Megan McArdle gets at what bothers me about attempts to move toward a “cashless” society. For all the advantages of going cashless, she says, a fully cashless society gives too much power to the government.

Consider the online gamblers who lost their money in overseas operations when the government froze their accounts. Now, what they were doing was indisputably illegal in these here United States, and I am not claiming that they were somehow deeply wronged. But consider how immense the power that was conferred upon the government by the electronic payments system; at a word, your money could simply vanish.

Now consider what might happen if the government made a mistake. When I was just starting out as a journalist, the State of New York swooped down and seized all the money out of one of my bank accounts. It turned out — much later, after a series of telephone calls — that they had lost my tax return for the year that I had resided in both Illinois and New York, discovered income on my federal tax return that had not appeared on my New York State tax return, sent some letters to that effect to an old address I hadn’t lived at for some time, and neatly lifted all the money out of my bank. It took months to get it back.

I didn’t starve, merely fretted. In our world of cash, friends and family can help out someone in a situation like that. In a cashless society, the government might intercept any transaction in which someone tried to lend money to the accused.

She’s not saying necessarily that we shouldn’t go cashless, just that we need to decide how to face this new power that cashlessness gives to the state.

I agree.

KELLY: Welcome to the Ordinary Sports Channel’s half-time show. We’re here in the first round of the Eastern Metro Conference tournament and it’s been a surprisingly good game!

BLUE: That’s right, Tod. Southern Tech came into this game with a decided advantage considering all of the injuries that Saxon State has had all year, but they’re really hanging in there! Down by five in a very high scoring game.

KELLY: Yes. The Packers obviously have the advantage here, but the Spartans showing real grit.

TRUMAN: Are we done with this yet?

KELLY: I’m sorry? Done with what?

TRUMAN: Done pretending this is a {air quotes} “competitive” game between two {air quotes} “good teams”? (more…)

Kyla Brandon poses as a Trump supporter on Tinder to see what kind of responses she would get. With the assistance of an attractive profile photo, she got many responses.

It reminded me of this episode of Rom-Com, which is worth watching in its ten minute entirety. NSFW:

(I will grant that the comparison between a Trump supporter and the woman in the profile in Rom-Com is pretty tenuous. Some of the guys that responded to her also seemed okay. An interesting social experiment either way.)

So, is the EU building illegal settlements in Israel?

Matthew Yglesias has made the important discovery that things matter in presidential contests other than what boxes a candidate checks. Let us congratulate him on his personal growth. Also, Jonathan Chait. Steven Berman responds, as does Noah Berlatsky. At the end of the day… I’ll take it, I guess.

Brendan Nyhan tweetstorms the rise of Donald Trump, and the multifactorial institutional failures that made it happen, and Der Spiegel explains how the US media made it happen.

As Trump serves as a warning sign about democracy for the rest of the world, an insider explains how the nomination could be stolen from him.

Sarah Fallon and Wired explain that cancer rates spiking in Fukushima were not due to radiation.

Mark Judge argues that cities are the new suburbs and suburbs are the new cities.

The arctic island of Svalbard is trying to figure out how to get people to come visit during its very dark, very cold winters.

Should we fix our broken hearts and inappropriate desires with pharmaceuticals?

There are various aspects of my wife’s job that can get her very worked up. This is one of them. She proverbially (and sometimes literally) weeps for patients that are kept past their time.

Six (non-conservative) psychologists and sociologists in three studies suggest there is a substantial ideological bias in social science research. {More}

Hey, there’s something about Canada we don’t want to talk about.

A Taiwanese model posed for a picture in an ad for a cosmetic clinic. It ruined her life and she sued.

Exxon finds itself in the unenviable position of people asking them “Hey, isn’t that what the tobacco companies did?”

It came around too late for me, but it does seem like Facebook would be fertile ground for flirting and all that. It seems weird to me they never really did the matchmaking thing. They’d have some great analytics.

Peter Tatchell has changed his mind on the gay cake issue. It’s a bit different from the wedding cake issue over here, though, as it required a specific message being put onto the cake.

It’s not just me: Anime really was great twenty years ago.

I do wonder why movement conservatism is collapsing in the GOP at this particular moment. Why not in '12, '08, or earlier?

— Daniel McCarthy (@ToryAnarchist) March 11, 2016

In the late '80s / early '90s there was a GOP civil war and what was called by R. Emmett Tyrrell, among others, the "conservative crack-up."

— Daniel McCarthy (@ToryAnarchist) March 11, 2016

In the GOP, the civil war was between moderates, some of them the old WASP elite, and Western/Southern/econ-social conservatives.

— Daniel McCarthy (@ToryAnarchist) March 11, 2016

(more…)

It can be frustrating even when we win.

Recently in Sweden, vapers got a very favorable court reason for all of the wrong reasons:

A Swedish court on Wednesday overturned an earlier judicial decision banning the sale of e-cigarettes.

The Supreme Administrative Court ruled that e-cigarettes are not medical products, and therefore the National Drug Agency could not oppose its sale.

“To be a medical product, it must have the ability prevent or treat a disease and, therefore, provide a beneficial effect on human health,” the court’s ruling read.

The e-cigarettes “do not contain instructions on how they could be used to reduce the consumption of cigarettes or nicotine addiction,” according to the court.

In other words, something with tremendous potential benefit was un-banned for not having that potential benefit. Well, that’s only part of the case. But the irony has not been lost on vaping advocates:

The most sublime part of this ruling was the fact that [the Swedish Medicines Agency]’s case was built on their claim that since ecigs are effective cessation products, they should be brought under their juristiction in line with patches, gums, Chantix and other medicinal cessation products. The court ruled that after consideration of the available “evidence”, they didn’t consider ecigs to be effective cessation products.

So in their own special way, anti-vaping buffoon Glantz and the army of junk-science spouting “researchers” around the world have helped to prevent ecigs being banned as illegal/unlicensed medicines. It’s a delightful irony that a case whose central premise appeared to have been “These things are awesome cessation products, let’s ban them” has been rejected.

Of course, being who I am, I take a bit of the opposite view, which is that our argument, that it is a way to transition from a more harmful product to a less harmful one, was rejected in our victory.

Which does a good job of highlighting the absurdity of the current state of affairs.

Now, as not-great as the situation is in the USA, we’re at least not that far along. Or perhaps we’re further along, because the FDA tried to ban the product and failed, and so we have the product. But even when the government tried to ban it, they did so under the idea that the product is harmful and not that the product is helpful.

Even so, you can see trappings of the same conversation here in the debate about advertising. We allow ecigarette companies to advertise, but we do not let them even suggest that their product might be helpful for smoking cessation. We want smokers to vape and stop smoking, and we don’t want non-smokers to vape, but we’re forcing the ecigarette industry to advertise the product as a product in itself and not for the use we would prefer they advertise for.

There is a bit of logic here in that we don’t want them making false medical claims. We don’t want them saying that they’re completely safe because we don’t know that they are and they probably are not. We maybe don’t want them to say that they’re definitively safer than cigarettes because while that is almost certainly true, we don’t know. But saying that they are probably less risky than cigarettes is a true message worth conveying that legally cannot be conveyed by the people selling the product.

Jason Russell explains how the GOP can wrest the presidency from Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton even if the former is the nominee. Just crazy enough that it could work! Not sure the public would go along with it, though.

The Friedman Foundation takes issue with an Indiana Journal Gazette article that unquestionably cites Diane Ravitch on the subject of vouchers.

Walter White made meth out of an RV in the desert. Some dude in Albuquerque sold heroin out of a port-a-potty in an adult video parking lot.

If you’re looking to escape Trump’s America, here are some options.

Batman was “created by Bob Kane,” but… really wasn’t.
Teachers informing on students who express anti-government attitudes? This is going to turn out well.

A theory that the end is high for the Higher Ed Bubble. The argument makes sense, and I can see some colleges being in danger, but I’ve been reading these predictions for a decade now.

Oh, this is nice: In addition to the other concerns I have about unnecessarily splitting up families, I have for-profit foster care to worry about.

The world isn’t all bad! A man and his penguin.

While liberals and anti-Trumpers pat themselves on the back for not being as authoritarian and scientifically inferior to Trumpers, it may be that the cause and correllation between personality and politics may not be what we think it is.

Ghost in the Shell turns 20. The meta of it all was really kind of lost on me, but holy crap it was gorgeous then and is gorgeous now.

According to the Brookings Institute, Utah has become the bastion of the middle class.

To combat terrorism, a federal pilot program is reach out to Somali youth in Minnesota.

A poll suggests that Australians, Canadians, New Zealanders, and Brits support EU-style free movement. Hey, can we get in on this?

Neil Strauss, known for designing “The Game” (of the seducing ladies sort), has repented and settled down. As with Tucker Max, the whole phase may have something to do with his mother.

Mental Floss looks at the relative value of $100 in each state. Also, the richest town in each state.

An Australia man is growing too many potatoes.

CNN Exclusive: ‘Trump is a bully,’ says man who rushed stage

When Thomas DiMassimo tried to rush Donald Trump’s stage in Ohio over the weekend, he had a clear goal in mind.

He wanted to send a message.

“I was thinking that I could get up on stage and take his podium away from him and take his mic away from him and send a message to all people out in the country who wouldn’t consider themselves racist, who wouldn’t consider themselves approving of what type of violence Donald Trump is allowing in his rallies, and send them a message that we can be strong, that we can find our strength and we can stand up against Donald Trump and against this new wave he’s ushering in of truly just violent white supremacist ideas,” DiMassimo told CNN.

This isn’t some college rally, nor is it stealing the podium from a controversial guest-speaker. This is rushing towards a presidential candidate. It goes beyond speech into straight recklessness. He should be charged and should not be on CNN. As Dave Hackensack points out, networks have learned that if you refuse to televise people rushing on the field, fewer people do. Inversely, if you publicize them, more people will try it.

This is spectacularly dumb, cannot be tolerated, and certainly can’t be encouraged. Someone may get hurt. Someone could get killed.

I got Trump fans calling me names for which 140char won't suffice + Trump protesters hurling objects crosswise my head tonight. Blame? /1

— Jeff B/DDHQ (@EsotericCD) March 12, 2016

Who do I blame? I blame you all. Fuck you. No really, fuck you all. Let me state w/you on Left, b/c honestly I'm letting you down easy. /2

— Jeff B/DDHQ (@EsotericCD) March 12, 2016

Protest kiddies? I mingled w/you on way to Trump event, ducked few of yr missiles on way out. And I know from knowing: you're INSINCERE. /3

— Jeff B/DDHQ (@EsotericCD) March 12, 2016

(more…)

As it turns out, if you make it more difficult to form a hospital, fewer hospitals are formed. Relatedly, rural hospitals are shutting down delivery rooms.

Uncle Steve looks at when crime does pay.

Meanwhile, MIT is building a Trumpbot that can sound very Trumpy.

Laurie Penny argues that no, Brits should not Clean for the Queen.

The secrets of salt. Does anyone else remember when George W Bush mentioned that he was reading a book about the history of salt and the author of said book felt the need to denounce him? Good times.

Sometimes differences between couples compliment one another nicely, but not when it comes to impulsivity. Fortunately for the Himmelreich-Truman household, we’re both fuddy-duddies.

Jesse Singal looks at the relationship between sleep and appetite.

The notion of “vaping chic” is dumb as I can’t imagine anyone doing it to look cool. It really doesn’t. Smoking, on the other hand, has a history with cool.

Well, with all of the babies being born in Utah, I suppose this was bound to happen at some point.

Christina Cauterucci looks at the relationship between child care costs and women opting out. One argument is for free day care (which I am more amenable to than you might think), though another is a low-ish level of regulation that makes having more options beneficial (which I am, as one might guess, very amenable to). Whatever the case, it’s not expensive because of how much the childcare workers are being paid.

We’re not yet having these discussions explicitly, but I feel like they’re happening non-verbally with increasing frequency.

Dating sites catfishing clients… it’s not just for Americans.

Here’s an interview with a language inventor.

Good employers are let go or chased off on a regular basis due to employers’ failure to understand this. Also, how cool would it be if more employers understood this?

At NRO, Kevin Williamson says we should let dying communities die.