In these days of trillion-dollar budgets, a mere $110 million looks like a rounding error. But it is not so; it’s a huge amount of money that someone, or some organization, would immediately put out its claws to snag. So any rationale under which a government could appropriate $110 million is something to be …
Category: political dynamics
Oct 16 2023
Lessons Not Learned
One might think that after Kevin McCarthy worked a deal with the National Socialist Democrat Workers Party, and then was promptly bit in the ass by said National Socialist Democrat Workers Party, people in the GOP might step back from further deals with the National Socialist Democrat Workers Party. Sadly, the GOP establishment has far …
Oct 14 2023
Complexities And Human Capability
Today, over at Cold Fury, there’s an excellent and thought-provoking essay by co-contributor SteveF that explores one of the funnier fallacies commonly advanced as an aphorism: (NB: I have no idea who Hanlon is or was and bear him no ill will, but I will say that as a vendor of rose-colored glasses, …
Oct 14 2023
Why?
Some recent stories are enough to enrage a saint: Working out at the gym this morning and a follower came up to say hi He served in the Navy, is now 24 years old, and a very fit guy Told me they forced him to take Moderna – he resisted but didn’t want to …
Oct 04 2023
Tamed
Sundance at The Last Refuge lays it out straight for us: In 2009 72% of the country, and an even larger percentage of the Republican voters, did not want Obamacare. The govt takeover of healthcare was along purely ideological grounds. For the 2010 midterm election, the professional Republican apparatus campaigned on this single …
Sep 15 2023
Bastiat Redux
In his last and best-known book The Law, Frederic Bastiat provides us with a striking description of the essence of State lawlessness: But how is this legal plunder to be identified? Quite simply. See if the law takes from some persons what belongs to them, and gives it to other persons to whom …
Sep 12 2023
Why Now?
Robert Royal’s column of today, “Psychopaths In Power,” makes several useful observations: The great psychologist and social commentator Jordan Peterson recently found exactly the right few words for our predicament: Psychopaths are in power. Others have said as much. He added, however, that the psychopaths have been utterly brilliant in using terms like …
Aug 22 2023
An Ugly Open Secret
We know from interminable experience that the overwhelming majority of men who go into politics are utterly vile. The professional politician – and these days, for all practical purposes there is no other kind – is the lowest sort of man allowed to walk the streets today. Persons we wouldn’t be willing to have …
Jul 18 2023
Exploring Implications Spotted In More Timid Reports
First of all, what do I mean by more timid reports? Whatever we read today is subject to censorship and its authors to cancellation. So expect to find reports that only call out the tip of any iceberg. Add to them commentaries that are slightly facetious, sarcastic or satirical. The authors can claim “I intended …
Jul 12 2023
The Unattainable Country
Apologies in advance, Gentle Reader. If I were to demand absolute lexical accuracy of myself, the title would have been “The Unattainable Condition.” But I decided to cheat a bit, in the interests of “punch.” Everyone has his own conception of Utopia. No two are identical, which is why Robert Nozick’s gedankenexperiment at …
Jun 27 2023
The Great Retreat
What follows will be rather lengthy, I fear. So if you have other obligations that mustn’t be postponed for too long, please see to them before embroiling yourself in this piece. Among other things, it will embed quite a lot of citations from other, better known writers. As I know this displeases some readers, …
Jun 05 2023
When Smart People Say Foolish Things
Folly, the late Barbara Tuchman has told us, is “knowing better but doing worse.” The power of wishful thinking is so great that even demonstrably highly intelligent people can fall into this zone. I say this with a certain authority. Today, we have an example from a generally smart commentator: The GOP …
May 22 2023
A Misfire From A Brilliant Commentator
It does happen, you know. It’s certainly happened to me. Today, it’s happened to Roger Kimball: The business of Washington is to make government bigger—forever. That is not what the people, who pay for it, want. Well, it’s certainly not what I want. If you’re a regular Gentle Reader of Liberty’s Torch, …
May 22 2023
While We’re On The Subject Of Power-Lust
This morning at The Catholic Thing, Francis X. Maier reminds us about an old atrocity in the Sceptered Isle: On August 16, 1819, some 60,000 hungry, unarmed workers, with their wives and children, converged on St. Peter’s Field in Manchester to peacefully demand economic and political reform. Barely 11 percent of Britain’s people …
May 12 2023
The Shell Game Part 2
Friends of mine – yes, I have a couple – have returned to a hopeless task: persuading me to re-engage with electoral politics, possibly (ulp) even as a candidate for office. They been saying some of the most incredible things: “If you want to change the system, you have be part of it.” …
Apr 05 2023
Symmetries And Balances
In the realm of physics (a.k.a. “the world” or “reality”) a great many symmetries and equilibria are observable by anyone who cares enough to pay attention. Among the most interesting and educational things one can do, though not necessarily safely, is to disturb such a symmetry and watch what happens thereafter. Sometimes the consequences …
Apr 02 2023
Annelid Rotations
It’s not unknown for a passionate opponent to a particular kind of behavior to execute a 180-degree turn and become one of its defenders. This article at The Catholic Thing provides a striking example: This “hate speech” weapon is being used to silence Catholic objections to homosexuality. And used with a high degree …
Apr 01 2023
A Cabal Of Its Enemies Redux
It’s always gratifying to stumble over an example of something I’ve had difficulty explaining to others. In this case, it comes courtesy of Will: the autobiography of the late G. Gordon Liddy. The incident in question occurred during the first presidential term of Richard Nixon, when Liddy was Special Assistant to the Secretary of …
Jan 20 2023
Dead Giveaways Dept.
Sometimes laughter isn’t just the best medicine, it’s the only medicine: Bringing cake into the office should be seen as harmful to your colleagues in the same way as passive smoking, the chairwoman of Britain’s top food watchdog has said. Professor Susan Jebb, of the Food Standards Agency, speaking personally and not …
Jan 11 2023
That “How?” Question
It just keeps coming back. Jim Jordan has trumpeted the intentions of his “Weaponization of Government” subcommittee. They’re exactly what I would have expected from Jordan, one of the few genuinely laudable persons in Congress: Lauren Boebert, another admirable Representative, has added her concurring opinions: Applause, but…how? What do you propose …
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