symposium on Criminalization of Corporate Conduct. The Heritage Foundation is hosting an event highlighting the findings of Without Intent on Monday, May 24 that can also be viewed online. (Source: Cato-at-liberty) Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3577386 Tue, 18 May 2010 18:34:19 +0100 3577386 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3569789&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FF2BE60TOrlc%2F By Justin Logan…who needs conservative editorial pages? It’s rather sad that the nation’s leading liberal editorial page dedicates an editorial to Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ milquetoast call for less-huge defense spending, but can only muster dissembling and throat-clearing. The Times mentions the “feeding frenzy at the Pentagon budget trough” since 9/11.  It notes that defense spending has roughly doubled in the last decade.  It admits that the recent QDR “failed to start making the hard choices” about defense spending. But there’s almost nothing of substance in the Times editorial about what the United States should be doing to its military budget.  Nonsensically, it argues that as the U.S. gets out of Iraq and Afghanistan, &#... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3569789 Mon, 17 May 2010 15:18:10 +0100 3569789 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3552223&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FM2hMfdwzPes%2F By Benjamin H. FriedmanDwight D. Eisenhower The Secretary of Defense gave a good speech over the weekend at the Eisenhower library.  Gates used the occasion to evoke Eisenhower and call for discipline in defense spending. But he didn’t really mean it. The speech makes excellent points about how our military’s size long ago ceased to have anything to do with our potential enemies. He pointed out that the non-war defense budget has grown by about half since September 11 and that country’s current fiscal circumstance means that that growth has got to slow. But the speech shows no indication that Gates wants to cut defense spending. It isn’t even clear that he has changed his view that defense spending should grow by about 2% annually no matter what happens in the w... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3552223 Mon, 10 May 2010 20:06:05 +0100 3552223 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3542580&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F9oQlipCMsEk%2F By Justin LoganWashington, DC is a company town, and the company is the federal government.  Between the executive branch, the Congress, the Supreme Court and all the rent-seekers and hangers-on that come to court power, the city is a veritable petri dish that breeds and nurtures the worst human impulses.  Some Cato people live here, too. Local politics in DC is so dominated by Democrats that the Republican Party in DC is a perennial butt of jokes.  Between its role as the seat of the federal government and the Democratic Party’s Turkmenbashi-level control of local government, it is a city that conservatives love to hate. Across the river in Virginia, by contrast, there are lots of Republicans, and they are still able to compete against the Democrats statewide.  Lots of Republica... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3542580 Thu, 06 May 2010 21:13:15 +0100 3542580 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3533949&cid=t_184420_113_f&fid=38236&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.healthcareitnews.com%2Fblog%2Fnhin-direct-getting-health-internet-finally-0 I've been spending a lot of time involved in several Work Groups of the NHIN Direct Project, being run by ONC/HHS. The Project is aimed at developing secure, affordable, health data exchange over the Internet so more physicians can participate in Meaningful Use. (Source: Healthcare IT News Blog) Healthcare IT News Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3533949 Wed, 05 May 2010 13:19:40 +0100 3533949 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3515337&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FqIPxW_7tQLc%2F By John SamplesEd Morrissey kindly mentioned The Struggle to Limit Government and responds to the advice for Tea Partiers in my video. Morrissey says: I don’t think it’s accurate to say that some Tea Partiers “like” big government; it’s more like some aren’t enthusiastic about dismantling as much of the federal government as others, especially the more doctrinaire libertarians. In the video I noted that polls showed a majority of the people who identify with the Tea Party movement also thought the entitlement programs were worth their cost. My colleague, Jagadeesh Gokhale, has estimated that paying for current entitlements would require 9 percent of GNP in perpetuity. This is unlikely. Entitlements will have to be changed since too much has been promised. People who thi... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3515337 Wed, 28 Apr 2010 20:58:36 +0100 3515337 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3508455&cid=t_184420_151_f&fid=35818&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FRecoveryIsSexycom%2F%7E3%2FdbHOGtT78vE%2F Denial The alcoholic denies there is a problem in many statements to themselves and others. I have heard all of these statements and more by people who later decided they were alcoholic. “I’m not a real alcoholic. I haven’t missed a day’s work in five years.” “Real alcoholics lose their jobs, houses and families. That hasn’t happened to me.” “Drinking is part of the culture where I work.” “I only drink because I’m under pressure at work.” “I have a drink to escape from my partner’s nagging.” “It’s not my fault I got into an accident. The other driver was going too fast.” “I’ll stop drinking as soon as I get out of this relationship.” “I’ll be fine... Recovery Is Sexy.com blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3508455 Sun, 25 Apr 2010 13:03:17 +0100 3508455 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3456669&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FnkONjUE--qc%2F By Timothy B. LeeI’m saddened to hear of the retirement of Justice John Paul Stevens. Whatever you might say about his jurisprudence in other areas, one place where Justice Stevens really shined was in his defense of high-tech freedom. Justice Stevens wrote the majority opinion in some of the most important high-tech cases of the last four decades. In other cases, he wrote important (and in some cases prescient) dissents. Through it all, he was a consistent voice for freedom of expression and the freedom to innovate. His accomplishments include: Free speech: Justice Stevens wrote the majority decision in ACLU v. Reno, the decision that struck down the infamous Communications Decency Act and clearly established that the First Amendment applies to the Internet. In the 13 years since t... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3456669 Fri, 09 Apr 2010 20:57:19 +0100 3456669 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3407961&cid=t_184420_139_f&fid=38879&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.virology.ws%2F013_W3310_10.wmv Download: .wmv (327 MB) | .mp4 (90 MB) Visit the virology W3310 home page for a complete list of course resources. (Source: virology blog) virology blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3407961 Fri, 26 Mar 2010 02:45:33 +0100 3407961 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3378447&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fskg02cxyeKo%2F By John SamplesM. Todd Henderson of the University of Chicago Law School has a brief but important essay making the case for Citizens United.  As they say, read the whole thing. (Source: Cato-at-liberty) Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3378447 Thu, 18 Mar 2010 16:23:11 +0100 3378447 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3346447&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FWSFHS9C0PS8%2F By Christopher PreblePaul Starobin at the National Journal’s Security Experts Blog has kicked off a spirited debate surrounding Europe’s military capabilities (or lack thereof). The jumping off point in the discussion is Robert Gates’s speech to NATO officers last month, in which Gates lamented that: “The demilitarization of Europe — where large swaths of the general public and political class are averse to military force and the risks that go with it — has gone from a blessing in the 20th century to an impediment to achieving real security and lasting peace in the 21st.” [Justin Logan blogged about this here.] Starobin asks: “Can America Count On Europe Anymore?” Is Gates right? What exactly does “the demilitarization of Europe&#... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3346447 Mon, 08 Mar 2010 20:23:24 +0100 3346447 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3322341&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FiVLwEQO_B2Y%2F By David BoazIn this NPR story Nina Totenberg gives both sides their say.  But twice she refers to the people advocating Second Amendment rights as “gun advocates” (and once as “gun rights advocates”). That’s not the language NPR uses in other such cases. In 415 NPR stories on abortion, I found only one reference to “abortion advocates,” in 2005. There are far more references, hundreds more, to “abortion rights,” “reproductive rights,” and “women’s rights.” And certainly abortion-rights advocates would insist that they are not “abortion advocates,” they are advocates for the right of women to choose whether or not to have an abortion. NPR grants them the respect of characterizing them the way t... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3322341 Tue, 02 Mar 2010 15:54:10 +0100 3322341 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3318481&cid=t_184420_113_f&fid=38236&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.healthcareitnews.com%2Fblog%2Fonc-himss-communities-connecting-nhin This week, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) is sponsoring a series of demonstrations at the HIMSS Interoperability Showcase that illustrate innovative efforts to achieve progress toward secure, nationwide health information exchange across providers and jurisdictions. (Source: Healthcare IT News Blog) Healthcare IT News Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3318481 Mon, 01 Mar 2010 14:27:45 +0100 3318481 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3311784&cid=t_184420_113_f&fid=38236&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.healthcareitnews.com%2Fblog%2Fprogram-cancellations-show-system-can-work Given the number of reports, studies, and analyses that are produced by or for the federal government each year, it’s easy to wonder how much of the time and resources spent assessing policies and programs actually yield tangible results.  But then along comes a story that reminds us that, sometimes, the system works the way it’s supposed to. (Source: Healthcare IT News Blog) Healthcare IT News Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3311784 Fri, 26 Feb 2010 13:54:47 +0100 3311784 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3306829&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F1Z60nZj1FKM%2F By Justin LoganOn last Sunday’s Defense News TV, I suggested that although we are officially supposed to have zero troops in Iraq by the end of next year, there was a real prospect that we might have a harder time getting out than most analysts are suggesting.  This suggestion was roundly pooh-poohed, and I’m aware that it’s a minority view.  An extreme minority view. Monday, though, Gen. Odierno remarked that the withdrawal could be slowed.  Although we’re supposed to be down under 50K troops by the end of this summer, “I have contingency plans that I’ve briefed to the chain of command this week that we could execute if we run into problems,” Gen. Odierno said. “We’re prepared to execute those.” The commander said he would con... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3306829 Wed, 24 Feb 2010 18:31:17 +0100 3306829 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3251406&cid=t_184420_151_f&fid=35818&url=http%3A%2F%2Frecoveryissexy.com%2Fundoing-denial-is-first-step%2F Denial is distorted reality Breaking through denial is alcoholic’s, addict’s first step in recovery Looking in the mirror and accepting what we see can be one of the hardest things we ever do. It’s especially hard when the image staring us in the face is painful or doesn’t fit with how we want to see ourselves. Sometimes, the truth is so painful that we avoid it at any cost. Refusing to accept a painful reality that alters the perception of ourselves is a psychological defense called denial. As human beings, we may use denial to protect ourselves from knowledge, insight or awareness that threatens our self-esteem, mental or physical health, or security. The term “denial” is often used in the chemical dependency field to describe people who deny substanc... Recovery Is Sexy.com blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3251406 Mon, 08 Feb 2010 08:19:29 +0100 3251406 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3243774&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FFOHwFBdaL9s%2F By Tad DeHavenSenator Kent Conrad (D-ND) has a reputation for being a “deficit hawk.” But the bar is apparently so low in Washington that merely paying lip service to “fiscal responsibility” is enough to earn you the hawk title in the press. In reality, Conrad is a tax and spender as a story in today’s Wall Street Journal demonstrates. These examples illustrate Sen. Deficit Hawk’s commitment to deficit reduction and fiscal responsibility: “Like many in Congress, he is conflicted. He boasts a 23-year record of looking after North Dakota voters with ample farm subsidies, aid for drought-hit ranchers, defense spending and scores of pet projects. He has done little to help rein in Medicare and Social Security expenses—the U.S.’s biggest budget busters.” “He has bee... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3243774 Thu, 04 Feb 2010 21:17:42 +0100 3243774 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3239550&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FRzh6IhIoYQ0%2F By Christopher PrebleToday’s Politico includes an op ed that I co-authored with Heather Hurlburt of the National Security Network. It was the first time that the two of us collaborated, and I was very pleased with the end result. Most of the clever turns of phrase are Heather’s including the title, “The Wrong Manhood Test.” And I’m grateful to Harrison Moar and Charles Zakaib for helping me on Monday to sift through the gargantuan defense budget, and pull out the relevant facts. Heather and I don’t agree on everything. We faced off at Bloggingheads.tv several months ago to discuss my book, The Power Problem, and I’m sure that we’ll continue to spar from time to time in the future. But the bottom line from the op ed is this: …beca... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3239550 Thu, 04 Feb 2010 13:58:39 +0100 3239550 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3236087&cid=t_184420_150_f&fid=35777&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FPharmalot%2F%7E3%2F3FjQqgs_Rcw%2F Arizona is moving closer to excluding federally regulated research facilities from animal cruelty laws after a state Senate committee voted 4-to-3 in favor of a bill that would provide an exemption. The bill, 1159, would exclude both animal toxicology assessment and scientific experimentation, The Arizona Republic notes. You may recall that Covance, the big contract research organization, opened a facility in Arizona amid vociferous protest from animal rights groups (background). And Stephanie Nichols-Young, president of the Animal Defense League of Arizona, says Covance is lobbying in support of the bill. “Covance is new to our community and very different from the labs that have been in our state for decades,” she tells the paper. “Why would you give up this right for a... Pharmalot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3236087 Wed, 03 Feb 2010 12:41:34 +0100 3236087 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3235825&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FFpPteqLeVJ4%2F By Justin Logan“If the Department of Defense can’t figure out a way to defend the United States on a budget of more than half a trillion dollars a year, then our problems are much bigger than anything that can be cured by buying a few more ships and planes.” - Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Speech to Economic Club of Chicago, July 16, 2009 “The situation out there in the world doesn’t change and the world is getting more dangerous rather than less so.  The Defense Department certainly spends a lot of money but if you look at where the Defense Department is today it certainly is within historical norms.” - Defense Secretary Robert Gates, responding to suggestions that his new $741 billion budget should be cut, February 2, 2010 (Source: Cato-at-liberty) Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3235825 Wed, 03 Feb 2010 00:40:15 +0100 3235825 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3231452&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fd4QcrS6rXO8%2F By Chris EdwardsThe chart below shows federal spending in three component parts over the last five decades. It includes Obama’s proposed spending in 2011. Here are a few thoughts on the recent spending trends: Defense: In the post-9/11 years, defense spending bumped up to a higher plateau of around 4 percent of GDP. But now we have jumped to an even higher level of around 4.9 percent of GDP. Interest: The Federal Reserve’s easy money policies reduced federal interest payments in recent years. That is coming to an end. Obama’s budget shows that interest payments will start rising rapidly next year and hit 3 percent of GDP by 2015. And that’s an optimistic projection. Nondefense: This category includes all other federal spending. After a steady decline during... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3231452 Mon, 01 Feb 2010 22:05:55 +0100 3231452 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3231454&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FsgZXq8Cj3YA%2F By Christopher PrebleAs usual, Ben Friedman beat me to the punch regarding the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) (.pdf), and, as usual again, he nails it. I do see some value in the exercise, however. So let’s not “forget it” just yet. By constructing a rationale to justify our existing defense posture, and providing a blueprint for force planning into the future, the QDR can be particularly useful for taking on some sacred cows. For example, the proposals to cancel the CG(X) cruiser, shut down production of the C-17 and the F-22, restructuring the DDG-1000 destroyer and the Future Combat Systems program, are sure to rile up members of Congress who continue to treat the defense budget as just another vehicle for dispensing pork barrel goodies to a handful of constituent... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3231454 Mon, 01 Feb 2010 21:33:10 +0100 3231454 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3227723&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FAakFUJB6dXE%2F By Benjamin H. FriedmanThere is a lot not to like about the Quadrennial Defense Review, which comes out today (the National Journal posted a leaked copy Friday). Like past QDRs, this one uses vague, trendy ideas about international relations to inflate threats and justify our massive defense budget. As usual, we hear the evidence-free claims that non-state actors are getting more powerful and that the world is getting more complex and unpredictable (“change continues to accelerate”). I believe that states are hanging onto or even gaining power relative to other sorts of social organizations and that the world is no less predictable than it was in 1900 or 1950. The QDR also says that climate change is a national security problem. That’s a popular line, which as near as I can tell is a... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3227723 Mon, 01 Feb 2010 13:49:47 +0100 3227723 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3185313&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FEz0MCtN_mIk%2F By Jim HarperLast week, President Obama unveiled a plan for something he called a ”Financial Crisis Responsibility Fee,” to be fleshed out in his forthcoming budget proposal. He will seek to have some set of financial services providers pay money to the government as comeuppance for the recent financial crisis and government involvement in trying to remedy it. The naming of the “Financial Crisis Responsibility Fee” is a fairly conspicuous attempt to avoid calling it a tax. (My colleague David Boaz points out the sheer number of taxes the Obama administration and its allies are considering.) But it’s fairly clear that this thing is, indeed, a tax. The galaxy of government revenues has a number of different planets—taxes, fees, penalties, and a few... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3185313 Tue, 19 Jan 2010 16:06:54 +0100 3185313 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3197553&cid=t_184420_83_f&fid=34856&url=http%3A%2F%2Finsidesurgery.com%2F2010%2F01%2Fportable-israeli-hospital-functioning-haiti%2F The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) have transported, setup, and staffed a fully functional portable hospital in Haiti, one of the only operating surgical suites in the earthquake ravaged area. Deputy commander Danny Moshayov details what it took to make it happen. (Source: Inside Surgery) Inside Surgery blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3197553 Mon, 18 Jan 2010 00:08:09 +0100 3197553 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3136548&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=34872&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.blisstree.com%2Fhealthbolt%2Ftarantulas-may-be-danger-to-your-eyes%2F Pet stores may want to consider posting signs near their tarantulas: Warning! Caring for your tarantula may be dangerous for your eyes. Of course, there are some people who feel that tarantula-owners may need to worry about more than just their eyes, but to each his or her own, right? Part of owning a tarantula means handling it usually. While it may seem harmless, one man learned that this isn’t always so. According to an article in the most recent issue of the journal, Lancet, a 29-year-old tarantula owner in the United Kingdome sought medical help after having a red, watery eye that was sensitive to light for the previous three weeks. An ophthalmologist found tiny hair-like substances in the man’s cornea, some of which were much too small to remove, even with the tiniest fo... Healthbolt blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3136548 Fri, 01 Jan 2010 10:22:01 +0100 3136548 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3096827&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FXKut6CftOp8%2F By Justin LoganForeign Policy magazine performs an important public service, publishing a compendium of the “top 10 worst predictions for 2009.” My favorite? “If we do nothing, I can guarantee you that within a decade, a communist Chinese regime that hates democracy and sees America as its primary enemy will dominate the tiny country of Panama, and thus dominate the Panama Canal, one of the world‘s most important strategic points.“ —Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.), Dec. 7, 1999 Rohrabacher made this alarming prediction during a debate on the U.S. handover of the Panama Canal. His fellow hawk, retired Adm. Thomas Moorer, even warned that China could sneak missiles into Panama and use the country as a staging ground for an attack on the United States. Well, ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3096827 Thu, 17 Dec 2009 16:01:10 +0100 3096827 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3056744&cid=t_184420_113_f&fid=38236&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.healthcareitnews.com%2Fblog%2Fbeacon-communities-proving-ground-health-it As a physician, I’m trained to rely on proven methods and seek evidence that new approaches to care will lead to better outcomes.  The new Beacon Community Program, announced today and funded at the level of $235 million through the HITECH Act, is designed with that approach in mind.  This program aims to further strengthen advanced health information exchange capabilities established wi (Source: Healthcare IT News Blog) Healthcare IT News Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3056744 Thu, 03 Dec 2009 17:59:17 +0100 3056744 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3044730&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fuw-CyuxtMzo%2F There are two things that President Obama’s plan won’t do: win the war, or end the war. While all Americans hope that the mission in Afghanistan will turn out well, the U.S. military’s counterinsurgency doctrine says that stabilizing a country the size of Afghanistan would require far more troops than the most wild-eyed hawk has proposed: about 600,000 troops. An additional 30 to 40,000 troops isn’t just a case of too little, too late; it holds almost no prospect of winning the war. Accordingly, this likely won’t be the last prime-time address in which the president proposes sending many more troops to Afghanistan; my greatest fear is that this is only the first of many. But we shouldn’t just commit still more troops. President Obama should have recogniz... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3044730 Tue, 01 Dec 2009 15:55:33 +0100 3044730 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3039764&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FdB8uKN8QnFo%2F I caught a lot of flack from my Republican friends for my post blaming the FY2009 deficit on Bush instead of Obama. Well, I must be a glutton for punishment because I can’t resist jumping (albeit reluctantly) to Obama’s defense again. I’m venting my spleen for two reason. First, FoxNews.com posted a story headlined “Obama Shatters Spending Record for First-Year Presidents” and noted that: President Obama has shattered the budget record for first-year presidents — spending nearly double what his predecessor did when he came into office and far exceeding the first-year tabs for any other U.S. president in history. In fiscal 2009 the federal government spent $3.52 trillion …That fiscal year covered the last three-and-a-half months of George W. Bush&#8... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3039764 Sun, 29 Nov 2009 16:15:53 +0100 3039764 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3008065&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FU6-RXe1Qh5M%2F USA Today reports that retired military officers join the boards of directors of, or become employees of, defense contractors and take home big bags of money doing so.  Not surprising.  At the same time, the paper reports, lots of them are being paid by the Pentagon to be “senior mentors” of their former colleagues. Not being government employees, but rather independent contractors, these folks aren’t subject to government ethics rules.  To take one example, as chairman of BAE Systems, Gen. Anthony Zinni is clearing almost a million a year, in addition to his $129,000 per year government pension.  In addition to all that, the Pentagon pays him about $2,000 per day to “mentor” people at DOD. As the article points out, information is almost invaluable to the... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3008065 Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:53:08 +0100 3008065 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3008071&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FApisT5K9bx8%2F Great news – for a change!  A Mississippi court has ordered a new trial for Cory Maye. When Cato author Radley Balko was preparing his report on violent, no-knock, drug raids, he discovered the case of Cory Maye, who was then on death row for murdering a police officer.  On closer inspection, Radley thought the shooting looked like self-defense, not murder.  At Maye’s initial trial, he had lousy legal representation.  Thanks to Radley’s writings about the case, Maye secured top notch lawyers for his appeal.  With a new trial, Maye now stands a very good chance of getting out of prison altogether.  Congratulations to Radley Balko! Previous coverage here. (Source: Cato-at-liberty) Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3008071 Wed, 18 Nov 2009 21:27:47 +0100 3008071 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2985033&cid=t_184420_150_f&fid=35777&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FPharmalot%2F%7E3%2FX4LCGvmila0%2F Ben Cardin, a Maryland Democrat, has asked the Pentagon for info on how many troops in war zones have been prescribed antidepressants while they were deployed. Cardin sent a letter Tuesday to US Department of Defense Secretary Robert Gates expressing concern about how antidepressants are being administered troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Cardin wants to determine if the Defense Department is prescribing antidepressants appropriately and is concerned about any connection between the meds and suicide rates among troops. In October, for instance, 16 active-duty US soldiers killed themselves, bringing the total number of active-duty suicides in 2009 to 134. At this rate, the number of 2009 suicides will eclipse last year’s total of 140 – the highest yearly number of suicides in Army histor... Pharmalot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2985033 Thu, 12 Nov 2009 13:50:53 +0100 2985033 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2981059&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fh4X6tW4plBo%2F Justin Logan beat me to the punch, but Robert Kagan and Dan Blumenthal’s op-ed in the Washington Post warrants more than just one comment. Kagan and Blumenthal fret that the Obama administration’s policy of “strategic reassurance” is sure to fail. Aimed at encouraging Russia and China, especially, to cooperate with the United States in dealing with a number of common threats, the two predict that the policy will succeed only in making “American allies nervous.” Maybe that wouldn’t be such a bad thing. Not that we should go around making our allies nervous just for the heck of it, but I worry that our allies have grown, well, too comfortable with the current state of affairs in which American taxpayers and American troops bear a disproportionate ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2981059 Tue, 10 Nov 2009 20:32:27 +0100 2981059 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2970197&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FbtuLNttYRlw%2F Over at Downsizing Government, we focused on failures in the following departments this week: Commerce: corporate welfare in Ohio Defense: cost overruns in the Pentagon’s space programs Energy: central planners gamble with taxpayer money HUD: subsidizing private firms to operate public housing isn’t a solution Also, dubious stimulus projects point to a need to return to fiscal federalism. (Source: Cato-at-liberty) Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2970197 Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:27:44 +0100 2970197 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2963078&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fx0Xb3dRA9ys%2F Via Secrecy News, “JASON”—a unit of defense contractor the MITRE Corporation—has reported to the Department of Defense on the weakness of data mining for predicting or discovering inchoate terrorist attacks. “[I]t is simply not possible to validate (evaluate) predictive models of rare events that have not occurred, and unvalidated models cannot be relied upon,” says the report. In December 2006, Jeff Jonas and I published a paper making the case that predictive modeling won’t discover rare events like terrorism. The paper, Effective Counterterrorism and the Limited Role of Predictive Data Mining, was featured prominently in a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing early the next year. Privacy gives way to appropriate security measures, as the Fourth Am... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2963078 Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:24:23 +0100 2963078 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2931032&cid=t_184420_109_f&fid=34750&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpsychcentral.com%2Fblog%2Farchives%2F2009%2F10%2F27%2F5-emotional-vampires-and-how-to-combat-them%2F In the spirit of Halloween, I thought you’d all appreciate some vampire talk. In her new book, “Emotional Freedom,” UCLA psychiatrist Judith Orloff identifies five kinds of vampires that are lurking around and can zap our energy if we’re not careful. Here is an excerpt adapted from her book. Emotional vampires are lurking everywhere and wear many different disguises–from needy relatives to workplace bullies. Whether they do so intentionally or not, these people can make us feel overwhelmed, depressed, defensive, angry, and wiped out. Without the self-defense strategies to fend them off, victims of emotional vampires sometimes develop unhealthy behaviors and symptoms, such as overeating, isolating, mood swings, or feeling fatigued. Here are five types of emotio... World of Psychology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2931032 Tue, 27 Oct 2009 12:03:06 +0100 2931032 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2923436&cid=t_184420_136_f&fid=37846&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhealthinfoispower.wordpress.com%2F2009%2F10%2F23%2Fovarian-cancer-research-funding-slashed-in-half-take-action-call-your-u-s-congressman-senators-today%2F As a result of a recent U.S. Senate mark-up, the funding for the Department of Defense Ovarian Cancer Research Program (DOD OCRP) has been slashed in half from $20 million to $10 million. Research conducted under the DOD OCRP program is critical because it is solely dedicated to ovarian cancer. … Please help us [...] (Source: Libby's H*O*P*E*) Libby's H*O*P*E* blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2923436 Fri, 23 Oct 2009 17:31:11 +0100 2923436 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2923240&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FCp8JWfcCBP0%2F Yesterday Congress passed the $680 billion FY 2010Defense Authorization Bill, which authorizes the largest such budget since the end of World War II. If, as is all but certain, President Obama signs the legislation, he will have failed to halt the inexorable growth in military spending, and he will signal to American taxpayers that they should expect more of the same. What’s worse, most of this money is not geared to defending America. Rather, it encourages other countries to free-ride on the United States instead of taking prudent steps to defend themselves. The defense bill represents only part of our military spending. The appropriations bill moving through Congress governing veterans affairs, military construction and other agencies totals $133 billion, while the massive Department ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2923240 Fri, 23 Oct 2009 16:24:40 +0100 2923240 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2898921&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FaLvOQkVlIs0%2F Last week, I wrote a piece for Reason in which I took a close look at the USA PATRIOT Act’s “lone wolf” provision—set to expire at the end of the year, though almost certain to be renewed—and argued that it should be allowed to lapse. Originally, I’d planned to survey the whole array of authorities that are either sunsetting or candidates for reform, but ultimately decided it made more sense to give a thorough treatment to one than trying to squeeze an inevitably shallow gloss on four or five complex areas of law into the same space. But the Internets are infinite, so I’ve decided I’d turn the Reason piece into Part I of a continuing series on PATRIOT powers.  In this edition: Section 206, roving wiretap authority. The idea behind a roving wiretap s... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2898921 Thu, 15 Oct 2009 20:58:07 +0100 2898921 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2858618&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FsRlDB2iw6f0%2F In a profile of Virginia Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Creigh Deeds, the Washington Post tells us about the grandfather from whom he got his unusual first name — and his interest in political power: Creigh Tyree mattered. While serving as chairman of the Bath County Democrats, during the Depression, Tyree’s house was the first private home in the county to receive electricity from the federal Rural Electrification Act, proof of the power of government, he told his grandson. Or at least proof of the practice of government. And that is in fact the lesson that young Creigh learned: Watching the elderly man work the circuit of county shops and farms, the boy saw the power of political maneuvering, the influence it brought a man, the way it enabled the well-connected to pick up a... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2858618 Sun, 04 Oct 2009 17:57:13 +0100 2858618 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2855688&cid=t_184420_113_f&fid=38236&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.healthcareitnews.com%2Fblog%2Fnhin-new-health-internet Chilmark has not been a big fan of the National Health Information Network (NHIN) concept. It was, and in large part still is, a top heavy federal government effort to create a nationwide infrastructure to facilitate the exchange of clinical information. A high, lofty and admirable goal, but one that is far too in front of where the market is today.  The NHIN is like putting in an interstate highway system (something that did not happen until Eisenhower came to office) when we are still traveling by horse and buggy. (Source: Healthcare IT News Blog) Healthcare IT News Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2855688 Fri, 02 Oct 2009 13:34:34 +0100 2855688 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2842509&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FfWYXSWNnhZo%2F There have been some interesting writings coming out of AEI’s new Center for Defense Studies recently.  On Friday, Daniel Blumenthal offered some thoughts on China.  In the course of making the case that Chinese leaders should realize that we are not trying to contain China, he wrote the following: If countries acted in accordance with rational actor theories of political science, the Chinese would be pretty well assured that we are not going to contain it. We have made clear across administrations that we welcome China’s rise as a great power and urge it to act as a responsible one. But countries do not act in accordance with political science theories. Later in the piece, he wrote the following: China is not the only country that is rising. So is India. But we do not worry abou... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2842509 Mon, 28 Sep 2009 21:57:39 +0100 2842509 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2814396&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FSvVVRvhQsdI%2F In 1977, county attorney David Richter and assistant county attorney Joseph Hrvol worked side by side with police to investigate and “solve” the notorious murder of a former police officer in Pottawattamie County, Iowa. The prosecutors fabricated evidence and used it to charge and convict Curtis McGhee and Terry Harrington, sending them to prison for 25 years. After the convictions were overturned for prosecutorial misconduct, McGhee and Harrington sued the county and prosecutors. The defendants in that civil suit invoked the absolute immunity generally afforded prosecutors to try to escape liability. After the Eighth Circuit ruled against them, the Supreme Court agreed to review the case. On Friday, Cato joined the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and the ACLU ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2814396 Mon, 21 Sep 2009 13:58:15 +0100 2814396 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2803888&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F21p5UjsSTFk%2F The Obama administration has been touting its wasteful “stimulus” package as the answer to the recession.  Now that Uncle Sam has started his spending binge, John Cogan, John Taylor, and Volker Wieland assess the result.  Their conclusion:  for all of the money spent, the effort wasn’t much of a stimulus. They write in the Wall Street Journal: Direct evidence of an impact by government spending can be found in 1.8 of the 5.4 percentage-point improvement from the first to second quarter of this year. However, more than half of this contribution was due to defense spending that was not part of the stimulus package. Of the entire $787 billion stimulus package, only $4.5 billion went to federal purchases and $17.7 billion to state and local purchases in the second quarte... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2803888 Thu, 17 Sep 2009 13:40:10 +0100 2803888 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2803893&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FOcSb6u6tsWM%2F Andrew C. McCarthy has an article up  at National Review criticizing a recent decision by Obama administration officials to improve the detention procedures in Bagram, Afghanistan. McCarthy calls the decision an example of pandering to a “despotic” judiciary that is imposing its will on a war that should be run by the political branches. McCarthy’s essay is factually misleading, ignores the history of wartime detention in counterterrorism and counterinsurgency, and encourages the President to ignore national security decisions coming out of the federal courts. More details after the jump. McCarthy is Factually Misleading McCarthy begins by criticizing a decision by District Judge John Bates to allow three detainees in Bagram, Afghanistan, to file habeas corpus petitions testing the... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2803893 Wed, 16 Sep 2009 19:42:23 +0100 2803893 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2778394&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FcIe63u8Z0B4%2F I’ll confess one of the arguments that I’ve never understood is the claim that the U.S. “abandoned” Afghanistan after aiding the Mujahadeen in the latter’s battle against the Soviet Union.  Yet Secretary of Defense Robert Gates apparently is the latest proponent of this view. Reports the Washington Post: Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said in an interview broadcast this week that the United States would not repeat the mistake of abandoning Afghanistan, vowing that “both Afghanistan and Pakistan can count on us for the long term.” Just what does he believe we should have done?  Obviously, the Afghans didn’t want us to try to govern them.  Any attempt to impose a regime on them through Kabul would have met the same resistance that defea... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2778394 Wed, 09 Sep 2009 12:39:15 +0100 2778394 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2766072&cid=t_184420_109_f&fid=34750&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpsychcentral.com%2Fblog%2Farchives%2F2009%2F09%2F04%2Fwhat-makes-us-happy-my-interview-with-joshua-wolf-shenk%2F In June of this year, Joshua Wolf Shenk published the fascinating essay “What Makes Us Happy?” in The Atlantic. It was riveting. Joshua spent about a month in the file room of the Harvard Study of Adult Development hoping to learn the secret of happiness. The project is one of the longest-running and probably the most exhaustive longitudinal studies of mental and physical well-being in history. Basically, for 72 years researchers at Harvard have been following 268 men who entered college in the late 1930s–following them through war, career, marriage and divorce, parenthood and grandparenthood, and old age. A brilliant man named George Vaillant has directed the study for 40-plus years, compiling and processing all the information. So what did Joshua learn? What makes for ... World of Psychology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2766072 Fri, 04 Sep 2009 12:58:48 +0100 2766072 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2630053&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FUIFag96H7DQ%2F As I have written previously, President Obama and the members of Congress who voted to kill funding for the F-22 did the right thing. The Washington Post reports: The Senate voted Tuesday to kill the nation’s premier fighter-jet program, embracing by a 58 to 40 margin the argument of President Obama and his top military advisers that more F-22s are not needed for the nation’s defense and would be a costly drag on the Pentagon’s budget in an era of small wars and counterinsurgency efforts. While this vote marks a step in the right direction, the fight isn’t over. The F-22’s supporters in the House inserted additional monies in the defense authorization bill, and the differences will need to be reconciled in conference. But the vote for the Levin-McCain amendme... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2630053 Wed, 22 Jul 2009 14:34:13 +0100 2630053 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2605952&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FncNKyS6AZqw%2F Since the mid-1990s, the Defense Department has been legally required to review its strategy and force structure every four years, producing what’s called the Quadrennial Defense Review. The result has been a series of vacuous documents that commingle vague, unsubstantiated claims about great historical shifts underway (think Tom Friedman but without the empirical rigor) with threat inflation. There is no evidence that these documents have produced much beyond wasted time and effort. Naturally, the Department of Homeland Security decided to produce a quadrennial homeland security review, which is underway. Last week, ForeignPolicy.com reported that the State Department will get in on the act with a Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review.  Apparently grand strategy documents ha... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2605952 Wed, 15 Jul 2009 12:36:04 +0100 2605952 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2556077&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F9TTMpQ8BT-I%2F The Obama administration has just carried out one of its standard rituals — choosing a new commander of NATO.  But why are we still in NATO? Reports the New York Times: When Adm. James G. Stavridis took over the military’s Southern Command in late 2006, his French was excellent but he spoke no Spanish. Not content to rely on interpreters, he put himself on a crash course to learn the language. Over the next three years, his fluency was measured not only in the high-level meetings he conducted in the native tongue of his military hosts. He also read the novels of Gabriel García Márquez, the Nobel laureate from Colombia, in the original rich and lyrical Spanish. Now Admiral Stavridis’s boss, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, has given him a new assignment, which starts Tuesday.... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2556077 Tue, 30 Jun 2009 16:51:11 +0100 2556077 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2556084&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F6rQKd6uQKIk%2F Washington’s willingness to toss security guarantees about the globe like party favors has encouraged other nations to do little for their own defense.  From the European, Japanese, and South Korean standpoint, why spend more when the Americans will take care of you? But it looks like Australia takes a different view, and is willing to do more to defend itself and its region.  Reports the Daily Telegraph: The latest defence White Paper recommends buying 100 advanced F-35 jet fighters and 12 powerful submarines equipped with cruise missiles, a capability which no other country in the region is believed to possess. The “potential instability” caused by the emergence of China and India as major world powers was cited as the most pressing reason for this military build-up. ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2556084 Mon, 29 Jun 2009 18:34:39 +0100 2556084 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2553006&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F7UyyRIzgbNo%2F The Obama administration performed another Friday afternoon Guantanamo news dump last week, indicating that it will probably maintain administrative military detention of combatants under a forthcoming executive order. This is unnecessary executive unilateralism. As Benjamin Wittes and Jack Goldsmith point out in today’s Washington Post, this is a debate that ought to be held in Congress. This would not be a tough push for Obama. The Obama administration already amended its claim of authority in a filing with the District Court for the District of Columbia, the judicial body sorting through the detainees remaining at Gitmo. Convincing Congress to ratify this decision should not be hard; the differences between the Bush administration’s “enemy combatant” criteria and... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2553006 Mon, 29 Jun 2009 15:31:33 +0100 2553006 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2553009&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FqMSmv9t3aaY%2F There is no official word on this yet, but according to Inside Higher Ed the Obama Administration is putting the finishing touches on a proposed “National Skills College” that will include federally designed — and owned — courses: The funds envisioned for open courses — $50 million a year — may be small in comparison to the other ideas being discussed. But in proposing that the federal government pay for (and own) courses that would be free for all, as well as setting up a system to assess learning in those courses, and creating a “National Skills College” to coordinate these efforts, the plan could be significant far beyond its dollars. Darn right it could be significant! Washington would for all intents and purposes be on the way to crea... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2553009 Mon, 29 Jun 2009 14:58:33 +0100 2553009 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2517206&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FXZPaps-1-Nw%2F The Heritage Foundation has a chart up on its blog, showing defense spending as a percentage of gross domestic product and declaring that “Obama plan cuts defense spending to pre-9/11 levels.” This is a standard rhetorical device for defense hawks (see the Wall Street Journal editorial page, Mitt Romney and lots of others) so it’s worth pointing out that it’s misleading. The unfortunate truth is that Obama is increasing non-war defense spending this year and seems likely to increase it at least by inflation in the near future. It’s true that defense spending will probably decline as a percentage of GDP, assuming the economy recovers. But that’s because GDP grows. Ours is more than six times bigger than it was in 1950.  Meanwhile, we spend more on de... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2517206 Thu, 25 Jun 2009 19:09:59 +0100 2517206 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2510284&cid=t_184420_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F0FhTEaO333Y%2F It seems that the Japanese government no longer seems entirely comfortable relying on America for it’s defense. Reports Reuters: A draft of Japan’s new mid-term defense policy guidelines is calling for the reinforcement of military personnel and equipment in the face of growing regional tensions, Kyodo news agency said. The draft, obtained by Kyodo, says Japan needs to reverse its policy of reducing its defense budgets in light of North Korea’s missile launches and nuclear tests, as well as China’s rise to a major military power, the news agency said. The document urges the government to raise the number of Ground Self-Defense Forces troops by 5,000 to 160,000, Kyodo said. The new National Defense Program Guidelines, covering five years to March 2015, are scheduled ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2510284 Tue, 23 Jun 2009 13:25:58 +0100 2510284