'Mayor Bloomberg Is Driven Crazy by My Flintlock Gun'

New Yorkpolice are insisting that a Revolutionary War buff in Brooklyn obtain a permit for a flintlock rifle even though it's not covered by the city's gun registration law. The law includes an exception for "antique firearms," defined asweapons that require separate loading of bullets and gunpowder. Michael Littlejohn commissioned the $825 flintlock replica from a Tennessee blacksmith, and police found out about it after he lefta receipt at a copy center, wheresomeone discovered it Source: Reason Magazine - Hit Run RSS Feed

Say It Ain't So -- Government R&D Funding Slows Economic Growth!

Terence Kealey, who is a biochemist* and the vice-chancellor of Buckingham University in Britain, writes a remarkably interesting column in the current issue of the New Scientist. Here is the nub of Kealey's argument that government R&D slows economic growth:

In 2003, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development published The Sources of Economic Growth in OECD Countries, reporting on a comprehensive regression analysis of the factors that might explain the differentSource: Reason Magazine - Hit Run RSS Feed

NYC Buys One-Way Tickets For Homeless

From a somehow not outraged New York Times:

City Aids Homeless With One-Way Tickets Home

By JULIE BOSMAN

July 29, 2009

They are flown to Paris ($6,332), Orlando ($858.40), Johannesburg ($2,550.70), or most frequently, San Juan ($484.20).

They are not executives on business trips or couples on honeymoons. Rather, all are families who have ended up homeless, and all the plane tickets are courtesy of the city of New YorkSource: Sweetness Light RSS Feed

Tories open up 18 point gap with ComRes

CON 42 (+4) LAB 24 (+1) LD 18 (-4)

But was it more than just the “Norwich Effect”?

This clearly is a very good poll for the Tories who are back in the 40s after five consecutive surveys from the pollster that had them below the magical 40 number including one where they had slumped to just 30%.

The field-work started on Friday and went through to Sunday when the party, and particularly Cameron, was getting a lot of favourable coverage in the mediaSource: Political Betting RSS Feed