“Boys will be boys. Just ask the president. At a gathering of Republicans a few days ago, Donald Trump talked nonchalantly about the recent sinking of an apparently unarmed Iranian frigate by the US Navy — in the Indian Ocean, more than 2,000 miles from the Persian Gulf. A total of 104 crew members were killed and 32 more were injured. The president proceeded to make this more than merely another brutal, pointless act of war. He turned it into a glaring (shocking) revelation of truth … about the American-Israeli war on Iran and, quite possibly about all wars: about war itself.” [editor’s note: “That enemy warship, headed toward the theater of operations, was ‘apparently unarmed,’ may be the dumbest claim I’ve seen from either side of the debate over this conflict – TLK] (03/14/26)
“Donald Trump’s brutal ICE detention facilities have been blasted as ‘concentration camps.’ This is a freighted term — summoning more than a century of deplorable history. But experts in the field have no hesitation in using these words to describe the network of facilities that the federal government is using to literally warehouse tens of thousands of immigrants — men, women, and even children — snatched out of their communities by masked federal agents.” (03/13/26)
Source: David Friedman’s Substack
by David Friedman
“For well over a thousand years, the civil service of Imperial China, the officials who ran the empire, was principally selected from those who had successfully passed through a series of ferociously competitive exams. Passing the first level gave one the rank of licentiate, which carried with it status and the right to take the second level of exams. Passing the second (‘provincial’) provided a significant chance of eventual appointment to office as well as the opportunity to take the third level of exam (‘metropolitan’). Passing the third level was a near guarantee of official appointment. … It may have occurred to you that Imperial China is not the only society whose elite members are expected to qualify for high-status positions by studying for, and passing, exams on subjects having little or nothing to do with the positions they are qualifying for.” (03/14/26)
“Two dissimilar government agencies have inadvertently combined to clarify the immigration debate. Stomach-turning excesses by Immigration and Customs Enforcement have turned many Americans’ abstract political preference into something uncomfortably concrete. And the Census Bureau has demonstrated that the nation needs immigrants as much as they need the blessings of American liberty.” (03/13/26)
“For decades, economists have warned about the risk of fiscal dominance. Over the past year, the topic has graduated to news headlines. At first glance, the US’s deteriorating fiscal situation appears to be the culprit. Kevin Warsh sees it differently: fiscal dominance is an outgrowth of Federal Reserve actions that enabled profligate federal spending, led the Fed to stray from its monetary mission, and ultimately undermined Fed independence. In other words: the problem of fiscal dominance is actually one of monetary policy run amok.” (03/13/26)
“The division of labor increases production and makes it more efficient by dividing the separate tasks of making an object among different individuals and thereby simplifying the job each person must perform. On the economic side of things, this innovation that Smith recognized helped spark the Industrial Revolution, and was a precursor to comparative advantage …. As part of Gen Z, the generation of side hustles and multitasking, my students should appreciate the division of labor more than most, and yet when I think about most of them, the marvel that is the division of labor — that we don’t have to make each and every thing we use in our daily lives from start to finish ourselves or pay the price for someone else to do this — is lost on them.” (03/13/26)
“The poet Robert Frost once said that ‘good fences make good neighbors.’ He apparently never met Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who is being sued by his neighbors for effectively squatting on their land and then seizing it to install a fence along his $830,500 private residence in suburban Philadelphia. The litigation is likely to put Shapiro in a much different light for many who think of him as a 2028 contender. The irony of the case is crushing. Shapiro opposed Trump’s plan to build a wall along the southern border, declaring that he would sue before a dime of Pennsylvania money would go to pay for it. He apparently adopted a similar approach to his neighbors in Pennsylvania. The difference is that he built the wall, but without giving his neighbors a dime.” (03/14/26)
“2026 has reignited debates about Proposition 13, with a new measure designed to ‘save’ the 1978 proposition. While Prop. 13 has been an immense benefit to incumbent longtime property owners, it is fundamentally unfair to new property buyers, especially with California’s sky-high property values. The solution to this problem is not to reward property owners based on how long they have been here, but instead to abolish property taxes for everyone.” (03/13/26)
“Given the Islamic Republic’s internal dynamics, war could produce the opposite of what many expect. Rather than weakening the regime, the war may strengthen its most committed supporters — the ideological networks often labeled ‘hardliners’ in Western media — while marginalizing the broader political middle, inside and outside the system, that favors non-violent and gradual change. The Islamic Republic has long relied on a relatively small but highly committed constituency that sees the survival of the system as a political and even moral duty.” (03/13/26)
