“Three U.S. Catholic cardinals urged the Trump administration on Monday to use a moral compass in pursuing its foreign policy, saying U.S. military action in Venezuela, threats of acquiring Greenland and cuts in foreign aid risk bringing vast suffering instead of promoting peace. In a joint statement, Cardinals Blase Cupich of Chicago, Robert McElroy of Washington and Joseph Tobin of Newark, N.J., warned that without a moral vision, the current debate over Washington’s foreign policy was mired in ‘polarization, partisanship, and narrow economic and social interests.’ … The statement was unusual and marked the second time in as many months that members of the U.S. Catholic hierarchy have asserted their voice against a Trump administration many believe isn’t upholding the basic tenets of human dignity. In November, the entire U.S. conference of Catholic bishops condemned the administration’s mass deportation of migrants and ‘vilification’ of them in the public discourse.” (01/19/26)
“Zora Neale Hurston was a blistering critic of collectivism and identity politics. Here I go taking liberties in another in a series of conversations with the dead.” (01/19/26)
“The AI promoters have made grand promises about how AI will change everything and give us all happier, healthier lives. Maybe that will be proven right, but it’s fair to say they have not yet delivered. However, AI workers may have the power to do something very important in the present, not some distant or not so distant future. They can save democracy. Their route to saving democracy is by not doing AI, or at least not doing AI with their current employers.” (01/19/26)
“Heritage authors claim that the fact that Americans have gotten less religious in recent decades is part of the ‘family crisis’ they’re ostensibly trying to correct. The authors claim, ‘The data are strong that religious people are more likely to get married, marry earlier, divorce less, have more children, and beneficially influence their children’s social development.’ But that, or at least the divorce part, is patently and obviously false. Problem number one with that claim is that the divorce rate has decreased in recent decades. Those same decades, actually, in which religiosity was declining. Hmmmm. The second problem with that claim is that the divorce rate has actually declined among Americans in the top-half of the income and education distribution. Most divorces are among bottom-half folks, who are, if anything, on average more religious than top-halfers.” (01/19/26)
“Hackers disrupted Iranian state television satellite transmissions to air footage supporting the country’s exiled crown prince and calling on security forces to not ‘point your weapons at the people,’ online video showed early Monday, the latest disruption to follow nationwide protests in the country. … The footage aired Sunday night across multiple channels broadcast by satellite from Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, the country’s state broadcaster which has a monopoly on television and radio broadcasting. The video aired two clips of exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, then included footage of security forces and others in what appeared to be Iranian police uniforms. It claimed without offering evidence others had ‘laid down their weapons and swore an oath of allegiance to the people.'” (01/19/26)
“On the 2023 campaign trail, Vice President Kamala Harris’s first major economic speech included proposing a ban on so-called ‘price gouging.’ Jason Furman, a top economist in the Obama administration, said it was ‘not sensible policy.’ As economists across the political spectrum will tell you, capping prices would discourage new companies from ramping up supply, invariably creating shortages. Donald Trump called the plan ‘SOVIET Style price controls.’ He was right, if overly dramatic. Harris’s proposal ended with her campaign. President Trump’s flirtation with controlling markets is just getting started.” (01/19/26)
“When I sat down to interview Sir Niall Ferguson about his 2006 book The War of the World, I had twenty years’ worth of questions. I discovered the book just after graduating from college and before I joined the Marine Corps. The book did three things for me: it rectified four years’ worth of an undergraduate education woefully devoid of history; it prepared me for the complex interplay of ethnic hatred and economic impoverishment I would encounter as an intelligence officer in the Middle East; and it solidified my view of human nature’s tragic propensity for conflict under even the most abundant of material conditions. I’ve re-read the book multiple times since that first encounter, and twenty years after its initial publication, I continue to gain a deeper appreciation of its historical insight and contemporary relevance.” (01/19/26)
