These are quotes from various (mostly) blog posts I found interesting – follow the links to read the whole posts.<\/p>\n
Jacob Sullem<\/a> on Meth Babies<\/em>: The “crack baby” scare of the late 1980s and early ’90s, debunked by research showing that that the effects of prenatal cocaine exposure had been grossly exaggerated, is now being recycled as a “meth baby” scare. It features the same sort of careful reporting that made crack babies such a media hit, including third-hand rumors, nonsensical descriptions of “addicted” babies, and medical pronouncements by cops.<\/p>\n Majikthise <\/a>on vanity license plates<\/em>: A judge has ruled that the state of Utah can’t prevent Elizabeth Solomon from obtaining custom license plates that read GAYSROK and GAYRYTS, respectively.<\/p>\n Julian Sanchez<\/a> on anti-trans discrimination at the Library of Congress<\/em>: “Imagine an employer says that men can’t wear dresses,” suggests Post. “That seems like a pretty clear-cut case of gender discrimination: Men can’t do something women can.” But, says Post, few courts would count such a rule as gender descrimination, and judges tend to find ways to rationalize restrictions that reflect conventional notions of feminine or masculine behavior. Legal categories such as “discrimination on the basis of gender,” says Post, end up being treated not as objective standards but “vehicles for social meaning” that depend on judicial determination of which gender stereotypes may be enforced.<\/p>\n The Debate Link<\/a> has some very interesting comments, inspired by Jonathan H. Adler’s libertarian reinterpretation of The Lorax<\/a><\/em>: The Once-ler has no incentive to conserve the truffula trees for, as he notes to himself, if he doesn’t cut them down someone else will. He’s responding to the incentives created by a lack of property rights in the trees, and the inevitable tragedy results. Had the Once-ler owned the trees, his incentives would have been quite different…<\/p>\n Snapdragon’s Journal<\/a> on the Federal crack down on legitimate pain medicine<\/em>: America’s obsession with drugs has been costly – in money, lives, and liberty. I don’t think any rational person can dispute that. One relatively new cost is that the War on Drugs has also become the War on Pain Medication, cutting off chronic pain sufferers from the medication that they need. Sick people and their doctors are being treated like criminals.<\/p>\n Elizabeth Marquardt<\/a> on Fertility Treatments and Women’s Deaths<\/em>: Alina, coming from a similar socio economic background as Raluca, agreed to OHS as a way to harvest and sell her eggs because she needed money for her upcoming wedding. In January 2005, 20 of her eggs were harvested for which she received $250. Soon after the extraction, she developed OHSS and was hospitalized for 14 days. The clinic where the original procedure took place offered no assistance. Her attending doctor in the hospital made it clear that she would have died had she not sought immediate treatment<\/p>\n Peter Svensson<\/a> (via Family Scholars<\/a>) on Paid Maternity Leave<\/em>: To put it another way, out of 168 nations in a Harvard University study last year, 163 had some form of paid maternity leave, leaving the United States in the company of Lesotho, Papua New Guinea and Swaziland.<\/p>\n Dean Baker<\/a> on Pork Spending<\/em>: While the budget wonk types who frequent MaxSpeak may know the unimportance of this sort of pork in the whole budget, less nerdy types are likely to believe that we are talking about real money. Most people are likely to think that $230 million is a big deal. They may even think that $3 million is a big deal. Of course they are right when talking about the finances of anyone not named “Bill Gates,”\u009d but in the context of the whole federal budget, this pork really doesn’t matter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" These are quotes from various (mostly) blog posts I found interesting – follow the links to read the whole posts. Jacob Sullem on Meth Babies: The “crack baby” scare of the late 1980s and early ’90s, debunked by research showing … Continue reading