Spring Link Dump!!

Some of these have been in my reader for a while.

Email from the Koch Institute regarding the Kochs' dispute with Cato: At first I was highly disappointed at the notice of the "takeover bid", but to be honest, I wasn't even aware of the history that Cato was originally the Charles Koch Foundation.  Now I'm not sure what to think.  It seems to be a trend that some of these advocacy organizations turn out to be driven primarily by the egos of their executives, e.g. Wayne LaPierre at the NRA.

So it turns out that extreme liberals don't really understand their opponents positions on the issues.  Surprise, surprise.  I've found empirically that they tend to not spend the time to educate themselves, preferring to wallow in their own poorly-formed, ill-considered ideology.  The study referred to is interesting.

From WSJ:

• Gardening tips for beginners.  I have dirt and seeds.  Now what?
• The end of the sophisticated playboy era.  The nouveau rich don't know how to live.
• How to tell when it's just another fight, and when it's over.  One can always make it work—it just depends on how much one is willing to sacrifice.  If both people are willing to sacrifice, that's a relationship that will survive.

Regarding the Trayvon Martin case:

• Thomas Sowell's Race and Rhetoric and some more commentary on "race hustlers".  Headline from the early '90s: "White-Black Disparity in Income Narrowed in 80’s, Census Shows"—what happened since the Reagan Era?
• John Lott's opinion on the relevance of Stand Your Ground to the case, and follow-up piece on Fox.

An opinion on the use of the term "gun culture": I disagree, because the extreme left has made this a culture war.  Nonetheless, it's an interesting point.