Author: Thomas L. Knapp

Source: David Friedman’s Substack
by David Friedman

“The idea of eugenics originated with Galton, who proposed positive eugenics, policies to encourage the reproduction of the able. The idea of negative eugenics, preventing the reproduction of the unfit, was taken up by the British left, with supporters including Shaw, Wells, Keynes, Laski and the Webbs, and spread across the political spectrum; Winston Churchill was one of many enthusiastic supporters. The result was an attempt, in 1912, to enact compulsory eugenics into law. It was successfully opposed by Josiah Wedgewood, whom Ridley describes as a radical libertarian. His central argument was not that it was bad science but that it was a striking violation of individual liberty.” (11/20/25)

https://daviddfriedman.substack.com/p/eugenics-and-libertarianism-ce8

Source: Second Thoughts
by Steve Newman

“Recently, I’ve been hearing of a new phenomenon: teams reportedly using agentic AI tools to ‘enter takeoff’ – achieving astounding feats of productivity that escalate each week, with no limit in sight. … The classic scenario for AI ascending to superintelligence involves ‘recursive self-improvement,’ where an AI builds a smarter AI, which builds an even smarter AI, and so on. These stories of teams entering takeoff are not quite that, because there is still a human in the loop, but they have a similar flavor. If the singularity ever arrives, the early stages might look just like this.” (11/20/25)

https://secondthoughts.ai/p/hyperproductivity

Source: Law & Liberty
by Doug Bandow

“Before heading for a special London summit earlier this year, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk noted ‘a paradox’ involving the continent’s security relationship with America: ‘500 million Europeans [are asking] 300 million Americans to protect them from 140 million Russians.’ His numbers were slightly off — it’s more like 600 million Europeans and 340 million Americans — but his conclusion, that Europe ‘must take greater responsibility for the continent’s security,’ was sound. The time is well past for burden-sharing, however. It is time for burden-shifting. NATO was created 76 years ago. Yet the Europeans remain seemingly haplessly and helplessly dependent on the US for their defense.” (11/20/25)

https://lawliberty.org/time-for-burden-shifting-in-europe/

Source: The Hill
by Ryan Nadelson

“For nearly five years, pandemic-era waivers allowed patients to receive telehealth visits from home under Medicare and most commercial plans. That flexibility ended on September 30, 2025 when Congress failed to renew permanent parity. Beginning October 1, a patient’s home no longer counted as an eligible originating site for most non behavioral medical visits, with only a narrow set of mental health exceptions. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services did not ban telemedicine — it simply stopped paying for it. In modern health care, that is the same result. Regional insurance plans followed, affecting more than thirty million Medicare beneficiaries who used telehealth last year. They all risk losing access again in a matter of weeks.” (11/20/25)

https://thehill.com/opinion/healthcare/5609210-telemedicine-is-quietly-being-undone-and-its-a-big-mistake/

Source: Orange County Register
by Sal Rodriguez

“[T]he negative impacts of Trump’s global tariffs are already being felt by American businesses and consumers. The Budget Lab at Yale University projects the net impact will be a slowing of the U.S. GDP for years to come and net losses to the average household of about $1,300. In just the first few months of the Trump presidency, Californians coughed up over $11 billion in tariff payments as a result of Trump’s decrees. That’s real money taken out of the hands of California businesses and consumers. So it struck me as odd, the other day, when I saw GOP Rep. Young Kim post on X, ‘California’s gotten too expensive for small businesses to take off. I fought to make President Trump’s pro-growth tax cuts permanent — so local job creators can keep more of what they earn.'” (11/20/25)

https://archive.is/APpYt