Journalist.
*Note: All media is partisan, but some try to report from “the view from nowhere.” To oversimplify, conservatives should worry about baiting, pandering, and low journalistic standards in their outlets, while liberals should worry about baiting, pandering, and smugness in theirs. Why low standards for conservatives and not liberals? The conservative partisan news market is more …
Continue reading “Baiting in the Partisan Media:* Why Does Anyone Trust Rush Limbaugh?”
Source. What’s up with LewRockwell.com and Daniel McAdams being all about Viktor Orban in Hungary? It fits with Paul Hollander’s thesis in Political Pilgrims about why leftist intellectuals supported communist dictatorships during the 20th century: Seeing the human-rights violations, imperialism, and general abuse of Western governments, the communists must not be so bad. The West has propagandized against the Soviet utopia …
Continue reading “Why is LewRockwell.com Defending a Hungarian Authoritarian?”
Were the United States to align itself with common sense, its citizenry would have de-monopolized mail delivery decades ago. With the Postal Service’s shaky future, it might be politically feasible to do so. Finally. Matt Yglesias summarizes the scenario: Conservatives often wrongly caricature the United States Postal Service as somehow inefficient or poorly managed, while …
Continue reading “Monopolistic disruption in the United States Postal Service”
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal on the dangers of paternalism:
During the 1970s, the City University of New York broadcast Day at Night, wherein James Day interviewed various individuals influential in politics or culture. In 1974, he interviewed I.F. Stone and they discussed Stone’s views on free speech, journalistic independence, tolerance, his motivations for starting his Weekly Reader, and his beginnings in journalism. Some notable quotations follow the …
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First, thanks to everyone who wanted me to write something; I wasn’t expecting that. As far as analysis, I cannot improve upon Will Wilkinson, Randy Barnett, Johnathan Chait, Greg Sargent, Megan McArdle, Andrew Koppelman, George Will, Michael Cannon, and Peter Suderman. Anyway, three links that I think are important to remember: Obama claimed, and Democrats …
So I did a rolling stop through an intersection I’ve traversed countless times and the police pulled me over. Fair enough, I’ll grant it. Had I thought I endangered anyone else or myself, I’d come to a complete stop, but laws are important for societal cohesion and the rule of law isn’t a flippant and …
I wrote the following column for The Post on Friday: Americans consistently and greatly exaggerate the value and benefit of democracy. It must be admitted the worst tendency in democracy is that it destroys the conception of a private realm wherein political and social power cannot intervene without committing a great injustice. The culprit causing such mischief, …
Continue reading “Unrestrained democracy exudes no justice, liberty”
Library of Congress I’m developing this idea, but I wanted to post a rough sketch on here regardless. I think consent as a tool against political institutions could not be more useless or irrelevant. Locke structured his defense of a limited, liberal government on the basis of consent (Sections 87 to 89 prove relevant). Without consent, Locke …
It isn’t the disagreement that I mind with my progressive/liberal/socialist friends. I’m fine with that. What’s offensive is their derogatory and unfair approach when we discuss anything. As much as my leftist friends disparage conservatives for theocracy, they’re the ones primarily slinging sin on individuals who disagree with their worldview. They’ve crafted such a pure, …
Continue reading “Thoughts on political discourse and its coarsening”