URLs du Jour

Sep

2012

2012-09-10

Hans Bader is must-read today, as he notes various Federal agencies
- requiring businesses in the financial sector to fire employees who have had legal run-ins involving dishonesty; even if the offenses were minor and occurred decades in the past;
- prohibiting other businesses from using criminal background checks on prospective employees.
One might ask whether all this Federal micromanagement of hiring/firing decisions might just have an overall negative impact on employment. Only because… y'know… that's exactly what's going on.
One half of the lefty-reviled Koch brothers, Charles, has a pretty good column in the WSJ today, on the general idea that "pro business" and "pro free market" are sometimes not the same thing, and some businesses, well …

Far too many businesses have been all too eager to lobby for maintaining and increasing subsidies and mandates paid by taxpayers and consumers. This growing partnership between business and government is a destructive force, undermining not just our economy and our political system, but the very foundations of our culture.

What he said.
I continue to be slack-jaw amazed at pictures coming back from Mars. In case you missed it: here (among other things) is a picture of Curiosity and its tracks, as taken my the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.