Chris Christie’s presidential hopes may be dashed due to Bridghazi, but he hasn’t been doing himself any favors in getting my vote if things do turn around for him. Or rather, that would be the case if it weren’t for the fact that in both cases his actions are at least mildly defensible. The bigger item is that they’ve announced that New Jersey will be blocking direct car sales, most notably affecting Tesla.

The fascinating thing about the direct sales Tesla debate is the amount of anger directed towards the same sort of “consumer protection” licensure agreements that they defend to the hilt elsewhere. Here’s a video “debate” and the defender of the decision sounds quite a bit like defenders of licensure for just about every other occupation.

The best argument the dealers’ advocate makes is for recalls, but that’s not sufficient justification to draft an entire law around it. Alex Taborrak writes more.

I side with Tesla on this one. And it should be said that agreement for licensure restrictions over here do not necessitate agreement over there. It’s mostly just amusing to watch the shoe on the other foot.

I call the Christie administrations’ decision here defensible because it does very much appear to be the enforcement of the law as written, as opposed to enforcement of the law as people would like it to be.

The next involves a subject more pertinent to me, which is a tax on ecigarettes. The health angle is unproven at best and counterproductive at worst, but I call this one “defensible” insofar as New Jersey has the highest taxes in the country and has to find some way to pay the bills. A higher gas tax would be more preferable, but whatever.

West Virginia is on the road to making (most) pseudoephedrine prescription-only.

Aaron Carroll is coming around (a little) on retail medical clinics.

I didn’t know that there was such a thing as vertical wind turbines, but now I do and they look pretty cool and are apparently pretty efficient.

They found a chupacabra! And euthanized it.

Can we turn infrared into a renewable energy source?

The Atlantic shows sixty years of domestic migration. As always, Forbes is the best resource for current migration.

Canada demands more Canadian porn.

Erica Eichelberger went to Nigeria and met some scammers.

The law is eating away at attorney-client privilege, and the situation with the NSA is making it worse.

Bob Cooke explains what it’s like to be an undercover cop.

The story of an undercover OSI investigator who says she was raped, though the Air Force isn’t sure.

According to Gallup, trust in state government runs highest among red states in middle and western America and lowest among blue states on the east coast (and Louisiana and California). The most untrusted state is Illinois, and it isn’t even close. Dave Schuler talks about Illinois.

Gallup tries to paper over the red/blue distinction in a couple of days, but neither of them exactly work. First, their methodology leaves Texas, Georgia, and Arizona as competitive. Arizona I can buy, Georgia is a stretch, but Texas? That can only be true if they are going strictly by partisan affiliation. I assume they are, and they should know better. Second, it’s not as though there aren’t lower-population states of both varieties that we can look at. Maine and Rhode Island are right after Illinois. Maine may be something of a special case because they had a quirk election that produced a governor who was immediately out of touch with his constituency, but the pattern is hard to ignore. Despite, as James Joyner says, the theoretical mistrust of government that occurs on the right.

So are conservative states better run? That’s a pretty subjective judgment. Though if you could demonstrate that their residents trust their government more, that would indeed be relevant.

I propose, however, an alternative explanation.

I suspect that for a non-trivial number of respondents, when asked “Do you trust your state government?” will implicitly think “Compared to what?” I mean, we all trust our government for some things and not for others. But if the answer of “Compared to what?” is “the federal government” then than likely explains a lot of the results. Texas has an independent streaks. Western states have a particular sense of being owned and operated by the feds. When you have mistrust or resentment of the federal government, the state government looks better by comparison. When your idealized version of government carries the sort of authority of the national government, then the state governments can look week and ineffectual by comparison. Oh, yeah, and it probably matters which party is the face of the national government.

This is, obviously, not all that’s going on. I suspect that there may be something to the population thing. If you look at blue states, Vermont and Delaware score higher than New York and Pennsylvania. Iowa and New Hampshire are the only blue (or blue-purple) states with an Above-Average rating. The pattern is less discernible among Republican states, however. But I think there is something to that, and perhaps an argument in favor of smaller rather than larger states. If we’re hyperconcerned about such things.

There are also particulars among various states. I mentioned Maine, but Louisiana and Illinois are particularly known for their corruption problems and it’s no surprise that they are both outliers in their own way. Minnesota is a bit of a surprise since I’ve always had the impression that Minnesotans take pride in their googoo inclinations, but only 11% trust their state government “a great deal” (compared to 16% of Wisconsinites). Maybe the frustration of high expectations? Minnesotans do tend to trust their state government a fair amount, though, with a good/fair rating of 62 (compared to 57 for Wisconsin). Idaho is another interesting case with only 9% trusting good but over half trusting fair (putting it in the top seven), which also makes sense because Idaho isn’t greatly run but is a hard state to govern and therefore tough to rely on. The same is true to a lesser extent of multiple large and rural states, though they might benefit from lower expectations in general.

For my own part, I would probably most of the states I’ve lived in with “Fair.” If asked to give a numerical value, it would likely have more to do with where I was within the state than anything. Some states are better run than others, I think, but outside of Illinois and Louisiana it’s pretty contentious. Different states have different challenges, as I’ve said. One of the easier markers, for me, on how much I trust my state government is how much the part of the state I live in is a priority. Even within the same state, my perspective in Idaho would probably differ depending on whether I lived in the relatively isolated northern part, Boise, or Mormon Idaho. In Utah, faith in the government might depend a fair amount on one’s religious faith, irrespective of one’s own actual political leanings.

One of the things that I find interesting is that the catalog actually seems to be less partisan than one might expect. It’s hard to say for sure since they don’t offer a partisan breakdown, but I would have expected even more of the states to be in the 40-60 range and dependent on whether it’s an opposite-party governor (like Wisconsin) or a governor of the major party (like most states). Instead, there do seem to be more factors at play than my cynicism would have suggested.

Last Christmas, there was some egg on the faces of UPS and FedEx when it turned out that they couldn’t get their packages delivered in time for the holiday. A number of USPS-boosters pointed and laughed about the non-existent efficiency superiority of the private sector.

Truth be told, UPS and FedEx were somewhat consistently bad about getting things to me in the appropriate window of time when I lived in Arapaho. I was at least moderately forgiving because, well, rural Arapaho. What can you expect? Living there changes your expectations when it comes to such things, for sure. We were five hours from the nearest major airport, two hours from the nearest minor one, an hour from the nearest Walmart, and on and on.

What’s puzzling to me in West Q is that it’s the USPS that simply cannot get its act together. I was forgiving for a while because of the weather. There are limits to the postman’s creed, after all. But the weather has gotten better and the postal delivery has not. Arapaho changes your expectations. But here? Here I am within 75 miles of two major cities and three airports. I’m within 200 miles of at least two more. I’m within ten minutes of Walmart.

Perhaps most importantly, I’m within three or so hours of Hanover.

I say “most importantly” because that seems to be where a lot of the stuff I am having shipped comes from. I don’t know why, but it seems every other thing I order comes from Hanover. And takes more than two days. Stuff sent from Floridia is getting here faster. Some ecig supplies are sitting in central Queenland right now that were ordered a couple of days ago. Perhaps the Hanover shippers are particularly bad about how they drop the shipments off? Maybe, but it’s still registering as out for shipping more than two days ago.

No complaints about UPS or FedEx here, where packages sent from Amazon that arrive ahead of schedule and often the next day. I have always explained the fast turnaround times by how close we are to the fulfillment center in Seneca. Until I realize that we’re even closer to Hanover.

According to a court in California, it’s legal to look at your smartphone while driving! The California Highway Patrol apparently plans to ignore the ruling.

In Idaho and Wyoming, speed limits may be increasing.

Sean McElwee writes one of the better pieces I’ve read on the dearth of conservative comedy. As one who thinks it would be better if there were more conservative entertainment, I actually think comedy is probably the best place to start.

Mostly for my own benefit: 50 Books Every Parent Should Read to Their Child

God’s Not Dead looks to be a Christian movie I have absolutely no interest in seeing. But, as it turns out, there’s a market. Go figure.

I keep getting my hopes up only to be disappointed, but once again, McDonald’s is looking at extending breakfast hours. Seriously, if Jack can do it, Mac can do it. Just pushing it back to 11 (which most other places do) would be really nice. I hadn’t heard that Taco Bell is getting into the game.

Mike LaBossiere explains the role of luck in success and Jessica Bruder explains the price entrepreneurs pay.

Asian-Americans are taking on affirmative action in California renaming Asian seas in Virginia.

It’s one of the great oddities of American politics. The wealthy tend Republican, but wealthy places tend Democratic.

Bootleggers for prohibition? TurboTax (Intuit) spends millions trying to keep the tax code complicated.

It’s a generally unchallenged truism that SAT prep classes favor whites and contribute to inequality. Except that it isn’t true.

The SAT is apparently due for a revision.

So our trip to Las Vegas was not, alas, what we were hoping nor. Not that our expectations were particularly high. We were going because that’s where the convention was. I had offered to Clancy that the baby and I stay behind, but she deferred.

We are not, it seems, Las Vegas material. The most obvious way this was apparent was that we could never get over the price of everything. It reminded us a big of the Pacific Northwest where we stopped going out to eat because, though the food wasn’t bad, it never seemed good enough to justify the inflated tab.

Since we didn’t have a car, our options were even more limited. We couldn’t stomach the price of the restaurants (or room service) of the hotel, so we ended up ordering delivery. At least that way, for our $30, we were getting a fair amount of food. Other than the bill, that part turned out okay. I got to eat pizza, Thai, Italian, and all sorts of good stuff.

The WiFi was terrible and even the data reception from my phone wasn’t very good.

The epitome of the trip occurred when we realized that we were running low on baby food. The main grocery store option was a Whole Foods that was about two miles away. I walked the two miles and then realized that I had forgotten my wallet. By the time I got back, it was too late for another trip. Clancy decided to walk down in the morning. We finally got the baby food.

If we had to do it all over again, we’d do just about everything differently from better foreplanning to breaking down and going to the market on the first day. Also, just buying a crib.

I can’t remember the last time we were this glad to be back from a trip. The baby is sick with a temperature of 101, but she is at least sleeping in her own (more reasonably priced) crib.

The chances are slim, but Russia could build a rail from New York to Paris!

Meet the Hyundai Tucson Fuel Cell, the first mass-produced hydrogen car. There are, however, safety concerns.

Sonny Bunch argues – convincingly, though I’m an easy sell – that basic cable’s constraints are a boon to creativity. For TV shows, anyway.

Sitcoms are generally struggling these days, but Jusef Adalian says that actually may not be such a bad thing for sitcom-lovers. If expectations are lowered by the networks, there may be more room for smarter comedies.

DHL (which is still around, apparently?) pranked UPS into free advertising.

People like to argue that retailers could actually increase profits by paying their employees more. Adam Ozimek explains why this is unlikely.

I’m not the biggest fan of Apple, and think that the iPhone revolution did harm in addition to good, but I do congratulate them on the innovation that was the App Store.

Republicans have a talent gap. I recently cited an article about how they pay fewer employees more. According to Patrick Ruffini and others, they need to hire more people.

The politics of the raw milk wars.

Louisiana has displaced California as the movie-making capital of the world (or at least the continent).

The banks were regulated, and banks got cheaper. The skies were deregulated, and flying is safer.

Dirty Jobs’ Mike Rowe talks about our college fixation.

By which I mean, “The consumer market does not produce the results – and therefore the products – that I would prefer.”

It’s mildly frustrating to me when people don’t make what I consider to be the ideal product. They don’t include features that it would seem relatively easy to implement.

It’s more than mildly frustrating when I watch things move away from what I want. Or when I have what I want, and the market moves away from that.

The latest two instances I have run into have to do with Bluetooth earpieces and wireless remotes and keyboards for smartphones.

In the former case, I have recently purchased an obscene number of Bluetooth earpieces because it’s really, really hard to get a precise combination that I want (single-ear, AVRCP-compatible). And the industry is moving away from providing me what I want. So when these people stopped offering the model that I used, I ordered 20 from one of the few outfits that sold them (not exactly a wholesaler, but very much priced to order in bulk). The problem occurred when this place didn’t actually have them in stock. So they’re going to ship them as they get them.

They’ve stopped making the part in question, so it may take a while. The fact that they haven’t made it and none of the major manufacturers produce it gives me the impulse to stock up. So I found one other model that does what I want. Like the C&D, it’s low-end. It’s ironic that it only appears to be low-end makers that produce this. Indeed, I have found a number of producers that do it, but they’re all Chinese countries and I can’t plug them into US power jacks. Anyhow, so I ordered one of these to see if it did in fact do what I wanted to do. Except it didn’t work at all. It cost $12 or so, but returning it for a refund cost $6. So I only got half of my money back. Actually, I just ate the $6 and got a replacement. The replacement works, though it’s not comfortable in the ear. I have since ordered a large number of replacements.

None of this would be an issue if people would just make a point to buy the products I believe they should buy.

“The greatest thing about the absolute worst in advertising.”