McArdle on why a jobs program as stimulus isn't feasible.  "Every so often I'll read some description of a project out of the olden days--the battle against malaria in Panama, the handling of the Great Mississippi Flood, or the creation of the WPA--and just marvel at how fast everything used to be."

A project that was supposed to have started in spring 2008 is finally having it's first kick-off meeting on Thursday. The problem was that the contract, after being 6 months late being awarded, was appealed twice by losing bidders. We need reform, but unfortunately, it's extremely boring reform that we need, and the only people who understand the system, the big federal contractors, don't particularly want it reformed, it's a great barrier to entry. Most of what I've been doing over the past few laws has been implementing changes that were enacted by the HIPAA legislation in 1996. CMS barely got started on some of the changes until the year they were due, 2006. People, you're going to be old before federal health reform has remade the healthcare industry. Some important regulatory changes will be pretty fast, but the bits that involve the federal government doing things? Not so much. _
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03:57:13 PM, Tuesday 1 December 2009

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 The Globe endorses Khazai. _
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03:16:47 PM, Monday 30 November 2009

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I think the outrage about this case, particularly among cyclists, is sort of fake, or at least wrong-headed.  First off, he didn't get away with anything.  In any sane world, 4 months in prison and a felony assault conviction is a serious penalty.  And I'm just not convinced that contempt for cycling has anything to do with the sentencing.  For crimes like this, which are basically pointless stupidity, you don't need such large penalties, because really, people who have road rage problems, they're not going to look at this and think, oh good, I can take potshots at people.  They're going to think, man, he was lucky he missed, maybe I should leave the gun behind.  I think the system is messed up and completely inconsistent and unjust on some basic level, but almost always in the other direction.  I can't get upset about society deciding not to completely destroy this idiot's life.  He shouldn't pay because someone ran me off the road once, or for why we think he fired.  Everyone involved got lucky, and I'm okay with that.

 

  I'm very glad I don't work for the Southern Appalachia Tourist Board. _
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