Tom Liberman

What is right and anyone else's opinion! ;)
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  • Tom Liberman
don-denkinger-bad-call

Self-Refereeing and North Carolina vs Gonzaga Apr 4, 2017

I did not watch the NCAA Basketball Championship game between Gonzaga and North Carolina but the articles in the various sports websites I visit seemed to indicate that the referees intruded fairly heavily. This usually means they called a lot of fouls. There are two points of view on this. One is that officials should let the players play the game. This means not calling many fouls. The problem there is when the players realize the officials aren't going to call anything other than obvious fouls they start to play outside the rules of the game. Things can get ugly...

By Tom Liberman Vote1 0
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Privacy in Browsing History Government v Capitalism Apr 1, 2017

People are up in arms because Congress granted Internet Service Providers the ability to sell the browsing history of users. Well, that's not exactly what happened. In 2016 the Federal Communication Commission began enforcing a rule preventing ISPs from selling such information. Congress just repealed that rule. The major ISPs have now come out with a statement saying they will never do so. Here we have in brilliant technicolor the problem with government regulations. Anything the government can do, they can undo with the swipe of pen. Any law they pass to support one thing, can oppose that same thing when...

By Tom Liberman Vote1 0
sherri-papini

Extraordinary Claims and Sherri Papini Mar 31, 2017

I don't know how many of you remember the Sherri Papini story from November of 2016 but there is an interesting update to the supposed events that transpired. What I want to talk about today is the old adage that skeptics embrace: An extraordinary claim require extraordinary proof. I can say, as do the commenters on the updated story, that I was pretty skeptical of Papini's story from the start. It was filled with extraordinary claims and there appeared to be little evidence to support it. Nevertheless, she received quite a bit of sympathy. We certainly don't know that her...

By Tom Liberman Vote2 1
hollywood-production-code

Lessons from the Demise of the Motion Picture Production Code Mar 31, 2017

Thanks to Bing Search I learned today the Motion Picture Production Code, more commonly known as the Hays Code, was first put into effect eight-seven years ago. It stayed in place for about thirty years before it eventually was replaced with the rating system movies use to this day. The lesson I'd like to talk about today is why the code failed. Before we get to that, let's find out what it was and why it was created. Basically the code restricted all sorts of things from being depicted in movies. The list of banned items included any non-reverent mention of god,...

By Tom Liberman Vote2 0
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The Fools Rush to Limit Opioid Prescription Length Mar 31, 2017

Governor John Kasich and the legislature of Ohio just joined Governor Chris Christie and New Jersey in limiting the length of prescriptions for Opioids to one week. Of the new law Kasich said, We all need to stick our noses into somebody else's business. Before I go on a Libertarian induced rage rant let's examine why this is happening. Pharmaceutical companies have been pumping out enormous amounts of opioids like fentanyl and doctors have been prescribing them in equally large numbers. While the authorities have been quite aggressive about jailing opioid dealers who aren't pharmaceutical companies and doctors they have largely allowed...

By Tom Liberman Vote4 0
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NFL Referees Allowed in Vegas but why were they Banned? Mar 27, 2017

The National Football League owners just voted to allow the Oakland Raiders and owner Mark Davis to move the team to Las Vegas. I'm not surprised. There is more money to be made in Las Vegas than in Oakland in the same way there was more money to be had in Los Angeles than St. Louis. I'm not here as a snowflake St. Louis Rams fan to condemn the greed of the NFL owners. What I want to talk about is the rule preventing league officials from entering the city of Las Vegas during the season. That's right, prior to the...

By Tom Liberman Vote2 0
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Are Vitamins Worth Purchasing? Mar 27, 2017

The Annals of Internal Medicine recently posted an editorial pretty much blasting the use of multivitamins and supplements. I originally came across the study in an article from Business Insider and the comment section was pretty universal in condemnation of the story. I've long felt that supplements and vitamins were a waste of money and almost universally placebos but the recent studies and this article seems to affirm my opinions. Wikipedia also confirms this idea. It is important to note that the studies do not address what are called micronutrient deficiencies. Those who suffer from such deficiencies benefit greatly from vitamins...

By Tom Liberman Vote2 0
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Closing Liquor Stores in Whiteclay to Solve Alcoholism Mar 25, 2017

I just read a terrible story about a little town in Nebraska that serves one purpose. It supplies alcohol to Native Americans living just across the border in South Dakota at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Whiteclay has a population of 14 and four liquor stores and the stores sell about 13,000 cans of beer a day. These sales result in a contribution of nearly half a million dollars to the state coffers of Nebraska. This does not include revenue from the thousands of DUI tickets given to drivers leaving the town. At least some of the beer is sold to bootleggers...

By Tom Liberman Vote3 1
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Chevy Chase, Community, Hate, and Success Mar 25, 2017

I was browsing through some of the glorious paintball clips of the television show Community on YouTube when I came across this video. It reminded me one of the show's stars, Chevy Chase, hated being on the show and most of the cast and creator were not particular fond of him. If Chase hated being on the show and most of the people he worked with didn't like him, how was the show so hysterically funny? How was Chase so good? How did the other actors create comedy gold in scenes with him? How did the show runner produce hilarious episodes one...

By Tom Liberman Vote2 0
Nick-Saban

Nick Saban Rants about Summer Camps but it’s Really all about being a Libertarian Mar 22, 2017

I just read an interesting story at ESPN about how Nick Saban gave a press conference in which he is quite angry. The main rant seems to involve assumptions about his offensive plans for the upcoming season but later he gets to a topic that touches this Libertarian's heartstrings. Rules created to prevent some perceived wrong that end up hurting far more people than they help. At issue is my favorite target, the NCAA. College football teams like Alabama hold summer camps for young players. This allows said teams to gain personal relationships with players that often translate to scholarships...

By Tom Liberman Vote1 1

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