“What if human beings are merely creatures that take whatever shape is imposed on them by the impress and promptings of the culture in which they are situated? If so, then controlling the culture becomes imperative. And politics must saturate every nook and cranny of life. And this saturation will, inevitably, mean controlling what people say and hear and read and think and teach. Shaping the consciousness of the people — purging the people of what Marxists call “false consciousness” — becomes the great, the encompassing political project.”
Read MoreThe media, apoplectic for weeks from hatred displayed in Charlottesville in 2017, lack the same outrage at the depth and scale of the hatred that followed the Hamas attack on October 7. It is worth noting how often the cry against Zionism quickly turned to plain hatred of Jews. It has always been a false distinction. Jewish sympathizers for these attacks on Israel are progressive kapos, selling their soul hoping the alligator eats them last.
Read MoreI always thought identity politics would end badly. The reaction will not be just about the tolerance of anti-Semitism but will address all the other values that embraced it.
Read More“The mystery is why the Palestinians continue to put up with it, and have for so long. They don’t need “days of rage.” They need property rights, free enterprise, the rule of law, and decent government. And nobody would be better pleased to see them have these than the Israelis. “
Read MoreSocial justice grifters in all their forms were easy prey for the Jew haters. It was just the next logical step. Periods of revisionism and moral ambiguity are breeding grounds for antisemitism and other forms of social and moral rot.
Read MoreIf Israel and the Jews disappeared tomorrow, do you seriously think this hatred will dissipate and they will peacefully attend to the grinding work of building a civil society? Who will they then blame for their dysfunction and misery and how will they react? Do you think their animosities will be contained in their region?
Read More“We free-market types like to talk about competition—and competition is important—but capitalism is profoundly cooperative: This marvelously productive worldwide economy is something we all do together. “
Read More“That’s the real conservative sensibility at work: If progressivism is about making incremental improvements in the direction of utopia, conservatism is about avoiding catastrophe. And if democracy is a hedge against Caesarism, constitutionalism is a hedge against democracy—against the horrifying things that the people will do when you give them political power without checks and accountability.”
Read More“But history doesn’t wait for anybody to vote on it. That affects everything, including the economy.”
Read More“Thus, total individual tax receipts ballooned by 70% from 1924 to 1928; and, throughout the 1920s, the share of income taxes paid by earners of over $100,000 a year doubled. Meanwhile, Coolidge held spending constant, allowing him to eliminate nearly a quarter of the national debt and leave it fully 29% smaller than it was when Harding took office.”
Read MoreSmall firewalls that contained corrections were being dismantled, leading to larger, far more damaging crashes. Part of this was the result of greater connections from travel and communications, but a great part is the result of central powers believing they can control macro markets when they cannot. There is just too much dispersed and unarticulated knowledge for anyone or any administrative bureaucracy to accomplish this.
Read More“Likewise, we now know a lot of the Democrat congressmen on television were lying about information. They were fed falsehoods from the deep state and regurgitated them without basis on television. The entirety of the bureaucracy not just picked a partisan side but then weaponized their powers to undermine a President.”
Read MoreIn an effort to make housing more affordable federal regulators have done the opposite, but this cost is hidden by the lack of innovation which has locked the market for housing. To paraphrase Glenn Reynolds, by subsidizing the markers of success they have raised the cost in ways even they do not understand. If you cannot afford a house one would be better served to rent than to add debt you cannot handle. Somebody pays.
Read MoreIf the deficits are not monetized then they are added to the debt. While this does not add to the current inflation pressures, at what point and how will this affect our monetary balance? Inflation historically has been a seductive solution to excess debt.
Read More“But no computer has yet been devised which will produce accurate results from a diet of opinion and emotion.”
Read More“Regardless, measured against the intended point of the New Deal—getting us out of the Great Depression—the New Deal was a failure. Indeed, many people—I’m one of them—would argue that the New Deal prolonged the Great Depression. But while the New Deal was a policy failure, it was a huge political success.”
Read More“During my 12 years in government I often saw career bureaucrats push their preferred policy passions irrespective of agencies’ rules, federal regulations or the law.”
Read MoreWhile the period of industrial expansion did create both economic and political dislocations, the benefits were often overlooked in our history. The restraint on concentrations of political power in our constitution applied largely to economic power in an agrarian economy but this diverged in the industrial era. The great dilemma of the progressives was how to address the concentrations of economic power without losing the restraints on the concentration of political power.
Read More
DEI and Anti-Semitism
DEI is just an institutionalized form of political correctness. It is intolerant and anti- intellectual and when these two vices combine we know what is to follow.
Read More