Wednesday Links: Playoff Hockey

Photo: Flickr/clydeorama

Which Alex Semin will show up in the playoffs? I hope it’s this one.
Hard work is passé, Hamilton Nolan writes. He suggests Americans not work one minute over eight hours a day. I can’t express how much I disagree.
Ronald Bailey suggests that even the wisest bureaucrats might not be able to resist the human temptation to overreact to perceived risks.
Brian Clark argues that concise writing and effective writing may be at odds.
Is there really a wage gap between men and women?
Last but not least, the District of Columbia is taking land from private landowners and giving it to a private developer who will use it for politically-approved purposes.

Wednesday Links: Assigning Priorities

Photo: Flickr/schickr

Prioritizing tasks can be hard. Trent Hamm offers some advice on how to distinguish the important from the merely urgent.
Why is your marketing copy not converting? Copyblogger has some ideas.
“Every piece of the ‘success story’ of the auto bailout,” Todd Zywicki argues, would “seem to be in error.”
Regulatory capture in reverse: heavily regulated industries are protesting a Florida proposal that would remove licensing requirements for professions like interior design and dance instruction.
Timeliness and concision are the keys to successful marketing on Facebook, Lauren Drell reports. Equally as important: asking your supporters to engage.
Last but not least, Readability is an intriguing new online tool to make long-form online text easier to read in the browser. The Chrome extension is pretty nifty, but I haven’t taken the plunge to purchase the full service.

Monday Links: That’s Not Privatization

Photo: Flickr/coltera

Municipalities are contracting out various public services like libraries and parking enforcement to private enterprises, and the Washington Post outlines some of the challenges of this approach. Unfortunately, the Post inaccurately describes this as privatization, which is when government divests itself entirely from a current function. Contracting the function while maintaining ultimate responsibility for its provision is simply outsourcing.
Stephen Smith points out that when it comes to “privatization” of government parking facilities, “the ‘owners’ are barely even allowed to set their own prices, nevermind decide to use their land for, *gasp* something other than parking.”
Adam at PlayNice.ly looks into what’s required to establish a merchant account for credit card processing. Smashing Magazine covers the same ground and suggests a few payment processors. Fundraisers should take special note of Adam’s warnings about PayPal, which may impose long-run costs hidden by its easy setup.
The reliably progressive StreetsBlog argues that it would be a mistake to cut federal funding for bike paths and rail transit, which it argues are cost-effective. But even if a program is cost-effective, does that mean the federal government ought to spend money on it?
Last but not least, Oregon lawmakers rick-roll the legislature:

What Judges Have to Do with Runaway Government

Photo: Flickr/IXQUICK

Government is growing ever more intrusive and arrogant, George Will argues in an important new article:

The original constitutional structure has, [law professor Elizabeth Price Foley] says, been inverted: Citizens are required to convince the courts that laws restricting liberty are “irrational”; government should be required to articulate justifications for limiting liberty. The Founders’ goal — in John Adams’s formulation, a nation of “laws, and not of men” — has, Foley believes, “been taken much too far.”

The courts, Will concludes, “incit[e] governmental arrogance by deferring to it. So judicial deference often is dereliction of judicial duty.” Continue reading »

‘Reign In’ vs. ‘Rein In’: A Visual Guide

At a time when Congress is trying to cut federal spending, political reporters often confuse two homophones and write “reign in spending” instead of “rein in spending.”

Here’s a visual guide to help writers distinguish the two. Continue reading »

Friday Links: How Well Are You Marketing?

Loren McDonald asks if e-mail marketers are sending too many messages and offers some ways you can tell if you’re over-sending.
Target Analytics has released its 2011 index of non-profit fundrasing performance, based on 83 organizations. Roger Craver wants to know what these organizations’ direct marketers are doing wrong.
You thought America had a real estate bubble? China’s central planners have built whole cities that now lie empty. Via Tim Cavanaugh.
Dan Mitchell passes on a slightly bawdy joke about unions.
Last but not least, Pierre LeBrun argues that Alex Ovechkin’s diminished numbers this year reflect a player newly committed to team victory over personal success. The Capitals, perhaps not coincidentally, have clinched the Southeast division for the fourth straight year.

How Government Regulation Artificially Limits Urban Density

A Philadelphia parking lot. Photo: Flickr/Tim McFarlane

Like many urban problems, the decline of walkable, livable urban centers can be traced to government intervention. In Triumph of the City, Ed Glaeser argues that restrictive zoning regulations served only to distort markets, artificially limit density and make dense areas unaffordable.

In a new article for Cato Ubound, Donald Shoup argues that minimum parking requirements—which require developers to build a certain number of off-street parking spaces—have promoted auto-oriented urban design over denser, more walkable forms: Continue reading »

Tuesday Links: Paul Ryan’s Budget

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI). Photo: Wikimedia/Gage Skidmore

Rep. Paul Ryan makes the case for his 2012 budget. My colleagues at Heritage give it two cheers, and Ross Douthat calls it the “triumph of policy” over politics.
E.J. Dionne warns that Ryan’s budget would mark the end of progressive government, which is actually a good thing.
A new report released by the New Organizing Institute both offers insights into e-mail advocacy and explains why careful testing is important.
Megan McArdle explains that the complexity of accounting practices means it’s perhaps futile to try to design a corporate tax without “loopholes” of any sort. “A corporate income tax,” she writes, “needs to start by calculating income, and as anyone who has ever looked at a corporate financial statement knows, that’s really complicated.”
Mark Hemingway points out the facts about who has received campaign donations post–Citizens United. We shouldn’t forget, though, that principle is a better way to make policy than a cui bono analysis.
Last but not least, Trent Hamm makes the case that your leisure time should not be spent idly. Leisure time, he writes, “can provide all the space you need to take on personal goals and get involved in things you might not otherwise enjoy.”

Monday Links: Artificial Scarcity

Photo: Flickr/Jason Lawrence

How a cab medallion system is counterproductive: it introduces artificial scarcity and distorts drivers’ incentives.
Russ Roberts points out that Japan’s fuel shortages are no mystery and that the solution isn’t more regulation. Shortages are a result of price controls that keep a scare product artificially inexpensive.
Some fancy CSS work by Josh Brewer yields an impressive typographic result.
New York City’s parking “privatization” scheme is a bad idea that isn’t really privatization at all, Stephen Smith argues.
Last but not least, Dan Mitchell rounds up the late-night hosts’ cracks about Libya. My favorite, from Conan: “It’s being reported that Moammar Gadhafi is surrounded by an élite core of female bodyguards. In a related story, Charlie Sheen invaded Libya.”

Creating Clean Amazon Affiliate Links in WordPress

One way bloggers can earn incremental income is through affiliate marketing programs, among which Amazon’s is perhaps the most popular. Bloggers simply link to Amazon products, adding a special referral code, and they are given credit for the sales they generate.

Generating these tracking codes can be something of a pain. Amazon’s own utility is clumsy and offers up a long, clunky URL. Ragaskar’s WordPress plugin aims to fill the void by automatically appending tracking codes to Amazon links in posts, but this can still generate clunky links.

Based on Ragaskar’s plugin, I whipped up the following code: Continue reading »