“In March 2026, three prominent thinkers died within a day of each other. Lavish obituaries immediately marked the deaths of the always-wrong environmentalist Paul Ehrlich and the often-obscure political philosopher Jürgen Habermas. But for two weeks after the death of Robert Trivers, one of the greatest evolutionary biologists since Charles Darwin, not a single major news source had noticed his passing. This despite Trivers’s singular accomplishment of showing how the endlessly fascinating complexities of human relations are grounded in the wellsprings of complex life. And despite the fact that the man’s life was itself an object of fascination. Trivers was no ordinary academic. He was privileged in upbringing but louche in lifestyle, personally endearing but at times obstreperous and irresponsible, otherworldly brilliant but forehead-slappingly foolish.” (04/14/26)
“A major U.S. Postal Service union is launching a national TV ad campaign promoting voting by mail, stepping into a politically charged debate as skepticism about mail-in ballots has been raised by President Donald Trump and others. The 30-second message features a variety of voters, among them a busy farmer and a flight attendant, explaining why they cast their ballots by mail. Sponsored by the 200,000-member American Postal Workers Union, the advertising campaign announced Tuesday will begin airing this week in Ohio, where Union Army soldiers during the Civil War cast the first mail ballots in 1864. It will then move to other states.” (04/14/26)
“Walter E. Williams often made the point that a policy should be judged by whether it works, not by its good intentions. This warning is especially important because politicians are experts at declaring good intentions. If we judge them by their stated intentions alone, when their schemes end in disaster they could simply remind us that they meant well. Unfortunately, Professor Williams’s warnings went unheeded. In their book Who Killed The Constitution, Thomas E. Woods and Kevin R.C. Gutzman make a very similar argument about the irrelevance of good intentions.” (04/14/26)
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger
“On seeing the deep economic suffering of the Cuban people, who are now on the precipice of massive death by starvation and illness, American right-wingers love to blame Cuban socialism for what is occurring. They say that it’s not really the U.S. economic embargo that has played a critically important role in all this. And, they claim, it’s not President Trump’s and the U.S. national-security state’s oil blockade that has put the finishing touches on this horror story. The U.S. role in all this death and suffering is non-existent, the right-wingers steadfastly maintain. It’s all because of Cuba’s socialist economic system. A big part of the problem here is the moral blindness of the American right-wing when it comes to the U.S. government and, specifically, the U.S. national-security establishment.” (04/14/26)
“France’s interior minister is seeking to block US rapper Kanye West from performing in the southern city of Marseille in June due to his antisemitic remarks, a source close to the minister said on Tuesday. Interior Minister Laurent Nunez is ‘highly determined’ to ban the June 11 concert at Marseille’s Velodrome stadium and is exploring “all possibilities”, the source said. West, 48, has been heavily criticised for making antisemitic remarks and voicing admiration for Adolf Hitler. Britain has blocked the US rapper, also known as Ye, from entering the country due to his outbursts, prompting organisers of a festival he was to headline to cancel the July event.” (04/14/26)
