Women Aren’t Especially Empathetic

I had a student years ago that was active, playful, distracting, had a short attention span, liked to roughhouse, was an independent thinker and lacked reverence for authority. However, he was incredibly non-malicious and friendly. The teachers and parents (mostly women) in the organization strongly disliked this child.

Smokey Bear: Enemy Agent

Smokey Bear and his propaganda campaign illustrate the danger of government perfectly. Use a memorable way to promote bad policy. The bad policy then causes damage which makes the original problem worse, which causes people to believe government (and its bad policy) is necessary to protect from the consequences of government policy.

Markets aren’t Miraculous; God Bless the World

I was wrong to ever describe anything the market does as a miracle or as miraculous. Why? Because the positive effects of markets broadly described above do not depend on any sort of divine intervention, and its totally ridiculous to say that they do. Rather, they are the natural result of individuals and groups engaging in market action. No divine explanation necessary.

Unschooling is not ‘Lord of the Flies’

In the book, the absence of adults to model and nurture responsibility is palpably felt. Adults matter to children. They guide, protect, tend, reassure, and mediate. The lack of calm, care, and stability that adults offer children is what ultimately triggers the boys’ downfall. Of course, the great lesson from this great book is that it isn’t just children who would descend into brutality when calm, care, and stability are missing; it’s all of us.

Natural Law Is Inevitable

I hadn’t meant to go on a 10-day hiatus, but I have been reminded again that Nature will not be denied.  Some will contend that Natural Law can be debated, because it is like the flimsy excuses for laws that statists devise — sometimes the magic works and sometimes it doesn’t. 

Note to Seattle: If You Want Less of Something, Tax it

According to the Associated Press coverage of the tax, it would “raise roughly $48 million a year to build new affordable housing units and provide emergency homeless services.” That figure is likely based on on an untenable assumption: That Seattle will continue to have as many or more full-time employees working within the city limits after the tax is implemented than it had before the tax was passed.