cnn

Bed Bugs Bite Liberals: Will They Call for DDT?

by Angela Logomasini on August 20, 2010 · 1 comment

in Environment

As bed bugs gnaw on liberal reporters at CNN, perhaps there is a chance some will reconsider their views of DDT. CNN offices apparently have an abundant supply of these annoying and disturbing little creatures.

Before it were banned in 1970′s, DDT helped reduce and eradicate these once common bugs in the United States. But they are back with a vengeance–but DDT is long gone from U.S. markets. Now the bugs are so hard to control that they are infesting cities around the nation–in hotels, homes, and offices.

Yet many people support DDT bans, regardless of the consequences in other countries. Millions of children die every year in developing nations from mosquito-borne illnesses like malaria that could be controlled with limited use of DDT. Yet advocating its increased use there is too politically incorrect for many Americans on the left who wrongly think DDT cannot be used in a safe and effective manner.

But now that the misguided DDT ban has hit home (and the office)–albeit in a much less serious, but very annoying way–will the left reconsider?

The Economics of Charging for Airline Amenities

by Ryan Young on February 9, 2010 · 2 comments

in Mobility, Odds & Ends, Zeitgeist

As of May 1, American Airlines will charge $8 to customers who want to use a blanket and pillow. JetBlue and US Airways already charge for them. This is only the latest example of a nickel-and-diming trend that has been going on for at least a decade. Passengers can also expect to be nicked for checked baggage, food, and drinks.

It’s also terrible PR. An unscientific CNN.com poll shows that 96 percent of passengers are unwilling to pay. More than that probably also harbor some resentment against the offending airlines.

Given how much customers resent extra charges, it is a mystery to me why airlines have so many of them. Why don’t they just include those expenses in their ticket prices? People don’t mind paying once. But if they have to take out their wallet a second or a third time, they often get angry. This anger is completely avoidable. Just put those extra nickels and dimes in the initial ticket price.

There has to be a reason why airlines so readily incur their customers’ wrath. My theory is that airlines think the nickel-and-dime approach can lower total costs. If people stick to carry-ons to avoid a checked baggage fee, that saves the airline some money. If they set the fees right, they’ll save more in labor costs than the forego in baggage fees.

Maybe they’re thinking the same theory applies to pillows and blankets. They’re on every seat in every flight. But most people don’t even use them. I rarely do. Seems like a waste of resources, doesn’t it? By only giving blankets to people who want them enough to pay for them, the airline has to buy fewer sets of pillows and blankets. It also has to clean fewer of them. If they’ve calculated correctly, this will result in a net savings. That means lower fares. And hopefully, more business.

I have no idea if this theory is correct. But it does make some sense.

But the fact remains that people are transaction-averse. Southwest Airlines has had great success with its concsious business strategy of keeping its nickel-and-diming to a minimum. While I personally prefer the Southwest approach, there seems to be room for both business models in the market. Time will tell if one eventually proves superior in giving people what they want. Even if it involves much grumbling, cursing, and reaching for wallets.

LibertyWeek 75: Credit Cards, Government-Style

by Richard Morrison on January 4, 2010

in CEI Projects, Podcast

Richard Morrison, Jeremy Lott and Marc Scribner get together to bring you Episode 75 of the LibertyWeek podcast. We take on Ben Bernanke’s recession theories, Canada’s struggle to provide affordable energy, the high cost of government-regulated credit cards, bringing booze to Salt Lake City and the FDA’s critics on the left.

Cell Phones, Cancer, and Certainty

by Ryan Young on November 10, 2009

in Nanny State, Precaution & Risk, Tech & Telecom, Zeitgeist

CNN reports: “Last summer, Dr. Ronald Herberman, then director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, issued a warning to about 3,000 faculty and staff, listing steps to avoid harmful electromagnetic radiation from cell phones.”

“Electromagnetic radiation” is a fancy way of saying light waves.

Herberman has been on his cell phone crusade for a while now; I diagnosed him with a severe case of The Certainty last year.

Still, let’s assume he’s right that cell phones cause tumors. What actions should be taken? I present the following CDC data on leading causes of death as a way to guide our priorities:

Heart disease: 631,636
Cancer: 559,888
Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 137,119
Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 124,583
Accidents (unintentional injuries): 121,599
Diabetes: 72,449
Alzheimer’s disease: 72,432
Influenza and Pneumonia: 56,326
Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis: 45,344
Septicemia: 34,234

Deaths from cancer attributable to cell phone use? Zero. There is an important lesson to be learned here.

Think of it like this: every dollar and every hour of researchers’ time spent investigating cancer risks from cell phones is money and time not spent curing heart disease. Or cancer itself. Or stroke. These “big three” combine to end more than a million lives each and every year.

Which is a better use of limited research resources? Herberman, by bringing funding and attention to a non-issue, is quite possibly costing lives that could otherwise be saved.

The Certainty has very high costs. In Herberman’s case, measurable in lives.

LibertyWeek 63: Suing the Government into Honesty

by Richard Morrison on October 5, 2009

in CEI Projects, Features, Podcast, Zeitgeist

Your host Richard Morrison welcomes guest co-host Jeremy Lott and Editorial Director Ivan Osorio for Episode 63 of the LibertyWeek podcast. We start with CEI’s FOIA fight with the U.S. Treasury, 7-Eleven’s attempt to give consumers a big gulp of government and the solution to a jobless recovery. We then move on to union pension politics, Ireland’s regrettable embrace of EU hegemony and some scantily-clad Olympic News.

Lee Doren Discusses ‘The Story of Stuff’ on Lou Dobbs

by Richard Morrison on September 28, 2009 · 1 comment

in Video, Zeitgeist

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vTJdpbUYhY 285 234]

To Heckle the President, or Not?

by Ryan Young on September 10, 2009 · 1 comment

in Culture, Healthcare, Mobility, Nanny State, Personal Liberty, Politics as Usual, Zeitgeist

Over at CNN, John Feehery argues that it’s better not to heckle. I agree, but for different reasons.

Feehery’s line of thinking is that the office deserves respect. Holding one’s tongue is a matter of decorum. “The president is the commander-in-chief, the leader of the country, and in many unspoken ways treated as a king.”

Technically, the president is commander-in-chief of the armed forces, and of nothing else. The rest of his job consists of humbly executing the laws given him by the Constitution and the legislature. That’s why it’s called the executive branch.

Feehery, a partisan Republican, here manages to out-conservative Edmund Burke. Royal rhetoric pervades his piece – evidence of how far the presidency has strayed from its intended purpose. The cult of the presidency endures.

Don Boudreaux’s approach to the presidency is more realistic, if less romantic:

[T]he notion that the U.S. presidency is lofty or respectable in any ethically significant sense is ludicrous. As Saul Bellow said about politicians, “they’re a bunch of yo-yos. The presidency is now a cross between a popularity contest and a high school debate, with an encyclopedia of clichés the first prize.”

Hence the real reason to let the president have his say without being heckling him: politicians make themselves look bad far more effectively than any heckler could. He doesn’t need the help. Just take his ideas seriously:

-We can save money by spending $900,000,000,000.

-We can contain costs by isolating people from the costs they incur.

-The Medicare/Medicaid model works. Expand it.

Presidents are unremarkable creatures. Borne of much talent for campaigning and little for governing, more love for power than for principle, and the unyielding belief that they know best, presidents have the worst kind of hubris. This is perhaps their only regal trait.

President Bush thought he could win two simultaneous land wars in Asia, and use military might to build a new nation in Iraq. Hubris.

President Obama thinks he can run the auto, financial, and health care industries at the same time, all while controlling global climate patterns. Hubris.

Feehery is right that President Obama should not have been heckled. If not for the sheer harm his office causes, it would not merit the attention.

LibertyWeek 34: Michelle Minton Conquers the World

by Richard Morrison on March 17, 2009

in CEI Projects, Podcast

Your regular hosts Richard Morrison and Cord Blomquist are joined by special guest co-host Michelle Minton for Episode 34 of the LibertyWeek podcast. We begin by finding that Twitter has conquered every aspect of society, the White House is waging war on the economy and New Yorkers are defending themselves against beer taxes. We next investigate the questionable management of the AIG bailout in Scandal Watch and handicap Chicago’s chances for snagging the 2016 summer games in Olympic News.

Congratulations to FreeStateNH (The Free State Project) for winning the honor of Tweet of the Week™!

America’s Other Auto Industry, the Successful One

by Cord Blomquist on November 20, 2008 · 1 comment

in Bailout Watch

CNN has a great story about the successful auto companies in America, namely those that aren’t named “GM,” “Chrysler,” or “Ford.”

Turns out, folks who work at and live near the Honda engine plant in Anna, Ohio don’t think the auto industry should get a bailout.  Local waitress September Quinn is quoted in the story as saying:

I don’t think they should bail them out because … obviously something’s not right in the way they’re running their business, and why should the American people have to bail them out if they can’t figure out how to do it right?

Quinn also had some insights into the problems that big labor unions have caused for the big three automakers.  As the CNN story reports:

“People agree with the unions because the workers want to be backed on everything, but then again, there aren’t people striving to do their job better,” said Quinn, whose father works at the nonunion Honda plant. “They’ve just got Papa Bear to back them up in any instance, and they keep their job. And you can do that, but I don’t know at the cost of what.”

That sort of common sense is a refreshing break from the doomsday rhetoric being spouted by domestic automakers and members of Congress.  Optimism is also present in the final quote of the story offered by John Lenhart, an officer with the Sidney-Shelby County Chamber of Commerce and a consultant with Plastipak Packaging in Jackson Center, Ohio:

The country’s got some ills, but we’ll heal up [ . . . ] We’ll be all right.

Check out the full story at CNN.com.