Source: Independent Institute

“Increasingly, it seems, people are quick to escalate what might be viewed as differences into animosities. This has manifested itself in a number of different ways in recent years. It is evident in politics, where people view those with political views different from theirs as enemies. Politics is becoming less an arena where compromise and negotiation can smooth over differences and more an arena where one side wins and the other loses. If one side claims the other is their enemy, does that imply that the other side should also view them as enemies? That seems to be a recipe for escalation and conflict.” (05/19/22)

https://blog.independent.org/2022/05/19/what-makes-you-my-enemy/

Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob

“The Institute for Justice (IJ) asks a question: ‘Does the First Amendment protect your right to criticize public officials without being subject to frivolous lawsuits?’ Kelly Gallaher is an activist in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin, who provoked the ire of Village Attorney Chris Smith. Seeking punitive damages, Smith has sued Gallaher for inflicting ’emotional distress.’ Her sin is penning ‘hundreds of posts on social media’ criticizing Smith and other officials and their policies. (Hundreds! So many scribblings by just one person?) The issue that apparently caused him to say ‘By Gawd, this is the last dang straw!’ is term limits.” (05/19/22)

https://thisiscommonsense.org/2022/05/19/too-many-words/

Source: TomDispatch
by Robert Lipsyte

“It’s easy to forget just how long we’ve been waiting for Samuel Alito’s ‘opinion,’ signaling that Roe v. Wade is going down the tubes. Back in 2019, I already took it for granted that the Supreme Court would indeed put an end to Roe and wrote then that, as I did, I couldn’t help but think ‘of my own involvement with abortion as a man.’ My wife and I had indeed decided to abort a fetus because of a medical anomaly, even though we both wanted a child then. That was 10 years after Roe v. Wade became the law of the land. Now, I feel nothing but horror and sadness for couples like us who will indeed face such crises in an increasingly Trumpian America.” (05/19/22)

https://tomdispatch.com/where-are-the-men

Source: Libertarian Institute
by Starte Butone

“In the minds of many statists, economic services that are almost ubiquitously provided by the government in the United States and elsewhere could not possibly be provided by the private sector, lest they be riddled with market failures and corruption. More often than not, they only make these arguments because they simply have never lived in a society where roads were handled by anyone other than the government, and thus cannot imagine anything different. In reality, of course, roads are no different than any other good or service. Just as the free market can provide consumers with computers, food, cars, houses, and countless other products which require vast amounts of coordination and technical knowledge to create, they can handle road construction just fine as well. Right now, private companies already build almost all the roads in the United States.” (05/19/22)

https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/this-is-who-will-build-the-roads/

Source: Orange County Register
by Veronique de Rugy

“After presiding over the biggest Federal Reserve failure in 40 years and with inflation rating as the top concern among Americans, Jerome Powell’s nomination to a second term as chairman was approved this past week by the Senate, 80 to 19. I know the usual arguments for ignoring the Fed’s spectacular errors, even at a time when inflation is such an issue. Most common are that other candidates would be even worse or that we need continuity. Maybe. The truth, though, is that a good person facing bad incentives in that job will make poor choices. Add in a lack of accountability and you repeatedly get bad policies.” (05/19/22)

https://www.ocregister.com/2022/05/19/spread-the-blame-around-for-feds-lack-of-accountability/

Source: The Hill
by Chris Impey

“After a 90-minute congressional hearing about UFOs on Tuesday, they retain their air of mystery. A House Intelligence subcommittee held the first congressional hearing in over half a century on military reports of unexplained aerial phenomena (UAP). UAP rebrands what most people refer to as UFOs, to avoid the stigma attached to a phenomenon that is the subject of lurid conspiracy theories. Pentagon officials who testified were Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security Ronald Moultrie and Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence Scott Bray. Little new light was shed on UFOs, but the two officials tried to clarify the situation by ruling things out.” (05/19/22)

https://thehill.com/opinion/technology/3493551-congress-asked-the-pentagon-answered-but-ufos-remain-mysterious/