“At moderate schools, those where the average student is close to the middle politically, a lot of issues are difficult for both sides to discuss. At hyper-liberal schools, those where the average student is strongly liberal, every issue is easy for liberal students to discuss — except for one: The Israeli-Palestinian conflict. … One generally assumes people are more comfortable sharing their views when surrounded by others who think the same way. So then why are liberal students at very liberal schools scared to talk about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?” (03/16/26)
“Paul R. Ehrlich, an eminent ecologist and population scientist whose best-selling book, ‘The Population Bomb,’ was celebrated as a prescient warning of a coming age of food shortages and famine … died on Friday in Palo Alto, Calif. He was 93. … In 1980, Julian Simon, an economist at the University of Maryland, challenged Dr. Ehrlich and two of his colleagues with what Stewart Brand, a founder of the Whole Earth Catalog, called ‘one of the great revelatory bets.’ Convinced that the growing population would make natural resources ever more scarce and thus drive up costs, Dr. Ehrlich accepted Mr. Simon’s challenge, betting that the prices of five key metals would rise in the 1980s. Mr. Simon believed that innovation would drive prices down. In 1990, Dr. Ehrlich and his colleagues conceded defeat and sent Mr. Simon a check for $576.07 — an amount that represented the decline in the metals’ prices after accounting for inflation.” (03/16/26)
“The great German political philosopher, Jürgen Habermas, died last week at the age of 96, at home in Starnberg, Bavaria. Born in 1929, he lived through one of Germany’s most tumultuous eras. He was a member of the Hitler Youth as a boy and was sent, as a 15-year-old, to the western front to man anti-aircraft defences in the final months of the Second World War. After the war, he became a left-wing student firebrand while studying philosophy at the universities of Göttingen, Zurich and Bonn – from the last of which, he earned a doctorate in philosophy in 1954.” (03/16/26)
“Hundreds were feared dead after a strike on a hospital treating drug users in the Afghan capital of Kabul, which officials from Afghanistan blamed on the Pakistani military. Afghanistan’s deputy government spokesperson Hamdullah Fitrat said the death toll had ‘so far’ reached 400 people, while about 250 people had been reported injured. He said most of those killed and wounded were patients undergoing treatment at the facility. Pakistan rejected the claim as false and misleading and said it ‘precisely targeted military installations and terrorist support infrastructure’ on Monday night, dismissing allegations it had hit a civilian target.” (03/17/26)
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Thiago VS Coelho
‘Humanitarian intervention’ sells itself as a moral shortcut: bypass the messy politics, send in the troops, stop the monster. Many libertarians respond with a familiar reply: non-intervention, because aggression against another nation is wrong. In his essay on Aggression Abroad, Jason Lee Byas’s point is that this reply often rests on a category mistake. If you take libertarianism seriously — if you really mean that only individuals have rights and only individuals can be wronged — then you can’t smuggle in a moral right called national sovereignty and treat states as if they’re rights-bearing persons. … So far, so interventionist: if sovereignty is a fiction, why not invade to stop atrocities? Because the same individualism that dissolves the sovereignty myth also destroys the interventionist fantasy of ‘surgical’ war.” (03/16/26)
“The US Embassy in Baghdad was targeted by rockets and drones early Tuesday, Iraqi security sources said. While Iraq’s air defenses intercepted multiple drones and rockets, with no reported injuries, the officials said, shrapnel did hit the embassy compound, triggering an explosion and sending a plume of smoke into the sky. Meanwhile, a separate strike hit a house inside the fortified Presidential Compound in Baghdad’s al-Jadriya area. … Beijing has announced that it will provide emergency humanitarian assistance to four Middle East nations impacted by the war in the region: Iran, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq. … Chinese top diplomat Wang Yi has said the war ‘should never have happened.'” (03/17/26)
“The notion of a short and decisive war has always been a temptation for politicians. This notion holds a promise of quick victories, low costs, and clear triumphs. However, the course of history over the last few decades has indicated that wars do not always follow this pattern. The current conflict between the United States and Iran seems to be a clear manifestation of this reality, as the early indications of a quick victory are not supported by the fundamental realities of the conflict.” (03/16/26)
