Source: David Friedman’s Substack
by David Friedman
“[I]f Smith is correct, we should have seen feudalism last longest in places poorly suited to produce export goods, well suited to produce subsistence goods. For similar reasons, we should have seen feudalism last longest in places where transport costs were high — most obviously places far from good water transport, which in the Middle Ages was typically much less costly than overland transport. The theory is, at least in principle, a testable one.” (05/19/26)
“The shock hit Clemson before the facts had fully settled. Charlie Kirk was dead. Within minutes, the ghastly footage of his murder circulated online. For many, the initial response was horror. Others found the killing justified. Some even joked about it. At Clemson University, students gathered hours after the attack to mourn Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA. But the sadness was soon accompanied by an ominous chilling effect on speech as administrators began targeting any faculty or staff perceived to have justified or celebrated the shooting. … In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, Clemson fired two professors for social media posts about Kirk’s death.” (05/19/26)
“Eight days into the new year, in the stifling aftermath of a state-sanctioned attack on the Philippine village of Abra de Ilog, the country’s armed forces shared a video of Filipina American Chantal Anicoche to its Facebook page. Filmed by the military’s 203rd Infantry Brigade in the province of Mindoro Occidental, the video shows Anicoche clambering out of a vine-covered pit, barefoot, sallow and drawn. Cowering, Anicoche is led to a clearing. She sits on the ground as a soldier asks, ‘Why are you here?’ A passionate activist from Maryland, 24-year-old Anicoche had moved to Abra de Ilog the month prior to learn from the Indigenous Mangyan-Iraya and peasant communities that are resisting extractive industries, militarization and state violence.” (05/19/26)
“We defend anyone’s right to speak (write, publish, record, etc.) freely on any subject. Whether right or wrong. But we defend our own God-given right to challenge, contest, disagree, and point out when what they say is wrong. Either when someone fails to tell the truth, or when they twist things around. Not just draw the wrong conclusions but claim that only they know the truth and can explain it properly. Free speech is not just a fundamental requirement for a republic, or even a ‘democracy’ but for society. As is the right to challenge when someone abuses that right. But the challenge must be appropriate to the offense. For example, teachers do not chop off a student’s hand (or even a finger!) for misspelling a word. Or writing down something that is obviously untrue.” (05/19/26)
“High school history curricula often portray feudalism as a quaint medieval relic — a cautionary archetype of concentrated power, conditional rights, and extractive hierarchies that suppressed human flourishing for centuries. As ever, though, the deeper lesson of history is its recurring nature: when property rights erode and rent-seeking supplants open competition, societies reliably drift back toward feudal arrangements. American medicine today offers a vivid illustration of this pattern, as government-created barriers sustain local monopolies, nonprofit hospital systems function as modern lords, and physicians relinquish professional autonomy in exchange for the illusory security of salaried fiefdoms. The result is contemporary serfs in white coats serving within tax-exempt citadels.” (05/19/26)
“Businesses have an unsung superpower. They aren’t just awesome at producing and marketing goods and services. They are also awesome at coping with government stupidity …. Thanks to competition, consumers ultimately pay the price of wasteful government policies. This is Econ 1: As long as prices remain free, government stupidity reduces supply and raises prices, allowing businesses to remain profitable despite their hostile economic environment. Crucially, however, the process of complying with sheer idiocy is itself competitive!” (05/19/26)
“‘Some men,’ an old saying has it, ‘are sent to Washington because their hometowns want them somewhere else.’ Although Melbourne Beach, Florida isn’t US Representative Randy Fine’s hometown — he was born in Arizona, raised in Kentucky, and subsequently managed to wear out his welcome in Massachusetts, Nevada, and Michigan before landing there — I have to think the remark explains his career in the state legislature and now Congress. … Sample recent tweet: ‘You CANNOT serve two masters. My bill makes it simple: Only Americans. Full allegiance to the United States and the United States alone. No more dual loyalty in Congress.’ Unfortunately for the PR angle, Fine spends a great deal of time and effort publicly demonstrating his own loyalty — not to the US, and not to his constituents, but to a foreign power.” (05/19/26)
“Caffeine is the most widely used legal psychoactive drug in the world. Nearly two-thirds of American adults get their daily doses from coffee, according to a 2025 National Coffee Association poll, and they seem to be getting more than a jolt of energy. A study published by JAMA in February tracked the brain health of 130,000 people for more than 40 years. It found that moderate daily consumption of coffee was associated with a reduced risk of dementia and slower cognitive decline. … A roundup of studies compiled by the National Center for Health Research (NCHR), a nonpartisan think tank in Washington, D.C., details the manifold other health benefits of drinking coffee. … Coffee drinkers have enjoyed the beverage’s benefits for centuries and will do so for years to come. After all, Starfleet Capt. Kathryn Janeway in the 24th century declared coffee ‘the finest organic suspension ever devised.'” (for publication 06/26)
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger
“Let’s face it: It doesn’t really matter whether Democrats or Republicans are in charge. The big spending and the big debt will continue to grow, whether it’s on welfare, warfare, regulation, or control. There are always projects, programs, wars, conflicts, regulations, and controls on which to spend money. As we have seen, both Republicans and Democrats always find ways to spend and borrow ever-increasing amounts of money. … But the fact is that neither Republicans nor Democrats are the root cause of America’s fiscal woes. Instead, the root cause is a systemic one — the welfare-warfare state, regulated-managed economy system, and national-security state system that have come to characterize our nation.” (05/19/26)
“The nuclear power industry is currently promoting designs for small modular reactors, or SMRs, that will supposedly be cheaper, safer, and faster to build than older nuclear power plants. Bill Gates and Amazon are investing in the technology. Moreover, some environmentalists, including Mark Lynas and Bill McKibben, support SMRs in the hope that they can lower carbon emissions. And, according to polls, far more Americans now approve of the development of nuclear energy than was the case just a decade or two ago.” (05/19/26)
