Random stuff I find interesting and you may not.
Say what you want about the Trump kids, none of them have been found with a crack pipe on them. The same can’t be said for Hunter Biden. I picked up the New York Post yesterday morning and found an informative reprint from The Intercept by Ryan Grim, who details Hunter’s dirtbaggery, including this revealing … Read more
The public debate on taxes, spending, and deficits consists mostly of lazy conventional wisdom that is largely incorrect. While detailed historical data on spending and taxes can be found at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) website, and the 10-year and 30-year budget projections are available from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), many lawmakers, … Read more
On February 28, the idea of locking down and smashing economies and human rights the world over was unthinkable to most of us but lustily imagined by intellectuals hoping to conduct a new social/political experiment. On that day, New York Times reporter Donald McNeil released a shocking article: “To Take On the Coronavirus, Go Medieval … Read more
If they want to really train their agents, they should thoroughly examine the Bureau’s own past abuses. . . . In the wake of former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith pleading guilty to illegally altering a document submitted to the FISA court, it’s natural to ask, “Don’t they teach them not to break the law? Don’t … Read more
Yesterday, the Trump administration announced that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had ordered an “eviction moratorium” until after the election. The Surgeon General now prohibits landlords from recouping unpaid rent, because it is “necessary to prevent the introduction, transmission, or spread of communicable diseases to prevent the spread of an illness.” Or, in … Read more
Our national reckoning on race has brought to the fore a loose but committed assemblage of people given to the idea that social justice must be pursued via attempts to banish from the public sphere, as much as possible, all opinions that they interpret as insufficiently opposed to power differentials. Valid intellectual and artistic endeavor … Read more
“Marxism, as National Review has reported elsewhere, is making a little bit of a comeback among American progressives who have put out of their minds the 100 million corpses produced by socialism in the 20th century, along with the corpses socialism continues to produce in the 21st century — in Cuba, in Venezuela, in North … Read more
There’s a new study out today that does the math: Intercollegiate amateur athletics in the US largely bars student-athletes from sharing in any of the profits generated by their participation, which creates substantial economic rents for universities. These rents are primarily generated by men’s football and men’s basketball programs. . . . [We] measure how … Read more
The Trayvon Hoax: Unmasking the Witness Fraud that Divided America – film Time to Expose the Fraud That Launched BLM Related PostsHow the Gill Foundation funds the undermining of Church moral teaching Shoveling Money into the Bottomless Pit of Student-Loan Debt The Coronavirus Is Exposing Little Tyrants All Over The Country Catholic Politicians, … Read more
Since intermittent electricity from wind and solar cannot provide continuous uninterruptable electricity, the state continues to rely on the Southwest and Northwest states for its power, and continues to be proud of “leaking” emissions to other states electrical generation so California can claim in-state emission reductions to meet its insatiable electricity demands. California is proud … Read more
Power outages, fires, water shortages, rising taxes, crumbling and congested highways, dismal schools, lawlessness … . . . There are the now-normal raging wildfires in the coastal and Sierra foothills. And they will be greeted as if they are not characteristic threats of 500 years of settled history, but leveraged as proof of global warming … Read more
This was in infamous concept that supposedly characterized the right. But Jordan Moss and Peter J. O’Connor write, Individuals high in authoritarianism – regardless of whether the hold politically correct or rightwing views – tend to score highly on DT and entitlement. Such individuals therefore are statistically more likely than average to be higher in … Read more
The wealthy don’t have to wait for politicians to impose a tax increase. . . . The bottom line is that I don’t hate rich people or resent their success. Indeed, I applaud them for improving my life. Though there are 83 exceptions, at least according to this BBC report. Some of the world’s richest … Read more
I was born in Iowa, raised in the mountains of Virginia, and attended Virginia Tech sporadically from 1974 to 1976 before dropping out to try my luck writing. At some point in the late 1970s, individual liberty became my highest political value and I resolved to do what I could to defend it. I had … Read more
In the Wall Street Journal, two leaders of political-advocacy group Democrats for Life have an article called “The Democrats Biden Doesn’t Want,” pointing out that, although they’re liberal, their pro-life views have caused the Democratic Party to reject them. “According to Gallup, roughly 1 in 3 Democrats consider themselves pro-life, but Mr. Biden has made … Read more
he American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) was founded to represent the interests of close to 40 million seniors. Over time, the group has become one of the most powerful lobbying interests in the country. And you’ve got to hand it to them—for an organization that bills itself as an advocacy group for the elderly, … Read more
The governor is aware that a New York City and/or State without rich people would have to rethink the way it does basically everything. Then-mayor Mike Bloomberg famously described New York City in 2003 as a “luxury product,” and therefore priced accordingly. The price hasn’t changed, except to go up slightly — taxes, rents, everything. … Read more
Murray Rothbard’s wonderful History of Economic Thought opens with a blast against what he called the Whig theory of intellectual history. It’s a variant of the Victorian-era idea that life is always getting better and better, no matter what. Apply it to the world of ideas, and the impression is that our current ideas are … Read more
City councils across America almost seem intent on proving that the best cure for a bad idea is a good idea, though, they are going about it in a rather interesting new way. The Washington Post reports that a Black Lives Matter street mural – which stood for a month and a half and greeted … Read more
Michael Lind writes, The present system serves the credentialed elite in the large private, public, and nonprofit bureaucracies of the managerial elite quite well. In contrast, the members of the professional bourgeoisie and the small business bourgeoisie live in terror of proletarianization. Many professionals fear they will not be able to secure high-status jobs with … Read more
Rep. David Schweikert admitted to 11 ethics violations and agreed to a $50,000 fine, likely concluding an investigation that began with reporting by the Washington Examiner’s then-own Phil Wegmann. In October 2017, Wegmann was a writer for the Washington Examiner opinion page, and I was his editor. Former employees of Schweikert, a Republican from Arizona, … Read more
Elites’ endless quest for social status is fueling our present moral panic. There is some mystery about the generation of names. “Gay” becomes “gay and lesbian” becomes “lesbian and gay” becomes LGB becomes LGBTQ becomes LGBTQIAPK becomes LGBTTQQIAAP+. We go from “black” to “Afro-American” to “African American” back to “black” to “Black,” and then to … Read more
Without a real creed of public life, there is no counterweight to the temptations of politics. One of the most shocking things about corruption scandals such as the one currently convulsing Justin Trudeau’s government in Canada is how little there is to be gained. Trudeau is in trouble because he and some other members of … Read more
A shallow, reductive version of diversity that first gained a foothold in progressive political spaces has rapidly spread across American institutions and the corporate world. It values skin color and other inherited characteristics above all else, largely ignores class issues, and overlooks the benefits of real diversity, like the anti-fragile resilience created by fostering people … Read more
Billions of dollars in planned upgrades to the transit system — including modernized signals, new subway cars and elevators at dozens of stations — will be frozen indefinitely due to financial fallout from the pandemic, THE CITY has learned. MTA officials are expected to reveal Wednesday that a 60-day hold on “capital projects” that was … Read more