Pun Salad

I seem to have been on a SCOTUS kick of late. Bookwise, over the past few months I've read books by Amy Coney Barrett and the late Antonin Scalia. And just a couple days ago I watched Clarence Thomas's lecture at the University of Texas in Austin.

And now here's SCOTUS justice Neil Gorsuch, with co-author Janie Nitze. (Janie's had an interesting life: a physics major who has clerked for both Gorsuch and Sonia Sotomayor.)

It's been fashionable for critics of SCOTUS's conservative/libertarian wing to accuse them of being in the pocket of "big business", consistently ruling against the "little guy". That would be a difficult accusation to make stick after reading this book: the major theme here involves numerous accounts of "little guys" getting battered by government at all levels. And often that battering is performed for the benefit of entrenched business interests. The book is very anecdotal, and I probably risked my blood pressure spiking in many of the cases the authors relate. Example: the case of hacker/activist Aaron Swartz, who committed suicide in 2013 at age 26, facing decades in prison at the hands of (Obama-era!) DOJ prosecutors.

I was reading Hayek's The Constitution of Libery concurrently with reading this. Hayek was aghast at the increase of "administrative" rules, often applied by arbitrary and inconsistent whim, in contrast to what he called the "rule of law" or Rechtsstaat. Reader, things were bad enough when Hayek's book came out in 1960; Gorsuch and Nitze may convince you that they're much worse now.

The book is very readable, although the prose dips over to clichés at times. (E.g.: "As we write, our nation is rapidly approaching the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence." Rapidly? I'm pretty sure we're approaching it at the same rate we always do: one second per second.)

I'm sure Justice Gorsuch had to steer clear of commenting specifically about any issue that's likely to come before SCOTUS. I'm pretty sure (however) that lawyers who had to argue in favor of actions taken by an unaccountable "independent" federal agency would have their work cut out for them.

I couldn't help but notice an interesting thing about the maze pictured on the book's cover: it has no solution. That third ring out from the center is solid. I wouldn't blame that little guy standing at the outer entrance for feeling frustrated!

Jeff Maurer has a relatively serious look at "AI job losses". And his conclusion is: “AI Job Losses” So Far Largely Means “Call Center Jobs”.

I usually rely on sites like Cafe Hayek and Marginal Revolution to critique bullshit economic research, but non-economist Jeff does a pretty good job too.

Also of note:

• Ackshually, we've figured out a lot of other stuff too. But David Harsanyi has a specific bone to pick, and who to pick it with: Hey, Socialists, We've Already Figured Out the Supermarket.

  There are at least 76,000 supermarkets in the United States. Most of us probably have a dozen within 10 miles of home.

  Nevertheless, leftists are constantly trying to convince us that we need government-run grocery stores. The latest person is New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who has promised to open five city-run markets to combat "out-of-control" prices by getting rid of the "profit motive," passing on the savings to consumers.

  David describes a number of reasons to be skeptical about the Zohran's schemes. Example:

  The Mamdani Mart in Harlem, for instance, will be built on land already owned by the city, and it's still going to cost $30 million according to the mayor, if government estimates are right, a rarity.

  In the real world, these exorbitant costs would be passed on to consumers. In the Mamdani world, the cost is tacked on to an already $5.4 billion budget deficit.

  To put the cost into context, a new Aldi costs around $1.5 million to $3 million on average to construct, not including the cost of the land. Other chains might cost around $3 million to $5 million. Aldi keeps costs as low as possible because they are governed by the profit motive.

  An Aldi can be built as quickly as six weeks. Mamdani's supermarket won't be open until 2029. Maybe.

  If I'm still around in 2029, I'll try to remember to check up on the Mamdani Marts.

• I was worried. But Space.com reporter Mike Wall has some good news: Artemis 2's heat shield seems to have aced its trial by fire.

  Artemis 2's return to Earth went a lot more smoothly than some folks had feared.

  The heat shield on Artemis 2's Orion capsule, which the crew named "Integrity," was the topic of considerable discussion in the lead-up to the mission's April 10 splashdown — for several years before that, in fact.

  For a more negative take on Artemis II, skip over to Behind the Black's post-splashdown summary:

  The Artemis-2 mission is now over, though the final condition of that heat shield still needs to be analyzed. In addition, engineers need figure out how to fix a bunch of other issues that took place during the mission:

  • A leak in an internal helium tank on Europe’s service module
  • Communication drop-outs several times
  • the endless issues with Orion’s toilet

  There were other minor issues that cropped up repeatedly, none significant but all of which should be fixed. And though it will be helpful to determine how this heat shield performed, it should be noted that the data is essentially irrelevant to future missions. The next mission, Artemis-3, will use a completely different design, and test it for the first time on a manned flight. That flight however will be in Earth orbit, so the stress on the shield will be far less than this return, even with the changed re-entry path.

  Though many will call this lunar fly-by “historic,” it will likely be little remembered by future generations. It did little to move the settlement of the solar system forward. No truly useful engineering was tested. The rocket and capsule are engineering dead-ends. Neither will be of much use for establishing colonies on the Moon or Mars, as SLS is still too expensive and too difficult to stack and launch and Orion is too small for any interplanetary missions, being nothing more than an overweight and very expensive ascent/descent capsule.

  Kind of a downer. But not an inaccurate one.