Utopia, you are standing in it!

The towering symbols of a fading religion, over 14,000 wind turbines, abandoned, rusting, slowly decaying. When it is time to clean up after a failed idea, no green environmentalists are to be found. Wind was free, natural, harnessing Earth’s bounty for the benefit of all mankind, sounded like a good idea. Wind turbines, like solar panels, break down.  They produce less energy before they break down than the energy it took to make them.  The wind does not blow all the time, or even most of the time. When it is not blowing, they require full-time backup from conventional power plants.

Without government subsidy, they are unaffordable. With governments facing financial troubles, the subsidies are unaffordable. It was a nice dream, a very expensive dream, but it didn’t work.

California had the “big three” of wind farm locations — Altamont Pass, Tehachapi, and San Gorgonio, considered the world’s best wind…

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This is a beautiful map of Rome’s administrative units. There’s not much more to say, really.

Here is Barry on Roman law. Here is Mark on the Roman economy. Have a good week!

At first blush, sports gambling and the environment would seem to have little in common. Yet, as I explain in a brief I filed this week on behalf of PLF, CEI, and the Cato Institute, the two may be linked in a case currently pending before the Supreme Court.

Federalism—preserving the states’ independent policymaking role to promote innovation and democratic accountability—is a value embraced by people across the political spectrum. Yet support for it in practice often tends to be conditional: if a desired policy is easier to achieve at the federal level, federalism concerns are scuttled; but when national politics go the other way, we turn to the states as a means of resistance.

The latest example of this is the lawsuit that the Trump Administration has filed against California over the states’ opposition to aggressive enforcement of federal immigration laws. Whatever you think of the underlying issue, the lawsuit is a significant attack on federalism. Some aspects of the case may be a close call—see this exchange between Professors Ilya Somin and Roderick Hills—but the main issue is not: The United States challenges California’s decision to withhold its own resources, including state and local law enforcement…

Point Lobos, known as the “crown jewel” of California’s state park system, is wildly popular with the local Monterrey residents and tourists. And for good reason. The park is spectacularly beautiful and is a veritable playground for wildlife. (Photo courtesy of Brocken Inaglory.) One of the most memorable moments from my own honeymoon was watching a harbor seal play and hunt in one of the park’s crystal clear lagoons.

However, the park’s popularity comes with a significant downside—the park can’t handle the amount of people that flock to it. Last week, Monterrey’s KSBW news reported on the scope of the problem:

About 1 million people a year visit the reserve and it’s more than the natural landscape can handle. Soon there may be a limit on the number of people allowed in each day. “There are over capacity issues, over use issues, people hiking off trail, a lot of…

Thoughts on terrorism from “The Moral Arc: How Science and Reason Lead Humanity toward Truth, Justice, and Freedom” by Michael Shermer (Holt, 2015).

I may be doing more quoting here than is allowed under “fair use” but here goes.  I will paraphrase his seven myths about terrorism.

1. Terrorists are pure evil. This was what Bush said after 9/11, but studies show they are typically motivated by outrage at U.S. foreign policy.
2. Terrorists are organized. There is no top-down, central organization directing terrorism.
3. Terrorists are diabolical geniuses. The shoe bomber and others following 9/11 were incompetent.
4. Terrorists are poor and uneducated. They are typically higher-income, better-educated individuals.
5. Terrorism is a deadly problem. Compare 13,700 homicides per year with 3,000 from 9/11 and an average of 70 terrorist deaths per year, or 7.8 per year excluding 9/11.
6. Terrorists will acquire and use a nuclear weapon…