“The unprovoked joint U.S.-Israeli war launched against Iran on 28 February 2026 will manifestly change West Asia. When it ends, Arab despots, who allowed their countries to be used as platforms for aggression against Iran, will confront a new reality. The safety and stability they thought was theirs based on fealty to the United States and its Israeli proxy was shattered as Iranian missiles and drones were en route to destroy the U.S. military and intelligence installations they had allowed on their soil; a subordination they falsely believed would protect them. The Arab world is learning the hard way what the late-Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, in his cold logic, implied decades ago about American foreign policy: ‘The word will go out to the nations of the world that it may be be dangerous to be America’s enemy, but to be America’s friend is fatal.'” (04/20/26)
“[Ha Joon] Chang positively revels in the power that the military dictatorship in South Korea had over who could produce what, how. It’s positively lipsmacking, that relish with which the stories of commands to produce this or that are described. As we point out, you cannot do that sort of thing in a free society. You can’t even do that sort of thing in a liberal society — because freedom and liberty do indeed mean not being commanded to produce this or that and in what manner.” (04/20/26)
“This May Day, I’ll be one of the millions who will peacefully take to the streets to denounce the cruelty and corruption of this administration and the oligarchs it serves. I will march because I believe our lives are worth more than dollars and cents. Every one of us deserves the right to live in dignity with hope for the future. I invite you to join me. May Day began in the 19th century, when industrial workers came together to demand something we now take for granted: an eight-hour workday. At that time, even children worked twelve or more hours straight in factories, every day. We too easily forget how far we have come, and that victories like these were won by organized people.” (04/19/26)
Source: Independent Institute
by John C Goodman & Pete Sessions
“Health economics tells us there are two ways to insure for anything: self-insurance (with individuals taking the risks and saving to pay for them) and third-party insurance (in which an insurance company, an employer or the government bears the risk). Self-insurance makes sense for risks over which we have more personal control. For example, just about every time you have needed a Band-Aid, it was probably for an event you could have easily avoided. The problem is that most people are not accustomed to self-insuring for medical expenses. The median household has only $8,000 in a bank account, and millions of families are living paycheck to paycheck. The solution to that problem is a Health Savings Account.” (04/20/26)
“A recent surprise in China was a survey that found professional women have adapted faster to using artificial intelligence than men. They also show less fear of AI. Yet it was the explanation for this AI gender gap that offered a keyhole into how Chinese women are changing themselves and society from inside the narrow lanes imposed upon them by the ruling party. One insight on the survey came from Poh-Yian Koh, president of FedEx China. She said in the era of AI, the common female traits of flexibility, resilience, empathy, long-term vision, and bridge-building allow women to serve as ‘indispensable ‘interpreters’ who connect technology with humanity.’ ‘Technology can be replicated. Empathy cannot,’ she said. ‘In the age of intelligence, trust is the scarcest resource’” Technology might determine how fast society moves, but ‘humanity determines how far we go.'” (04/18/26)
“The US government under Donald Trump has twice used disingenuous negotiations with Iran to provide cover for attacking it, in June 2025 and again before launching the current war in February. Now it is trying to do so for a third time. On April 8, the US and Iran began a two week ceasefire, after Trump accepted a 10-point peace plan drawn up by Iran as ‘a workable basis on which to negotiate’. But Vice President Vance and US negotiators rejected Iran’s plan out of hand at talks in Pakistan on April 11, and instead demanded that Iran must give up its right as a member of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (or NPT) to enrich uranium for civilian purposes. The talks ended with no agreement. As the end of the ceasefire on April 22 drew near, Trump claimed that Iran had agreed to US demands on enriched uranium and other matters.” (04/20/26)
“Larry Iannaccone and his co-author Rodney Stark once wrote that the belief that society is getting less religious says ‘less about empirical fact than it does about secularization faith — a faith that, despite a mountain of evidence to the contrary, sustains the conviction of many social scientists that religious institutions must soon decay …’ In short, belief in secularization is just a religion. Larry’s critics were, unsurprisingly, not pleased. To tell people that their non-religious beliefs are just a religion is an insult. Why is it an insult? There isn’t any nice way to answer, so I’ll be blunt. It is an insult because the way that people form religious beliefs is so intellectually irresponsible that their conclusions are almost guaranteed to be false.”? (04/20/26)
“Even before 1776, American liberty and equality were expressed in church and civil covenants and compacts, like the 1620 Mayflower Compact. Alexis de Tocqueville makes much of such covenants and compacts in Democracy in America, arguing that religion lies at the core of American character and sustains the American experiment in democracy. Christianity, in his view, is especially well-suited to supporting liberty, equality, and self-government, as it naturally rules over hearts and minds without relying on state support. Uncontested in the intellectual and moral realm, Christianity lifts the democratic soul upward, beyond the petty material concerns that tend to consume men’s minds in democratic ages. At the same time, Tocqueville argues that Christianity must accommodate itself to democratic equality, especially the love of material wellbeing and distaste for forms it engenders.” (04/20/26)
