HOT5 Daily 1/7/2009

1. "Is Crime Caused by a Lack of Economic Opportunity?" Links to an op-ed attacking this standard argument.

Representative Sample: Heather MacDonald in the Wall Street Journal makes a good argument that crime is not the result of a lack of economic opportunity by looking at crime rates during the downturn in 2009. The line of reasoning that crime is caused by poverty and lack of economic opportunity implies that during the economic downturn in 2009 crime rates should have gone up, but in fact they have gone down.

2. "Were They Going To Tell Us? TSA Considers Passengers A Layer of Security to Stop Terrorist Attacks"An actual effective security measure.

Representative Sample: did they send a memo to passengers informing them of their militia duty when they board the plane? Did they offer us some kind of training I'm not aware of? Did they even tell us at the gate?

3. "why is global warming so cold, redux" Responding to a a common refrain as the snow falls.

Representative Sample: While it’s rather odd to point out that the middle of winter in areas which have been getting snow and ice over the last few tens of millions of years would be cold in late December and early January, it seems that it has to be done again, especially as verbal knives get sharpened for another attack on scientists

4. "The SciFi Navy of 2030" Speculation on the future is always fun.

Representative Sample: Surgical enhancements may be commonplace. In the 1990s, aviators began getting LASIK surgery to correct vision problems. In the future, special warfare troops may get surgery that improves their night vision..

5. "Why Military History Matters: Another Perspective" Preaching to the choir in my case.

Representative Sample: Military history must by necessity remain a distinct sub-field, with its own distinctive body of knowledge and methods to master, because war itself represents a peculiar and distinctive form of human activity, focused above all else on a socially abnormal use of violence that larger societies both glorify and condemn.

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