That seems like the policy implication of this story:

Gym-locker heists, bank robberies, daylight holdups — these New York City crimes have only one thing in common, and it is not the culprits.

It is the Yankees caps they wore.

A curious phenomenon has emerged at the intersection of fashion, sports and crime: dozens of men and women who have robbed, beaten, stabbed and shot at their fellow New Yorkers have done so while wearing Yankees caps or clothing.

OK, so I live near Boston and root for the Red Sox.  Maybe that is clouding my ability to separate causation from correlation.

The new French law banning burquas

forbids people from concealing their faces in public.

To answer the obvious question, yes, the French do celebrate Halloween.

My thoughts in a new paper for Mercatus.

Fareed Zakaria offers a thoughtful view.  His bottom line:

So the legitimate question now is: Have we gone too far? Is the vast expansion in governmental powers and bureaucracies — layered on top of the already enormous military-industrial complex of the Cold War — warranted? Does an organization that has as few as 400 members and waning global appeal require the permanent institutional response we have created?

I’ve been asking these questions for a few years now and described our “massive overreaction” in a 2008 Newsweek essay but with little effect. During the Bush years, there was a reluctance on the left to acknowledge that the administration could have done anything worthwhile to counter terrorism. The far greater problem is on the right, where it has become an article of faith that we are gravely threatened by vast swarms of Islamic terrorists, many within the country.

This campaign to spread a sense of imminent danger has fueled a climate of fear and anger. It has created suspicions about U.S. Muslims — who are more assimilated than in any other country in the world. Ironically, this is precisely the intent of terrorism. Bin Laden knew he could never weaken America directly, even if he blew up a dozen buildings or ships. But he could provoke an overreaction by which America weakened itself.

Exactly.

Why is the street food industry less vibrant in the U.S. than in other countries? Here is one reason:

Twin Cities food magazine Heavy Table traces Minneapolis’ lack of street food to turn-of-the-century local regulations which regulated vendors out of existence with onerous fees and requirements, and outright bans in many high-traffic areas.

Read the rest of the article here.

The Obama administration on Thursday told health insurers that it will track those who enact “unjustified” rate increases linked to the health overhaul and may block those companies from a new marketplace for insurance coverage.

Ms. Sebelius said some insurers were notifying enrollees that their insurance premiums will increase next year as a result of the law’s new benefits.

The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that some carriers are asking for total premium hikes topping 20% starting this month, and the carriers are attributing one to nine percentage points of the increases to new benefit mandates in the law.

“There will be zero tolerance for this type of misinformation and unjustified rate increases,” Ms. Sebelius wrote. “We will not stand idly by as insurers blame their premium hikes and increased profits on the requirement that they provide consumers with basic protections.”

This kind of statement from the administration makes my blood run cold. When did government get the right to dictate how private companies price their products?

The online betting at Intrade puts the probability of passage at only about 43%.

Polls in California are about evenly split.

In Room for Debate at the New York Times.

I am a life-long fan of the New York Giants football team (no, I was not raised in NY, but in DC; was a contrarian even back then).  So, it hurts to dump on anything associated with the Giants, but that’s life:

It’s the gift that keeps on taking. The old Giants Stadium, demolished to make way for New Meadowlands Stadium, still carries about $110 million in debt, or nearly $13 for every New Jersey resident, even though it is now a parking lot.

The financial hole was dug over decades by politicians who passed along the cost of building and fixing the stadium, and it is getting deeper. With the razing of the old stadium and the Giantsand the Jets moving into their splashy new home next door, a big source of revenue to pay down the debt has shriveled.

New Jerseyans are hardly alone in paying for stadiums that no longer exist. Residents of Seattle’s King County owe more than $80 million for the Kingdome, which was razed in 2000. The story has been similar in Indianapolis and Philadelphia. In Houston, Kansas City, Mo., Memphis and Pittsburgh, residents are paying for stadiums and arenas that were abandoned by the teams they were built for.

Government funding for stadiums is a boondoggle, pure and simple. The alleged economic benefits are always less than forecast and below the stadium’s cost. The funding just insures that local politicians get invited to watch games in the team skybox.

Critiques of Libertarianism and Critics of Cato. Enjoy.