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Tanker War II

Commentary by , June 16, 2019

Five Things You Need to Read Today 1. Tanker War II Back in the late 1980s, the US got dragged into the Tanker War, an offshoot of the Iran-Iraq War in which Saddam Hussein foolishly declared war on Iranian shipping, only to discover Iraq is way more vulnerable to a naval blockade. The war on […]

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“A One-Man Smoot-Hawley”

Commentary by , June 7, 2019

Five Things You Need to Read Today 1. A One-Man Smoot-Hawley President Trump’s trade war combines the three things he likes best: fear of foreigners, posturing about being “tough,” and the capricious exercise of unilateral power. So there is no reason to think he is ever going to end it. That’s the big takeaway from […]

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The God That Failed First

Commentary by , June 4, 2019

On Friday, I sent out an overview of Sohrab Ahmari’s attack on conservative “liberalism”–a word he is using in its correct sense, unfortunately. That piece is now up at The Bulwark. But there is another aspect of that story that I wanted to delve into a little more deeply, which is the brief but dramatic […]

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The Green Leap Forward

Commentary by , May 17, 2019

Five Things You Need to Read Today 1. The People Does Not Know What It Wills I’ve been loosely following the odd failure of Brexit–Britain’s exit from the European Union. Here’s the best political cartoon summing this up, which anyone who has ever owned a cat will understand. I am in favor of Europe having […]

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Viva la Revolución

Commentary by , May 13, 2019

A few weeks ago, the simmering conflict in Venezuela reached a crisis point when Interim President Juan Guaido called for the Venezuelan military to join him in overthrowing socialist dictator Nicolas Maduro. The prospect of an immediate uprising fizzled, so the conflict has settled in for the long haul. It’s not over, and just this […]

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Who Resists the Resistance?

Commentary by , May 1, 2019

Five Things You Need to Read Today 1. Viva la Revolución “Democratic socialism” has finally achieved its usual end-state in Venezuela: mass shootings of innocent civilians by government goons. I’ll warn you that the reporting on this has been pretty awful, and in the link I just gave, even Jake Tapper—who ought to know better—refers […]

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“I Never Had a Lawyer Who Took Notes”

Commentary by , April 20, 2019

What We’ve Learned About Trump from the Mueller Report Among the political media and Twitter obsessives—but I repeat myself—Thursday was dubbed “Mueller Day,” because it was the day when the mostly unredacted report from Special Counsel Robert Mueller was due to be released to the public. I was not among the obsessives, having been skeptical […]

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How Politics Works

Commentary by , April 13, 2019

Five Things You Need to Read Today Editor’s Note: I was very pleased to see my recent article, “Why I Don’t ‘Believe’ in Science,” picked up by Judith Curry, a distinguished atmospheric scientist who is skeptical of global warming—exactly the sort of person to whom I want to offer this kind of intellectual ammunition. Her […]

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“We” Are All Socialists Now

Commentary by , April 2, 2019

It’s a little disconcerting how quickly the “libertarian moment” of the Tea Party era gave way to today’s socialist moment. The dissipation of that supposed “libertarian populism,” which has turned out to be more “populist” than “libertarian,” is certainly disappointing, but at least this history provides some hope that the socialist moment will prove just […]

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Don’t Feed the Trolls

Commentary by , March 29, 2019

I have taken my time writing about the massacre in Christchurch, New Zealand, in part because I don’t think it’s a good idea to be panicked by rare and unusual events, particularly mass shootings, which are often intended precisely for the purpose of gaining publicity for the shooter’s poorly thought out pet cause. But the […]

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