Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Laurence M Vance
“Most cases of choice involve goods that are much more distinguishable than almost identical bottles of ketchup: for example, cars, houses, furniture, shoes, clothes, pets. But choice is not limited to just goods. Sometimes, people choose between and among experiences: for example, cruises, concerts, sporting events, museums, zoos, and amusement parks. The same is true when it comes to the provision of services: for example, pest control, dentistry, hair styling, auto repair, landscaping, tanning. Although every service imaginable is or has been provided by the free market, governments at every level are united in their belief that there is one service that government at some level should provide, fund, regulate, control, and/or mandate that every child should receive: education.” (10/05/26)
‘AI in health care promises greater efficiency, but only if it balances the objective knowledge of the physician with the subjective wisdom of the patient.” (10/05/26)
“Authorities in France were forced to close as many as 500 high schools across the country as protests by thousands of students over the state of the education system extended into a third week. Education Minister Édouard Geffray announced Sunday that the schools would not reopen after the weekend with classes at 400 to 500 partially or completely canceled because of security that did not meet the levels required. Accusing left wing extremists of exploiting the dispute, Geffray said 78 staff had been injured and 24 schools ‘burned or ransacked’ since the protests, which he said were unprecedented, erupted Sept. 21 in low-income districts of Paris’ southeastern suburbs.” (10/05/26)
“The forty-fourth annual Banned Books Week (BBW) takes place October 4 through 10 this year, but given the significant, sustained efforts to restrict what young people can read, Banned Books Week should likely be observed every week. We are living in a time of increased attacks on the free press, free speech, academic freedom, and the rights to read and know. This year’s BBW theme, ‘Let Books Be: Protect the Freedom to Read,’ reflects these concerns.” (10/05/26)
“Looking across the devastated landscape of the Gaza Strip, where surviving generations now carry the permanent physical and psychological scars of war, the ultimate indictment of our era is damning: The world watched the horror unfold in real-time, possessed all the legal, political and institutional mechanisms to stop it, and did nothing. For months, then years, the catastrophe in Gaza tested the fabric of international law, the integrity of global governance and the moral conscience of humanity. From the halls of the United Nations to the high courts of The Hague, what followed was not information failure, but a shameful surrender of political and moral will.” (10/05/26)
“Former U.S. House speaker Dennis Hastert is dead at 84. Hastert died at his home in Illinois over the weekend due to natural causes, Kendall County Coroner Jacquie Purcell told USA TODAY Oct. 5. As the 59th Speaker of the House, the former lawmaker from Illinois’ 14th congressional districtwas the longest serving Republican speaker in history. … Hastert served 13 of a 15 month prison sentence in connection to a bank fraud conviction linked to his effort to buy the silence of a former student he sexually abused during his days as a high school wrestling coach in Illinois, USA TODAY previously reported.” (10/05/26)
