from Word Games by Kevin Williamson in National Review Before the neocons were the neocons, they were in more fanciful minds “the Illuminati.” For Henry Ford, the neocon was “the international Jew.” (The Stalinists called them “rootless cosmopolitans,” a term recently revived
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Uniball Signo .38 Pilot Juice .38 PaperMate Ink Joy I prefer fine points. These all write thin lines in gel with absolutely zero skipping, I use them all everyday. I enjoy my collection of fountain pens, a habit I got
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From The Grumpy Economist, a review/ commentary by John Cochrane on an essay by Russ Roberts on Economic Humility In sum, I think economics provides an excellent set of bullshit detectors. This is my stock answer about my own professional expertise.
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Kevin Williamson follows in the footsteps of Henry Hazlitt in his clarity of economic and political issues. Like Hazlitt he is not a professionally trained economist, but brings a writer’s clarity to the subject. I have probably excerpted him more
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One of the problems with the ‘ends justify the means’ mentality is determining whose ends you are pursuing. The idea of a living constitution sounds fine to the left as long as they are pursuing the goals the left values,
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from Kevin Williamson in National Review, Plans, Trains, and Automobiles Question: Do we want our health-care system to be more like the spontaneous order that produces both awesome cars and terrible traffic, or do we want it to be more like
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From National Review, George Will writes ‘Big Government’ Is Ever Growing, on the Sly In his 2014 book “Bring Back the Bureaucrats,” he argued that because the public is, at least philosophically, against “big government,” government has prudently become stealthy
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from Atlantic Magazine The Bow-Tied Bard of Populism by McKay Coppins about Tucker Carlson To the extent that Carlson’s on-air commentary these days is guided by any kind of animating idea, it is perhaps best summarized as a staunch aversion to whatever
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From Shelby Steele in the WSJ, The Exhaustion of American Liberalism Today’s liberalism is an anachronism. It has no understanding, really, of what poverty is and how it has to be overcome. It has no grip whatever on what American exceptionalism
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Intolerance and demonization of dissent is too common on American college campuses and the despicable behavior at Middlebury in Vermont to the speaking engagement of Charles Murray is indicative of a cultural and intellectual rot from much of the left.
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From National Review, Jonah Goldberg, Down with the Administrative State: Deconstructing the administrative state is a kind of nightingale’s song for many intellectual conservatives, particularly my friends in the Claremont Institute’s orbit. It’s been great fun watching mainstream journalists, who
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From The Disturbing New Facts About American Capitalism by Jason Zweig in The WSJ Modern capitalism is built on the idea that as companies get big, they become fat and happy, opening themselves up to lean and hungry competitors that can
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A gem from Kevin Williamson at National Review, Fake Hate Crimes: There are many strands of conservatism and many kinds of conservatives. There are those such as myself whose views are shaped by the epistemic critique of central planning associated with
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In National Review George Will reviews the new dystopian novel, The Mandibles: A Family, 2029–2047, by Lionel Shriver from the novel: “The state starts moving money around. A little fairness here, little more fairness there. . . . Eventually social democracies all arrive at the
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From Glenn Reynolds in The USA Today, Trump and the crisis of the meritocracy Well, now they’ve heard it, and they’ve also heard that a lot of Americans resent the meritocrats’ insulation from what’s happening elsewhere, especially as America’s unfortunate record
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Wise investors learn to ignore the daily fluctuations and the daily stock market news. I am amused at the market reports at the end of the day explaining why the market went up or down. It would have been much
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From Daniel Greenfield at The Sultan Knish, The Elites are Revolting If you make tangible goods or have a mortgage, you are more likely to want borders and a nation. If on the other hand you deal largely in intangibles,
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from Commentary, Nicholas Eberstadt, Our Miserable 21st Century On Wall Street and in some parts of Washington these days, one hears that America has gotten back to “near full employment.” For Americans outside the bubble, such talk must seem nonsensical.
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From Noah Rothman at Commentary, The Age of Emotion and Unreason The elites and experts in whom society has placed its trust have underperformed over the last decade. This phenomenon was discussed at length in the latest COMMENTARY podcast. In virtually every sector
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From Kevin Williamson at National Review, Wishful Thinking, Again: Nobody wants to be the first to offer any policy specifics, because there are only two kinds of policy specifics: Those that are transparently unserious and those that are unpopular, at
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The Collapse of Work
from Commentary, Nicholas Eberstadt, Our Miserable 21st Century On Wall Street and in some parts of Washington these days, one hears that America has gotten back to “near full employment.” For Americans outside the bubble, such talk must seem nonsensical.