Government
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Unmasking Masks
“As the sundry shelter-in-place orders inevitably gave way, the same government officials who bade our faces to go bare in March and April replaced them with mask mandates. Although less detrimental to the economy than lockdowns, masking may turn out to be even more deadly.” ~ Robert E. Wright
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Trump’s “American Greatness” Also Political Paternalism
“Regardless of each citizen’s decision on how they may or may not vote in the coming November election, the real battle for the future of America is in this longer-term conflict of ideas, and the courage and willingness to not be despondent but, instead, shoulder some part of the effort to make that liberal Utopia…
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A Technological Revolution in Education
“EdTech is by no means the answer to every challenge faced by educators globally, but it has the potential to make a much greater difference than we have seen in the last twenty years. The COVID pandemic is a global tragedy, but necessity is the mother of invention. As we have seen elsewhere, technology is…
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The Danger of Our Left-Right Political Divide
“A free and open society requires the round rejection of both left and right flavors of failed twentieth-century authoritarianism, the restoration of the classical liberal ideas that transformed the world and yet were never given their due.” ~ David S. D’Amato
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Quartering and its Importance to the American Revolution
“Quartering imposed a serious burden on local populations, especially laborers and poorer households. Its incidence is harder to measure than that of stamp, sugar and tea taxes. However, it is probably one of the most underappreciated major causal factors of the American Revolution.” ~ Vincent Geloso
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Faceless Nation
“With one of the two major presidential tickets joined in demanding a mandatory mask rule through Election Day and beyond, this election has become a test of the face of a nation.” ~ George Gilder
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Biden’s “Passion and Purpose” is More Political Paternalism
“It is so essential for those who value and understand the classical liberal meaning of personal liberty, economic freedom, voluntary association, impartial rule of law, and the importance and role of a constitutionally limited government, to explain to and persuade our fellow citizens that what the Democrats and the Republicans are currently offering us is…
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Opposed to Government Intervention, Crisis or Not
“No matter what legislators do, even when they’re incredibly well-intentioned, the machine within which the decisions are made is by nature political and, hence, subject to special-interest influences, knowledge limitations, and path dependencies.” ~ Veronique de Rugy
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This Is Not Australia
“Our leadership must acknowledge the suffering of countless thousands of Australian citizens affected by measures taken to ‘defeat’ the virus. We need a collective plan that restores our civil and human rights and returns us to a liveable, albeit new normality. If we ever want to sing that inspiring Seekers song together again, then it’s…
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Intellectuals, Politicians, and Pot Commitment
“When a politician or another figure of authority lies, or changes their story without conceding previous error, it is important to remember that theirs is, ultimately, an edifice of assumed credibility. Honesty, unfortunately, would only erode it. Perhaps replacing attorneys with poker players would improve the climate of strategic courage in our state houses and…
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On “You Didn’t Build That”
“Unethical redistribution occurs to the extent that the taxes an individual pays are paid without his or her consent, for such ‘payment’ implies that the value of the benefits gotten from government by this taxpayer are less than the cost this taxpayer is forced to pay. Yet these complexities do nothing to justify the claim…
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Political Legitimacy Dies in 2020
“As Thomas Jefferson declared in 1786, ‘An elective despotism was not the government we fought for.’ What’s the point of voting if ‘government under the law’ is not a choice on Election Day? American political legitimacy will continue plummeting as long as politicians scorn any legal and constitutional limits on their power.” ~ James Bovard
