Jens 'n' Frens

Once again, voters are ignorant, not stupid
Nick Gillespie warns against the moral panic over bullying

I have no interest in defending the bullies who dominate sandboxes, extort lunch money and use Twitter to taunt their classmates. But there is no growing crisis. Childhood and adolescence in America have never been less brutal. Even as the country's overprotective parents whip themselves up into a moral panic about kid-on-kid cruelty, the numbers don't point to any explosion of abuse. As for the rising wave of laws and regulations designed to combat meanness among students, they are likely to lump together minor slights with major offenses. The antibullying movement is already conflating serious cases of gay-bashing and vicious harassment with things like… a kid named Cheese having a tough time in grade school.

He quotes some statistics suggesting that things are getting better, not worse, and concludes

Our problem isn't a world where bullies are allowed to run rampant; it's a world where kids like Aaron are convinced that they are powerless victims.

John Taylor argues against the Fed's dual mandate and in favor of limiting its discretion. Which, if you've read anything about monetary policy by John Taylor, isn't new, but he's still right.
There's been a story going around that, in the last few decades, conservatives have lost confidence in science. A better characterization of the finding is that conservatives have lost faith in scientists. Important distinction, that is.
Paul Ryan and Ron Johnson perpetrated an April Fools' joke on Mitt Romney

Before speaking to voters at a pancake breakfast here, GOP presidential front-runner Mitt Romney waited behind a black curtain as Rep. Paul Ryan and Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson stepped out to introduce him.
"My staff says to me… we didn't get much of a turnout this morning, it's really small, but it will be okay, it will be okay. And so I hear Paul Ryan goes out… he's down there, "And so now, let's welcome Ron Johnson, and Mitt Romney, the next president of the United States,'" Mr. Romney said Sunday.
Messrs. Ryan and Johnson, with the help of Romney staff members, lured the candidate into a ballroom all set up for a campaign rally. The draping was hanging. The sound system was on. But there were no voters.

Obamacare, Crony Capitalism and Big Media
Carvin's arguments to SCOTUS against Obamacare