Why the Russians Are the Baddies (Again)

Feature Article by , July 17, 2018

The dominant mood of Donald Trump’s presidency, for those of us who care about the key causes of freedom and small government, is one of overhanging existential dread. Every so often, just when we begin the think Trump is tolerable, that we’ll get some good things out of this—deregulation at the EPA, or a more […]

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The Lesson of Elon Musk’s Thai Cave Rescue Fiasco

Feature Article by , July 15, 2018

I held back on criticizing Elon Musk about his Thai cave rescue grandstanding because he claimed he was encouraged to help by the rescuers, even though his solution came after divers were already pulling the boys out of the cave, and I figured, who knows? Maybe it was true. Maybe he really was trying to […]

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Who Stole Self-Esteem?

Commentary by , July 12, 2018

Five Things You Need to Read Today 1. Who Stole Self-Esteem? How did “self-esteem” become a pejorative associated with the most contemptible trends in contemporary culture? How did it turn from an earned expression of self-respect to an all-purpose form of coddling for the incompetent? The phenomenon should not be such a surprise. Ayn Rand […]

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America’s Legal Clerisy

Feature Article by , July 10, 2018

Donald Trump has made his second appointment to the Supreme Court, and boy has he gone over to the establishment. His choice is a DC native straight out of Georgetown Prep and Yale, with strong ties to the administration of George W. Bush, who originally appointed him to the bench. So much for draining the […]

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Damn Right the First Amendment Is a Weapon

Commentary by , July 6, 2018

Five Things You Need to Read Today 1. News That Is Less Than True You may have seen the Internet light up over an Associated Press story that seems like a nightmare of Trumpian nativism gone wild: “Some immigrant US Army reservists and recruits who enlisted in the military with a promised path to citizenship […]

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Freedom Is Indivisible

Feature Article by , July 4, 2018

The biggest news this week is that the left has officially turned against the First Amendment and freedom of speech—and just in time for the Fourth of July! If you’re on the right, it is not news that the left wants to shut us up. The only change is that this goal is being announced […]

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But Judges

Feature Article by , June 28, 2018

The open spot on the Supreme Court places a spotlight on the constitutional role of a politician known for being unprincipled and caring more about getting and staying in power than about achieving the small-government agenda of the right—but who at least is being decisive and effective and getting something done that no one has […]

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The Robots Are Taking Over, and They Want to Know If You Want Fries with That

Commentary by , June 26, 2018

Five Things You Need to Read Today 1. The Petty Pull Peddlers I took a couple of the items from my last “Five Things You Need to Read Today” edition and expanded them into standalone articles. I didn’t bother to send them out to the Tracinski Letter mailing list because they are substantial duplications of […]

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The Supreme Court Completes Its Inversion of the Commerce Clause

Feature Article by , June 23, 2018

In its ruling on South Dakota v. Wayfair—basically, the ruling that means you will now have to pay goddamned sales tax on everything you buy online—the Supreme Court has completed the long arc of its interpretation of the Interstate Commerce Clause. It has taken a constitutional provision whose original purpose was to limit the power […]

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Science That Lives by the Narrative Can Die by the Narrative

Feature Article by , June 21, 2018

“Science” is all the rage these days, particularly among those who preen themselves as the “party of science.” We’re not just supposed to love science. We’re supposed to love it with an intensity so great, we need to drop the F-bomb to express it. We’re supposed to learn about science from popularizers who are alternately […]

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