“The campaign against jury trials, one of the most free-spirited and universally lauded institutions bequeathed to us by the common law tradition, would be baffling in a healthy constitutional regime. But sadly, it is predictable enough in a regime whose political leaders have developed the habit of tinkering with civil liberties as though they were trimming their lawn.” (04/11/26)
“The neoconservative talk host tried to normalize the use of nuclear weapons and now appears irate that the president hasn’t taken his advice.” (04/11/26)
“This week Anthropic announced that it has a new large language model that’s way more powerful than past models — so powerful that it poses a threat to the world’s information infrastructure. This model can find otherwise unfindable vulnerabilities in software — and in fact, said Anthropic, has found previously unknown holes in every major operating system and browser. … if this model fell into the wrong hands, that could be big trouble — which is why, says Anthropic, there are no plans to release the model for the time being. Some people have wondered whether Anthropic’s claims about the terrifying power of this new model are mainly marketing hype — a suspicion that isn’t exactly discouraged by the model’s name: Mythos. But Anthropic is making Mythos available to big companies that maintain important parts of the digital infrastructure, like Microsoft, Apple, and Cisco. So if these claims were hugely exaggerated, word of that would get out …” (04/11/26)
“I’m a middle school teacher in New York, and what’s happening inside many classrooms today should concern every parent in this country, especially parents of Black boys. Education is supposed to be about reading, writing, history, discipline and accountability. Instead, in too many schools, academics are being pushed aside while politics, ideology and lowered expectations take their place. The students who can least afford to fall behind (particularly young Black boys) are the ones being hurt the most. The data shows this is not just opinion, it’s reality. According to the New York State Education Department’s 2024-2025 assessment results, proficiency rates in English and math remain far below where they should be, with major gaps between racial groups. Black students in New York City were only about 47% proficient in English and 43% proficient in math, compared with much higher rates for white and Asian students.” (04/11/26)
“I’ve previously discussed surprising results around tolerance for hypothetical controversial speakers, including the fact that male college students are substantially more tolerant — so much so, in fact, that male students are often more tolerant of their political enemies than female students are of their own allies. One might wonder whether this is true of the general population as well. Our data on the general population is less comprehensive than our student data. We don’t ask the same speaker-tolerance questions. But we do ask people whether they agree with the claim, ‘Words can be violence.'” (04/11/26)
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger
“Out of one crisis and into another. It never stops. It’s a never-ending cycle of chaos, death, and destruction. Moreover, this paradigm of interventionism necessarily involves an ever-increasing loss of liberty for the American people as well as the destruction of their economic well-being, especially with the out-of-control spending and debt that comes with this system. … Is this any way to live? Is this what America should be all about? Is this what Americans want for the rest of their lives and for the lives of their children and grandchildren? Is it really necessary? Is it beneficial to anyone other than the ‘defense’ industry?” (04/10/26)
“Humans can’t perpetually stay on high alert. So when every statement sounds like it could trigger World War III — but then nothing happens — one response is to become inured to the chaos. And once those outrage receptors burn out, we won’t magically reset to normal if and when a serious, competent leader finally emerges. Which raises an uncomfortable question: After years of this high-drama, reality-show version of governance, could a normal, competent politician even hold our attention? For those who aren’t conditioned to crave copious amounts of drama, the other temptation during and after a dramatic rein is to tune out entirely. … Then again, Trump may see American apathy as a feature, not a bug.” (04/10/26)
“Reasonable people wonder if it was a coincidence the escalation (and now fragile ceasefire) of the massively unpopular, senseless, illegal US-Israeli war of aggression on Iran occurred while Congress was away from Capitol Hill for two weeks. Maybe so, but speculation aside, it soon won’t matter, as Congress returns to Washington to resume legislative business Tuesday, April 14. In the wake of President Donald Trump’s monstrous nuclear threat to obliterate Iran’s civilization, calls for his removal from office are rising, understandably. Doing so via the 25th Amendment, which would require Vice President JD Vance and the spineless supine sycophants in the Cabinet to certify Trump unfit for office, is the longest of long shots, though US Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), a former Constitutional law professor and ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, notes the amendment mentions the ability for Congress to establish its own mechanism to remove an incompetent chief executive.” (04/11/26)
“The Commerce Department released data on consumption and prices for the month of February today, and the picture is not good. Consumption is slowing and inflation is rising. Also, spending on health care continues to increase rapidly, which is bad news for the affordability gang.” (04/10/26)
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Marcos Giansante
“Periods of crisis reveal something unsettling about human behavior. Faced with uncertainty, individuals and institutions alike tend to accept measures that would otherwise be unthinkable. Restrictions on movement, suspension of rights, and centralized decision-making often emerge not gradually, but almost effortlessly, as if they were the natural response to danger. This pattern is frequently interpreted as a political or institutional failure. But such an explanation remains incomplete. Crises do not merely alter policies, they alter the very structure of human action.” (04/10/26)
