“If we don’t do it, someone else will.” If I had a nickel for every time someone said this to me in regard to U.S. foreign policy, I’d have enough to pay off the rest of my student loans and put any future children through college.

This is particularly true when it comes to the idea of the U.S. providing arms to foreign nations. Advocates of this practice argue that the U.S. can maintain significant control over international peace and stability and effectively implement its policies, all while enhancing the domestic economy.

If the United States government were to lose this tool or relinquish its position, it is claimed that other governments may step into this role, reap the benefits, and possibly implement policies that counter U.S. interests.

For many decades most economists believed patents were key to the innovation and material progress enjoyed by the West. In recent years, however, many have looked at patents with growing skepticism, with some even suggesting that the patent system be scrapped. In contrast, economist Arthur M. Diamond Jr. (Univ. of Nebraska at Omaha) believes these critics miss their mark. Diamond recognizes that the U.S. patent system has major problems, including overly costly litigation, but he holds that it can and should be mended, not ended. He makes his case in “Seeking the Patent Truth: Patents Can Provide Justice and Funding for Inventors,” the lead article of the Winter 2015 issue of The Independent Review.

Diamond begins by arguing that critics and defenders of patents often share false assumptions. For example, both camps tend to overlook what he regards as patents’ primary moral purpose: to provide justice to inventors. They also tend to misunderstand patents’ main economic function: Their actual role isn’t to incentivize inventors to invent, but rather to enable them to do so—such as through the licensing of their patents to manufacturers. (Thomas Edison relied on this practice early in his career.)

While everyone else is wondering whether or not the Supreme Court will strike down the Obamacare tax benefits in 37 jurisdictions (36 states plus Washington, D.C.) with the actual Affordable Care Act as written, some Democratic U.S. Senators are urging women to dig deeper into Obamacare by encouraging them to delay getting health insurance until after they become pregnant.

As reported by Lydia Wheeler in The Hill, Senator Patty Murray has round up 36 signatures on a letter addressed to U.S. Health & Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell, urging her to pull yet another “special enrollment period” out of her bag of tricks.

In a statement, Christina Postolowski, health policy manager of Young Invincibles, said she’s thrilled to see a growing chorus of leaders calling on the administration to create a special open enrollment period to make maternity coverage available to pregnant women year-round.

According to Postolowski’s December 2014 report “Without Maternity Coverage” maternity care and delivery ranges from $10,000 to $20,000 without complications.

Secretary Burwell has recently conjured up a special enrollment period, in April, for those who are shocked to learn from the IRS that they must pay a fine (or tax or penalty) for not having Obamacare-qualifying coverage in 2014.

Women are equal
Madeleine lusts for murder
Hillary’s on board

Uncertain prospect
Cheney and Wolfowitz weep
‘Cause peace might break out

Mission accomplished
Bush II stages a cool stunt
Women and kids die

So sorry, Saddam
No nukes, yet Shrub keeps his seat
Condi skips debate

No one’s in prison
Guilty parties sit pretty
All is forgiven

[F]irst of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory.

Many people will recognize these as the words of former President Franklin D. Roosevelt. After taking the oath of office on Saturday, March 4, 1933, Roosevelt delivered his inaugural address, containing the now famous line. In his speech, the President spoke to a crowd in the early throws of the Great Depression. High unemployment and an uncertain future had many Americans wondering, “What’s next?”

January’s Personal Income and Outlays report from the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis shows how significant Obamacare’s subsidies to households have become. Last month, they accounted for 21 percent of the increase in total government transfer payments to households:

Personal current transfer receipts increased $24.8 billion in January, compared with an increase of $13.8 billion in December. The January estimates of current transfer receipts reflected several special factors…. Other government social benefits to persons was boosted $5.3 billion, primarily reflecting health insurance premium subsidies paid in the form of tax credits to enrollees of the Affordable Care Act exchanges.

Venezuela’s tyrant, Nicolás Maduro, has a habit of surpassing his own repressive feats every now and then. The latest wave of repression gives a stunning indication of how far he is prepared to go to hold on to power in the face of massive rejection.

At the end of January, Maduro’s government gave the military the authority to shoot protesters. A few days later, he threw in jail the owners of supermarket chains and pharmacies whom he accused of creating an artificial scarcity for conspiratorial reasons. Then he ordered his thugs to beat up Leopoldo López, the iconic opposition figure incarcerated at the Ramo Verde military prison, before placing him in solitary confinement. On February 19, he sent intelligence agents to kidnap Caracas mayor Antonio Ledezma, a leading critic, from his office.

The federal government’s second estimate of fourth quarter Gross Domestic Product (GDP), published Friday by the U.S. Department of Commerce, confirmed what we pointed out from the initial estimate released on January 30: Health spending is chewing up more and more of the weakening economic recovery.

GDP growth was actually revised down from the initial estimate of 2.6 percent to a second estimate of just 2.2 percent. In dollar terms, it was a drop from $106 billion to just $88.1 billion.

Health spending, initially estimated at $20.4 billion, was tweaked up a little to $21.4 billion. In other words, health spending devoured one-quarter of GDP growth in the fourth quarter.

The devil is agile and quick on his feet
He fought at Gettyburg
From beginning to end
And never got a single scratch

At Verdun and the Somme back in ‘16
He displayed his great flair
For adding large numbers
Of young souls wickedly squandered

“The Hunting Ground,” a movie about sexual assault at major universities, supports the argument that universities are not doing enough to respond to accusations about sexual assault by their students.  The article hits close to home for me because, as a faculty member at Florida State University, my university is one of the ones highlighted in the movie.

FSU is featured because Jameis Winston, a former FSU quarterback who has entered the NFL draft, was accused of sexual assault in 2013.  Senator Claire McCaskill has advised any NFL team interested in drafting Winston, “Watch this movie.”

I am not passing judgment on Winston or his accuser.  That is the responsibility of our legal system.  I am questioning what responsibility the university has in the matter, and as an FSU faculty member, I have a particular interest in the responsibility of FSU in the Winston case.