Pun Salad

… gonna wear no socks and shoes:

• The coveted Pun Salad "Read The Whole Thing" award for today goes to a particularly brilliant piece of satire: "The New York Times Algorithm & Why It Needs Government Regulation". (Via the Tech Lib Front, which all liberty-loving geeks should be reading too.)

• Nobel Laureate Gary Becker is not a fan of the Dodd-Frank financial "reform" bill.

  A 2300 page bill is usually an indication of many political compromises. The Dodd-Frank financial reform bill is no exception, for it is a complex, disorderly, politically motivated, and not well thought out reaction to the financial crisis that erupted beginning with the panic of the fall of 2008. Not everything about the bill is bad-e.g., the requirement that various derivatives trade through exchanges may be a good suggestion- but the disturbing parts of the bill are far more important.

  Among Becker's gripes: the bill does nothing about Freddie and Fannie; it contains heavy new regulations on activities that had nothing to do with the crisis; it contains many provisions that "will have highly uncertain impacts on the economy."

  Could Dodd-Frank be the Smoot-Hawley of our day? Hope not. But maybe.

• Our local paper, Foster's Daily Democrat, page-ones a story about the little Carrie Nations inhabiting our region:

  A go-cart featuring Budweiser decals has been removed from the race course at Hilltop Fun Center after members of Youth to Youth waived the caution flag about its presence on the track.

  "Youth to Youth" is an organization with admirable goals:

  Youth to Youth's message is a clear cut "NO" to tobacco, alcohol, or any other drug at any time. Maturing teens need definitive guidelines.

  … but every time I read about them, they're not talking "to youth", but instead hectoring local businesses about something that's offended their callow sensibilities. Here's hoping they don't go to Fenway Park; they'll have a cow.

• The good folks at New Hampshire Liberty Alliance have put together their report cards for Granite State legislators. My own legislators improved from "awful" to "mediocre", garnering a B-minus, a C-minus, two D-pluses, and an incomplete. (Last year: D-plus, a D, two D-minuses, and an F.)

  My state Senator, Amanda Merrill, improved from a D-minus last year to a gentlewoman's C.

• It's a program, so you can believe it:
  

  I write like
  Dan Brown

  I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

  Submitting other paragraphs from Pun Salad gave significantly higher-brow answers: Nabokov, Joyce, and Margaret Atwood. But I went with the guy who makes the most moola, because that's the way I roll.