When visiting Auschwitz, the weather should be extreme. Hot and beautiful during the summer, or snowy and miserable during the winter. The contrast should jar the visitor or misery should overwhelm and bring a brief rush of understanding. When I visited Dachau, it was sunny, but cold; not extreme enough. Auschwitz felt like I should’ve …
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In Fusionism Lies Folly: The Tea Party Killed It (Again)
The alliance between conservatives and libertarians, defined as “fusionism” by Frank S. Meyer, gets praised or excoriated every six months (or whenever Rand Paul appears before a camera). Instead of repeating the brilliant writings of Meyer (or some recent entries), I propose a pseudo-empirical review since 2010 and the rise of the Tea Party. Conservatives …
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Detroit: An Example of Midwestern Decline, A Reluctant Model for Pension Reform
As Detroit files for bankruptcy, the fate of its pension obligations should grab your attention, as it’ll probably set a precedent. Extraordinarily few governments (on all levels) adequately fund pensions and over-promise on benefits. Complicating that, most states constitutionally guarantee pensions (Michigan included), and how Detroit unites constitutional law with economic reality will be taken as …
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Baiting in the Partisan Media:* Why Does Anyone Trust Rush Limbaugh?
*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 …
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Why is LewRockwell.com Defending a Hungarian Authoritarian?
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 …
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Monopolistic disruption in the United States Postal Service
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 …
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Health and happiness aren’t synonymous
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal on the dangers of paternalism:
I.F. Stone on free speech, independence, and government power
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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SCOTUS Health-Care Decision
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 …
On getting my car searched for drugs
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 …