Author: Thomas L. Knapp

South Korea: Lee proposes talks with Pyongyang to formally end war

Source: France 24 [French state media]

“South Korean President Lee Jae-myung proposed talks with North Korea to formally end the long-running Korean War, as Pyongyang deepens ties with Russia while asserting its status as an ‘irreversible’ nuclear state. The two Koreas remain technically at war because their 1950-53 conflict, triggered by a North Korean attack, ended with an armistice rather than a peace treaty. Lee made the proposal in his speech at a ceremony marking the anniversary of Korea’s liberation from Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule. … Lee has reversed the stance of his hawkish predecessor since taking power in Seoul in June 2025, offering nuclear-armed Pyongyang talks without preconditions.” (08/15/26)

https://www.france24.com/en/asia-pacific/20260815-south-korea-president-proposes-talks-with-pyongyang-to-formally-end-korean-war

Thomas L. Knapp

Grades Versus Feelings

Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob

“In the 1960s, MIT introduced a ‘Pass or No Record’ system for the first semester of freshman year. The idea? Help students adjust to greater workloads and ‘variations in academic preparation and teaching methods.’ You’d think that letter grades themselves would help students adjust by providing information about how well they are learning and adjusting — assuming that the grades are at least a roughly objective indication of mastery not yet rendered useless by grade inflation. Some universities let first-semester freshmen convert a poor letter grade into a pass/no credit ‘grade.’ Only a few have sweepingly replaced letter grades with the pass/no credit system in the first semester. Now University of Michigan has joined those few. One reason: to ‘curb the mental health crisis unfolding.'” (08/14/26)

https://thisiscommonsense.org/2026/08/14/grades-versus-feelings/

Thomas L. Knapp

Sugarcoated Socialism

Source: Free Association
by Sheldon Richman

“Should we be comforted because Zohran Mamdani & Co. sugarcoat the word ‘socialism’ with the qualifier ‘democratic’? I suggest not. Hayek spelled out why. Mamdani can quote Hayek dismissively, but has the mayor read the relevant book, published 47 years before his birth? He shows no signs of having done so. … Hayek explained that democracy cannot withstand the requirements that would be imposed on it by the very nature of comprehensive central economic planning (socialism, whether national and international). This criticism did not refer to the fatal Mises-Hayek calculation/knowledge problem with socialism or the public-choice incentive problem. It concerned rather the political incoherence of democratic socialism.” (08/14/26)

https://sheldonrichman.substack.com/p/tgif-sugarcoated-socialism

Thomas L. Knapp