“I Didn’t Need to Do This”

Commentary by , February 19, 2019

Five Things You Need to Read Today 1. The National Emergency Emergency I declare a national emergency of presidents declaring national emergencies. Before President Trump declared ordinary conditions on the border to be a “national emergency,” there were already 28 active “national emergencies” giving the president special powers, and most have been in effect for […]

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AOC Is an MPDG

Feature Article by , February 18, 2019

A lot of people, myself included, have toyed with describing Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as the left’s Donald Trump because they both rely so heavily on exaggerated promises and bluster. There’s something to that, but I think I’ve found a better analogy: she’s the Democratic Party’s Manic Pixie Dream Girl. Once you see it, you can’t unsee […]

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Salon of the Refused, Episode 10

Announcement by , February 13, 2019

Episode 10 of my video and podcast series, Salon of the Refused, is now available. I talk with Shoshana Weissmann, fellow and digital media manager for R Street Institute, about occupational licensing reform. The conversation includes: taking on the unglamorous issues, how arbitrary barriers to entry in professional licensing spilled out to everything else, “health and […]

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Fauxcahontas’s Last Stand

Feature Article by , February 11, 2019

With the national media’s attention riveted by a series of racism and sexism scandals tearing through the whole Democratic Party establishment in Virginia, Elizabeth Warren probably thought this was a good time to get her own racial politics scandal behind her. So on Tuesday, Warren told the Washington Post that, in the Post‘s summary, “she […]

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The Democratic Party’s Psychotic Break

Feature Article by , February 10, 2019

Faced with the prospect of running against an unpopular Republican incumbent who loves offending people and getting himself in trouble, all the Democratic Party had to do to win elections again is to offer a sane, moderate, widely acceptable alternative. They couldn’t do it. Instead, they have allowed their unhinged reaction to Trump drive them […]

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That Noise the Kids Are Listening to These Days

Commentary by , January 30, 2019

Five Things You Need to Read Today 1. But He Fights I’ve been editing videos and working on other writing projects for much of the last week, so I wanted to do a roundup of news that happened while I was doing all of that–and a lot of interesting things happened. The first item is […]

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Salon of the Refused, Episode 9

Announcement by , January 25, 2019

Episode 9 of my video and podcast series, Salon of the Refused, is now available. I talk with Bob Garmong, former lecturer at Dongbei University of Finance and Economics and author of a forthcoming study on the political thought of John Stuart Mill, about Mill and the history of political “liberalism.” The conversation includes: Locke […]

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The Wars of the Tribes

Feature Article by , January 24, 2019

The third annual Women’s March was held last weekend, and you may be forgiven if you didn’t notice. The event that emerged after the 2016 election as a central focus for the left’s “Resistance” against President Trump is collapsing. Estimates for this year’s crowd size vary but look to be 10% to 20% of the […]

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Salon of the Refused, Episode 8

Announcement by , January 23, 2019

Episode 8 of my video and podcast series, Salon of the Refused, is now available. I talk with Alex Berezow, Vice President of Scientific Affairs at the American Council on Science and Health, about misunderstandings and misrepresentations of science in the news. The conversation includes: how DNA ancestry tests are like horoscopes, the fundamental problems […]

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A Little More Enlightenment

Commentary by , January 17, 2019

Five Things You Need to Read Today 1. A Little More Enlightenment I recently re-posted my series of articles from last year on the legacy of the Enlightenment, including my review of Steven Pinker’s Enlightenment Now. One year after the publication of that book, Steven Pinker looks back, in an article in Quillette, and responds […]

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