Source: The Daily Economy
“In ‘Equality of Permission,’ McCloskey returns to familiar ground: free markets, individual dignity, and the dangers of statism. What makes it distinctive is the force and flair of her argument.” (10/13/26)
Source: New York Post
by staff
“President Donald Trump’s announcement Sunday that Ukraine and Russia reached an ‘energy cease-fire’ clearly jumped the gun, but he’s absolutely right to be pushing hard for such a deal. That is, as long as the accord halts attacks on all energy facilities. ‘Effective immediately, there is an ENERGY CEASEFIRE in the War between Russia and Ukraine,’ the prez boasted on Truth Social, but there wasn’t. A cease-fire is ‘news to me’, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky quipped. Russia’s Vladimir Putin issued his denial in the form of fresh strikes on Ukrainian energy sites. It’s possible Trump was misled by Moscow saying it’d be fine with a ban on striking refineries, since that would shield Putin’s assets while leaving him free to continue attacks meant to leave much of Ukraine’s civilian population freezing this winter.” (10/13/26)
Source: Karl Dickey’s Freedom Vanguard
by Karl Dickey
“Utilizing state power to execute those who have killed others with a 3.15% failure rate should cause Americans to pause and take a step back to consider what is happening here. Yes, we want blood for those who have wrongly taken innocent lives, but is this how we want to be known? Government fails at most of the services it attempts, wasting our tax money in the process via mismanaged programs and bungled operations. You would think Americans have seen so much incompetence from government that they would seek their services as a last resort, but all too often we have handed over the simplest of jobs to government only to watch them muck it up. No rational person would give a failing monopoly like the government the legal power to end a life.” (10/13/26)
https://palmbeachexaminer.substack.com/p/why-pete-hegseth-and-christa-pike
Source: Fox News
by Liz Peek
“The midterm elections are three weeks away. In some states, voting has already begun. Betting site Kalshi shows odds of 61% that Democrats will win control of the Senate. Recent developments in the Texas and Michigan races suggest keeping your money in your pocket. As voters find out more about front-runner Democrats James Talarico in Texas and Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan, the polls are tightening. They say intimacy breeds contempt; nowhere is this truer than in politics. … Talarico, a photogenic 37-year-old state representative, recently vanished from public view for nearly two weeks, an extraordinary absence so close to Election Day. He says he had the flu; does he not know about Theraflu? Has he heard of Zoom?” [editor’s note: I doubt that the campaign to create an “October Surprise” in Texas out of thin air will work; it’s too obviously a desperation play – TLK] (10/13/26)
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Mark Nayler
“Between now and November 29, there will be widespread speculation about whether the ‘Houdini’ of Spanish politics, as Sánchez is sometimes called, can extricate himself from another tight spot; and there will be hand-wringing editorials in the center-left press about the potential demise of Europe’s only ‘progressive’ leader and the deterioration of European democracy. All of which misses the point—because Sánchez himself has done a lot to damage Spain’s democracy. The key question posed by the snap election is ‘Why didn’t Sánchez call one sooner?’ Or, to put it the other way around: ‘Why is he still in power?'” (10/13/26)
Source: Common Dreams
by Nicolas JS Davies
“On October 9th, the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize Was awarded to Navi Pillay, the South African international lawyer who defended Nelson Mandela and the anti-apartheid political prisoners on Robben Island, and went on to serve as a judge on the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the International Criminal Court (ICC), then as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. In 2025, Navi Pillay led the UN Commission of Inquiry that confirmed that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. With the world in the grip of seemingly intractable war and chaos, the Nobel Committee clearly wanted to honor someone who has worked against the tide of militarism and violence to uphold international law. And yet, on the same day, the United States unveiled unilateral, illegal coercive measures or “sanctions” against the ICC, where Navi Pillay served as a judge from 2003 to 2008.” (10/13/26)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/un-and-the-hague-confront-impunity-for-war-crimes
Source: Asia Times
“For a time, the West comfortably regarded China as the world’s workshop, a place that made cheap goods and left the clever work to others. By the 2020s, that picture was untenable. Chinese companies led in electric vehicles, batteries, green energy, and 5G, and competed hard in artificial intelligence and semiconductors. Policymakers in Washington and Brussels were stunned. Like a bereaved person who functions normally on the surface while feeling nothing underneath, the West was slow to grasp that its monopoly had gone. Shock tends to give way to denial, and the Western response followed the pattern. … Reconstruction occurs when one ceases to wonder why this had to happen and wonders instead what could still be done. The crucial realization is that while one cannot change the situation, one can determine how one reacts to it.” (10/13/26)
https://asiatimes.com/2026/10/the-seven-stages-of-american-decline/
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Wanjiru Njoya
“Texas Republicans recently became embroiled in a dispute between two factions that we could call, for purposes of exposition, the ‘Heritage Texans’ and the ‘Creedal Texans.’ Heritage Republicans believe that a nation is constituted by a specific and identifiable people who are historically rooted in a place over time, while Creedal Republicans believe in a concept they call ‘the idea of Texas.’ Their idea of Texas involves hard work, love of football, and the savoir-faire to say, ‘Hook ‘em Horns.’ To the Creedals, anyone from anywhere in the world who embraces this idea is as much a Texan as anyone whose ancestors rode with the Texas cavalry in 1861. Which of these factions represents true conservatism? What is real conservatism, anyway, in a situation where different sides of an allegedly conservative party are unable to agree on such a fundamental issue?” (10/13/26)
https://mises.org/mises-wire/natural-law-principles-conservative-tradition
Source: Foreign Policy
by Julia Harte
“The Justice Department once prosecuted a U.S. journalist for coming home without a passport after a reporting trip to Cuba. He was charged with violating an obscure requirement in the Immigration and Nationality Act. As the journalist pointed out, dozens of white Americans had reentered the United States without passports for various reasons since the law’s enactment, but only he—a Black reporter with a penchant for muckraking—had been punished for doing so. This happened in 1962, under President John F. Kennedy, and the target was William Worthy, one of the nation’s most distinguished international correspondents. … Today, Worthy is unknown to most Americans. But 64 years after the court case that briefly made him a household name, his legacy is more relevant than ever. His story shows how precedent set by Kennedy helped pave the way for future administrations, including Donald Trump’s, to suppress speech and foreign influences that challenge U.S. geopolitical interests.” (10/13/26)
Source: Jonathan Turley
by Jonathan Turley
“My recent USA Today column discusses how the Democrats have suddenly discovered God in elections after recruiting various far-left ministers to run on faith-based anti-Trump messages. I discussed how Divinity Schools have shown the same trend as other departments in higher education with a radical shift to the left. That was evident in a controversy this week at Point Loma Nazarene University, where Dean of Students Jason Cha told student leaders that identifying as being ‘in Christ alone’ is a sign of ‘white privilege’. Dean Cha is an example of the resumes that draw appointments and presentations in higher education. According to The College Fix, Cha’s 2023 dissertation at Azusa Pacific University was titled ‘Raging Waters of Whiteness: Addressing White Evangelical Racism in Higher Education’. His scholarship draws on critical pedagogy, incorporating ‘critical race theory, critical white studies, and evangelical postcolonial studies’.” (10/13/26)