The Liberal Order

Reinvented to give you "everything you could possibly want."

Check out the ad below, which is to air (supposedly) during the Super Bowl. Isn't this the beauty of capitalism? Complete strangers - the investors, the managers, the contractors, the labor, and more - toil to give me "everything I could possibly want" in a car. I don't even know these people. A tear rolls down my cheek. 

Reinvented from DTan on Vimeo.

 

Tim Thomas, A Man With Principle

Tim Thomas, goalie for the Boston Bruins, refused to attend a reception at the White House in honor of the Bruins winning the Stanley Cup. His reason?

A statement by the 37-year-old Thomas posted Monday on the team website said he opposed the "out of control" growth of the federal government that threatened "the rights, liberties, and property of the people."

"This is being done at the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial level. This is in direct opposition to the Constitution and the Founding Fathers vision for the federal government," the statement said. "Because I believe this, today I exercised my right as a Free Citizen, and did not visit the White House. This was not about politics or party, as in my opinion both parties are responsible for the situation we are in as a country. This was about a choice I had to make as an INDIVIDUAL."

I'm guessing neither Romney nor Gingrich are on his list of favorite candidates for president.

Errors In Government Spending

From an editorial in today's Raleigh News & Observer:

It's a lot of money to put into a soccer stadium, but Cary seems to have the right, "if you build it, they will come" attitude. The municipality of 140,000 people figures that its soccer park could draw national collegiate championship playoffs back to town with the 3,000 additional seats that are being added.

In recent years, Cary has lost out to other communities with new stadiums and more space. But Cary, in terms of additional amenities such as hotels and restaurants and shopping, takes a back seat to no one and isn't shirking from the competition. It wants the 2012 men's collegiate championship and the men's and women's finals in 2013.

Soccer is an international sport whose popularity will only grow in the decades to come. And in terms of facilities, it is not on the super-expensive scale of major college football or basketball. For Cary this adds up to smart sport, and smart business.

For many like me, it's not that I regard government spending on things like this misguided, and therefore inappropriate, because markets are infallible and if things like a soccer stadium were truly socially efficient markets would have already supplied it. No, it's that because of the incentive structures in place, individuals acting in private markets and spending their own money are far less likely to err relative to politicians and bureaucrats spending other people's money in deciding how to allocate scarce resources.  

UPDATE: Neal Inman and some commentators on the the Civitas Institute blog offer further insight. 

Eight Scandals In Higher Education

Given the events at Penn State and the firing of its president and legendary football coach, the Washington Post's Daniel De Vise lists the eight most recent notorious scandals in higher education that ended the careers of their respective presidents.

I'll reserve my own judgement and opinion regarding #7. But I will say the consequence of the forced resignation of George Roche III as president of Hillsdale College is that the succeeding president, Dr. Larry Arnn, has done an outstanding job of leading that school and transforming it into an exceptional institution of higher learning. 

Penn State

The behavior exhibited by students at Penn State on Wednesday night was appalling. Yes, football coaching legend Joe Paterno lost his job, and it may appear to hardcore PSU fans a bit unfair/unwise to have fired him three days before his last home game. But the severity of what precipitated Paterno's firing far outweighs a football coach losing his job for failing to take appropriate action to stop such destructive behavior. In fact, the trustees had no other choice and did the right thing.

The students are now redeeming themselves honorably. 

At 9:30 p.m. Friday, a candlelight vigil in support of victims of child abuse will be held, an effort organized by students.

There will be speakers, including a victim of sex abuse in another case, performances of the Penn State Blue Band, a marching band, and an a cappella group called Nota. There will be a moment of silence when the clock strikes 10 p.m. at the Old Main building on the Penn State campus.

The vigil is expected to present a different message than late Wednesday, when students who opposed Paterno's firing rioted.

But in a news story about McQueary being suspended from coaching as of this afternoon, PSU president Erickson is offering the following odd response with regards to Penn State's home game against Nebraska this Saturday:

Erickson also said that the game would be an opportunity to demonstrate many of the aspects of childhood sexual abuse and the tragedy of it.

Is the football game really the proper forum for this? It sounds kind of creepy.

NFL Players Past & Present and Bankruptcy Once Again

Despite $50 million in earnings over his 18-year career, Jets quarterback Mark Brunell is bankrupt. It's nothing new.

"It's something like 78 percent of former NFL players, two years after their last game, are either bankrupt, divorced, or unemployed," Ruettgers told WAWS-TV.

NFL Teams and Political Donations

To which party do different NFL teams donate?

To Republicans:

And to the Democrats:

Source. The Jets are the only surprise for me. It appears that most teams donate in unison with their customer base.

Potential Rule Changes for the NFL

In a move to seemingly reduce head-bashing collisions, the NFL moved the spot where kickoffs are made to the 35-yard line. The result is that most kickoffs sail out of the end zone for a touchback. 

Bill Belichick proposes two rule changes, one of which is to eliminate kickoffs altogether and have the offense just begin on the 20-yard line. The second is to get rid of the PAT (point after touchdown). Both, argues Belichick, do nothing to increase interest in the game and simply raise the cost to fans watching. Spoken like a true economist. (BTW - It's only the kickoff under the current rule change that does nothing to increase interest in the game since it's almost a given that the ball will be kicked out of the end zone.)

Now, author MJD offers a brillian alternative, which is to award the scoring team 7 points for each touchdown (the PAT is a gimme, why not just award it and not go through the motions), and if they wish to attempt a two-point conversion, allow it (but at the six-yard line). If the scoring team tries for two points and fails, they end up with six points rather than seven, and if the make it, they end up with eight points rather than seven.

Now if we could only get this rule change implemented. 

Greed and Racism In the NFL

Mike Munger discusses the inconsistent arguments put forth by people who view business owners as driven by "greed," but then on the other hand disparage them for not building food stores in low-income areas. These people view the latter scenario as a short-sighted oversight of these greedy capitalists because these greedy demons are passing up on such profitable opportunities by not building grocery stores in low income areas that they allege is due to racism on the part of greedy entrepreneurs. Munger discredits their arguments and then discusses how greed is an antidote for racism. He uses Branch Rickey drafting Jackie Robinson as an example of self-interest trumping racism on the part of "beisbol" team owners. He then offers a few citations of self-interest and discrimination in Major League Baseball.

The same is true of football as well, but a little different.

Blacks were excluded from playing in the NFL beginning in 1926. This policy continued at the insistence largely of George Preston Marshall until after World War II when some teams realized the disadvantages of excluding great talent from their teams. They also didn't want to be left out if other teams began signing the best black players. 

George Preston Marshall, owner of the Washington Redskins, insisted that blacks be excluded from NFL rosters and continued his refusal to sign black players despite what other teams were doing. He once quipped, "We'll start signing Negroes when the Harlem Globetrotters start signing whites."

Marshall's racist stance continued until 1962, when then-Attorney General Robert Kennedy and Interior Secretary Morris Udall threatened to revoke the Redskins' lease granting them permission to play at the new D.C. Stadium (what is now named RFK Memorial Stadium). Only then, and forced to do so against his will, did Marshall draft a black player. In 1962 he drafted Ernie Davis out of Syracuse University, but Davis refused to play for a racist owner and demanded he be traded. Marshall acquiesced, trading Davis to the Cleveland Browns for Bobby Mitchell. The team never had many winning seasons, and this acquisition of Mitchell didn't change that much. But once Jack Kent Cooke began taking control of operations of the Redskins in 1969, a man who had no problem signing the best talent regardless of the color of their skin (i.e., his greed compelled him to do so), winning games and seasons happened more frequently.

Even still, blacks were excluded from playing quarterback in the NFL. The quarterback was usually the highest paid player on a team and he was considered the team's leader, neither of which were acceptable for whites. Marlin Briscoe broke the color barrier in 1968, quarterbacking the Denver Broncos for the remainder of the season following an injury to starting quarterback Steve Tensi. Denver released Briscoe before the start of the next season and he was signed by the Buffalo Bills. However, he was immediately converted to wide receiver. 

Warren Moon, an exceptional quarterback in high school, found that the only major college football programs willing to sign him would do so only if he agreed to switch positions to wide receiver. He refused to do so and chose to play his college freshman year at West Los Angeles College, a junior college. After a remarkable season at West L.A., he was recruited by a few colleges willing to allow him to quarterback their team, and eventually signed with the University of Washington. But this wasn't without warning that if he played quarterback in college, no NFL team was likely to draft him at the end of his college career. He held fast to his conviction and chose to play quarterback for the Huskies. After not being drafted by any NFL team in 1978 after his final season at Washington, Moon opted to play in the Canadian Football league where he proved himself an exceptional player.

After great success in the Canadian Football League, Moon decided to enter the NFL as a free agent in 1984. This created a bidding war for his services given his success in the CFL, and he signed with the Houston Oilers. 

In 1978, Hugh Culverhouse, owner of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, did draft a black quarterback right out of college, Doug Williamw of Grambling State University. Doug had great success quarterbacking the Bucs, taking the previously losing franchise to the playoffs three out of his first four seasons with the team. However, he was the lowest paid starter in the NFL - actually paid less than a number of backups on other NFL teams - and demanded more money from the Bucs following the 1982 season. Culverhouse offered Williams more money, but refused to meet his salary demands. Consequently, in 1982 Williams signed with the Oklahama Outlaws of the newly created U.S. Football League.    

In 1986, Williams signed with the . . . wait for it . . . Washington Redskins, led by Cooke and coached by Joe Gibbs. In 1988, Williams became the first black quarterback to not only play in the Super Bowl, but to lead the team to victory as well, and also winning the game's MVP award.

The success of Moon and Williams on two different NFL teams blazed the path for the modern-era of black quarterbacks in the NFL. The two players both proved that not only were blacks capable of leading an NFL team to victory, they could also bring home the Lombardi Trophy. There are currently 17 black quarterbacks playing in the NFL.

UPDATE: I am always proud to have been affiliated with Hillsdale College, for no reason more than its history of racial equality. Of interest, the 1956 football team was invited to play in the Tangerine Bowl, with one caveat: "Leave your black players at home." The team voted and decided for that reason they would refuse the invitation. As one former player told me a few years ago, it wasn't even a vote; nobody wanted to accept the invitation if "their friends" couldn't come along and play as well.  

Should Voters Be Required to Pass A Test Before They Can Vote?

So how do we weed out ignorant voters without harking back to the days of poll taxes and Jim Crow? I would start by making the U.S. Naturalization Test -- given to immigrants who want to become citizens -- part of the voter registration process.

If knowing the number of years a senator is elected to serve is required of anyone who wants to become a U.S. citizen, is it too much to expect that information to be common knowledge for those of us who already are?

Op-ed by LZ Granderson, an ESPN columnist, here.

Here's Bryan Caplan explaining his theory of the myth of the rational voter. Here's Bryan's book at Amazon.com.