On April 13, US president Joe Biden spoke by phone with Russian president Vladimir Putin, whom he has previously referred to, in pot/kettle fashion, as a “killer.” During the call, Biden proposed a summit between the two in the near future. Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Russian chess legend and political exile Garry Kasparov … Continue reading A Biden-Putin Summit: Jaw-Jaw is Better than War-War
Tag: borders
Immigration and Housing: The Meaning of Hsieh-Moretti
Now that we correctly understand Hsieh-Moretti’s results, let’s put them in context.
The Great Political Stagnation
The last 25 years have delivered amazing economic and technological progress for humanity. *Political* progress, in contrast, is hard even to detect during this period.
Worrying About The Wrong Things
My parents seem to worry a lot about “illegal immigrants“, just as FOX News tells them they should. They manage to bring this up in conversations that seem (to me) to have nothing to do with the topic.
Joe Biden and “Open Borders”, As If
As the Cato Institute’s David J. Bier notes, “Biden has been in office for less than a month. Many people keep saying ‘give him time.’ But what’s concerning isn’t that Biden hasn’t ‘gotten around to immigration yet.’ It’s that he has, and is intentionally choosing to perpetuate one of the worst immigration regimes in American history.”
Apartheid Israel, Facebook Italy Fine, Seizing Sammiches, & Pakistan Blasphemy Executions (32m) – Episode 453
Episode 453 has Skyler giving his commentary on the following news stories: from APNews.com, “Leading human rights group calls Israel an ‘apartheid’ state”; from TheRegister.com, “Facebook appeals ruling that it stole tech. So, Italian judge issues new judgment: Pay 10 times the original fine”; from TheGuardian.com, “Dutch officials seize ham sandwiches of drivers arriving from UK”; and from AlJazeera.com, “Pakistan court sentences three to death for blasphemy”.
Spreading Enlightenment Ideas Beyond Borders
An interview with Faisal Saeed Al Mutar.
Yes, Americans are Fat; The US Military is Fatter
Mission: Readiness, a group of retired military officers, wants the US Department of Defense to create an “advisory committee on military recruitment,” with a view toward getting the next generation in shape so that they’re qualified, as the old saying goes, to “travel to exotic, distant lands; meet exciting, unusual people; and kill them.” I’ve got a better idea: Instead of trying to trim fat off America’s adolescents, trim fat off the US Armed Forces.
Herbert Spencer and Prejudice
Herbert Spencer’s “From Freedom to Bondage” famously claims that “[T]he more things improve the louder become the exclamations about their badness.” And he offered a bunch of great examples. Inspired by Spencer’s insight, I recently turned to Google Ngram to look at long-run trends for six oft-named expressions of prejudice.
5 Economic Principles My Kids Learned on Halloween
Halloween is the perfect holiday for children to discover the humanity of trade. Trick-or-treating may be the main attraction, but the spontaneous candy swap negotiations that occur afterwards are often just as enjoyable and help children learn important economic principles.