The government’s college money pit | Jeff Jacoby

Year in, year out, Washington bestows tuition aid on students and their families. Year in, year out, the cost of tuition surges, galloping well ahead of inflation. And year in, year out, politicians vie to outdo each other in promising still more public subsidies that will keep higher education within reach of all. Does it never occur to them that there might be a cause-and-effect relationship between the skyrocketing aid and the skyrocketing price of a college education? That all those grants and loans and tax credits aren’t containing the fire, but fanning it?

Apparently not…

via The government’s college money pit :: Jeff Jacoby.

Cato report describes cases of self-defense with guns | Madison.com

The Cato Institute is singing the praises of gun ownership.  The conservative think tank has released a report, “Tough Targets: When Criminals Face Armed Resistance from Citizens,” that makes the case that law-abiding, gun-toting citizens routinely thwart criminal acts. “The vast majority of gun owners are ethical and competent,” say the authors. “That means tens of thousands of crimes are prevented each year by ordinary citizens with guns.”

CATO Institute responds to President Obama’s 2012 State of the Union address | CATO

Likely Collapse of the Euro Leads to Second Amendment Lessons | New American

“…According to Mitchell (who is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute), some wealthy Europeans are preparing for a level of chaos in their respective countries worthy of the title, “apocalyptic.” In Mitchell’s words:

About a year ago, I spoke at a conference in Europe that attracted a lot of very rich people from all over the continent, as well as a lot of people who manage money for high-net-worth individuals.

What made this conference remarkable was not the presentations, though they were generally quite interesting. The stunning part of the conference was learning — as part of casual conversation during breaks, meals, and other socializing time — how many rich people are planning for the eventual collapse of European society.

Not stagnation. Not gradual decline. Collapse.

As in riots, social disarray, plundering, and chaos. A non-trivial number of these people think the rioting in places such as Greece and England is just the tip of the iceberg, and they have plans — if bad things begin to happen — to escape to jurisdictions ranging from Australia to Costa Rica (several of them remarked that they no longer see the U.S. as a good long-run refuge)…”

go here for the rest of this sobering spin: Likely Collapse of the Euro Leads to Second Amendment Lessons.