Yearly Archives: 2016

Archive of posts published in the specified Year

Delusions Delay Solutions

The recount fiasco of Jill Stein, the fake news, the electoral college, the alternate right, James Comey, WikiLeaks, and now Russian hacking are all to blame for Hillary’s loss.  The integrity of the voters is also in question: racist, deplorable,

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Imposing Moral Supremacy

from Jeff Jacoby at the Boston Globe, Healey’s Exxon witch-hunt: As a citizen and a politician, Healey is fully entitled to condemn fossil fuels, decry global warming, and express scorn for those who don’t agree with her and Gore. As

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Principles vs Intuitions

From MeganMcCardle at Bloomberg, Those Pesky Principles: This is the nature of principles-based systems. They are cold and impersonal, and ostensibly neutral machinery often produces results that look grossly unfair by any common-sense moral standard: rich people getting better treatment

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In Search of a New Struggle

One of the head winds facing progressivism is their own success that they are unwilling to accept.  In the absence of the great civil rights issues of the 1960’s, they push much weaker issues with much greater passion.  Ben Shapiro

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I Miss Breitbart

Tips to Glenn Reynolds and Instapundit

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The Golden Rule of Politics

from Democrats Finally Wake Up to the Dangers of Illiberalism by Charles C.W. Cooke at National Review Throughout, the Brendan Nyhans of the world will ask, “How could this happen?” And the answer will be elementary: It happened because process

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Political Migration

From The Washington Times, The Blue State Depression by Stephen Moore: Of the 10 blue states that Hillary Clinton won by the largest percentage margins — California, Massachusetts, Vermont, Hawaii, Maryland, New York, Illinois, Rhode Island, New Jersey, and Connecticut

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Intellectual Yet Idiot

from Zero Hedge by Nassim Taleb- Nassim Taleb Exposes The World’s “Intellectual-Yet-Idiot” Class: Beware the semi-erudite who thinks he is an erudite. The IYI pathologizes others for doing things he doesn’t understand without ever realizing it is his understanding that may be

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Electoral CollegeTrends by County

Electoral college trends from Politifact– Counties won Year          GOP          Democrats 2016          2623           489 2012          2420        

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Why Government Should Be Irrelevant

by Henry Oliner Deidre McCloskey in Bourgeois Equality and Joel Mokyr in Culture of Growth examine the incredible growth in human betterment since 1850. Thomas Malthus predicted a dismal future for human kind from the very logical prediction that food

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Radicalism Breeds Radicalism

From Ian Tuttle from National Review, America Needs a Sane Left: Take all of that (and more) together and there is the distinct sense that the Left’s response to this election is going to be one not of introspection but

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The Consequences of Jawboning

Jawboning American industries to comply with political wishes has been with us at least as long as Teddy Roosevelt negotiated an end  to the Pennsylvania coal strikes.  John F Kennedy pressured the steel industry to settle a labor strike. Bailouts

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Political Thoughts 2016 12 01

The Democrats are in denial. The first indication is that their loss was about poor messaging; even though Hillary outspent Trump by huge amounts, and even though every outlet but Fox was in her camp, to an embarrassing degree. The

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Better Economic Policy Trumps Grandstanding Deals

Trump’s political victory in keeping Carrier and Ford plants from moving out of the country should not be confused with an economic victory. Trade is a critical component of any economy, but we are addressing the location of a plant. 

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A Political Vacation

I was less than enthusiastic about a Trump victory.  The best part for me was that is ensured a Hillary Clinton loss.  Yet I feel some sense of relief, not just that the slimy slugfest is over, but there are

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Ideology Separates from Political Parties

From National Review’s Kevin Williamson, Progressives Without Power: Beginning with the nomination of Barry Goldwater and thanks in no small part to the efforts of many men associated with this magazine, the Republican party spent half a century as a

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Re-Discovering the Constitution

From Mike Lee at National Review, Conservatives Should Embrace Principled Populism: All human history teaches us that people cannot be trusted with unaccountable power; therefore, freedom and security are best protected by dispersing power. Federalism and the separation of powers may

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Beware the Alternate Left

Al Sharpton’s incitement in Crown Heights in 1991 caused a pogrom in New York with several Jews attacked and one, Yankel Rosenbaum, killed. Another was killed who was thought to be Jewish, but was not. After a young black man,

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The Democrats Need a New Organizing Principle

From Jason Riley at The WSJ,   Democrats Are Obsessed With Race. Donald Trump Isn’t: Since when does a weekend gathering of “nearly 275” white nationalists in a country of more than 320 million people warrant front-page coverage in major newspapers?

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