Authoritarianism

  • California’s Dreaming

    “AB 2088 could break the back of the Donkey party or unleash another dangerous wave of mostly peaceful protests throughout the land. This time, though, the fatal arrogance comes not from London but Cali you-know-what fornia.” ~ Robert E. Wright

    California’s Dreaming
  • Defund, Defund, Defund

    “It is unclear how many grant competitions remain to be adjudicated at ED and other agencies, or how much money is at stake. But when schools, colleges, corporations, mayors, and governors say that ‘health and safety are our highest priorities,’ we should take them at their word. None of them should make any fuss when…

    Defund, Defund, Defund
  • Coase and Covid

    “An implicit assumption undergirding the mandated NPIs is that ordering people to be confined at home and ‘socially distant’ from each other, despite the resulting massive disruption of economic and social activities, is the lowest cost means of protecting individuals from covid. But even if we grant here that mandated NPIs are an effective means…

    Coase and Covid
  • What Would We Do without Experts?

    “Experts have been responsible for eugenic policies in the past and forced sterilizations in the United States until relatively recently. It is hard to imagine a more intrusive and life-altering event than forced sterilization. All in all, while politicians are the bane of any democracy, there are lots of reasons to think it better to…

    What Would We Do without Experts?
  • America’s 1984: Welcome to the Hate

    “It’s time to interrupt the current of Hate, time to name both its causes and the long-term effects on individualism and prosperity. Contra 1984, Freedom is not Slavery.” ~ Caroline Breashears

    America’s 1984: Welcome to the Hate
  • Litigating Over Lockdowns

    “The rights guaranteed in the Constitution are not there merely for decoration and warm feelings, nor can we expect the very entity they serve to limit, the state, to protect them for us. Rather they are upheld by a free, educated, and litigious people who guard their liberty jealously. Such resistance is necessary for an…

    Litigating Over Lockdowns
  • The War on Terror Presaged Covid Mania

    “Like the endless War on Terror, the Covid shutdowns will likely be viewed as one of the greatest political debacles in modern American history. But many politicians still believe that there is no problem that cannot be solved by a bigger federal iron fist. Will the media continue venerating “experts” until American freedom and prosperity…

    The War on Terror Presaged Covid Mania
  • Nancy Pelosi and Her Hair Salon

    “Freedom for me, but not for thee seems to be the recurring theme here. Everyday Americans have seen their jobs and their lives stripped at the stroke of a pen. America’s once proud and industrious spirit has been overshadowed by one of fear, insanity, and vitriol. Yet those who are responsible for all of this…

    Nancy Pelosi and Her Hair Salon
  • What’s Gone Wrong with Left-Liberalism and Lockdowns?

    “It is my hope to convince the liberal/left that our principles, which ostensibly entail concern for minorities and the poor, working and middle classes, and which recognize the importance of human liberty and dignity, should lead us to abhor lockdowns. At the very least, the fact that discussion on the subject is considered off-limits should…

    What’s Gone Wrong with Left-Liberalism and Lockdowns?
  • The Covid-19 Catastrophe

    “When the next crisis comes along they will land on the same sorts of heavy-handed solutions they did this time. The only thing that will chasten them is the anger of the American people. Politicians did far more harm to Americans than Covid-19 did, and that’s what the American people need to remember next time…

    The Covid-19 Catastrophe
  • The Best Virus Response Is Less Government, Not More

    “Please ask yourself in your relative comfort just how deep your corona-religion is? Is it so deep that you’ll continue to turn a blind eye to the global suffering that’s taking place so that you can feel safe from a virus that thankfully kills so few? The lives of hundreds of millions of innocent people…

    The Best Virus Response Is Less Government, Not More
  • WalkAway and the Civility Gap

    The civility gap, it seems to me, is very real. I conclude with some comments that presuppose that leftism is terribly wrongheaded and that the civility gap is real and large.

    WalkAway and the Civility Gap