“‘The strong do what they can, and the weak suffer what they must’ is a quote that has come down through the ages from the Greek historian Thucydides’[s] History of the Peloponnesian War, written in 416 BC. It has come to encapsulate the ‘might makes right’ philosophy in international relations and is embraced by some in the realist school of foreign policy. Such realists are mostly right about how the world still works, but have a PR problem in today’s milieu of woke platitudes in international relations. Despite the fact that the balance of power and spheres of influence still shape the worldview of the vast majority of global leaders, some of these strong countries usually dress up the reasons for their military interventions in terms of democratization, humanitarian ends, or their national security.” (01/20/26)
“As usual, today’s president, coming late to a long-standing problem, but presuming his original discovery of it, has made himself the issue. His acquisitiveness regarding Greenland has nothing to do with national security, and everything to do, as everything always does, with his fragile ego. He is pouting, and threatening aggression, because he has not received the Nobel Peace Prize. The Danes can perhaps take comfort from the fact that the president is contemplating military operations against another northern place. As this is being written, the Army is reportedly readying a potential deployment to Minnesota to quell disturbances stemming from ham-handed activities by the ludicrously — and lethally — militarized U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. During all this, the president has announced he will order that no other football game can be televised during the annual Army-Navy game.” (01/20/26)
“Around the United States, the rebellions against President Donald Trump’s militarized Immigration and Customs Enforcement invasions (bolstered by other agencies including the National Guard and, at least in one case, actual Marines) continue. National headlines have mostly skipped over Memphis, perhaps because it’s a smaller city in the South, far from the headquarters of national media. On the ground in Memphis, local policy organizer Amber Sherman explained, the fear (and resistance) are similar to what we see in bigger cities. It’s not so much the National Guard, she said, but around the city, there are some 1,500 federal agents from the so-called Memphis Safe Task Force working alongside existing police and using traffic stops (reportedly more than 35,000 in two months) as a way to get their hands on people. This is the very issue (pretextual stops) that Memphis activists organized against so effectively after police killed artist and skateboarder Tyre Nichols two years ago.” (01/21/25)
“Missouri’s Sunshine Law was a product of the Watergate era, passed in 1973 with a clear message: the public’s business should be done in public. But in the decades since, while the language has been modestly updated, the spirit of the law has too often been ignored — and in some cases, actively undermined. Across Missouri, public officials routinely delay, dodge, or deny access to information that taxpayers are entitled to. They charge outrageous fees, cite vague exemptions, lose track of requests, or hide behind non-disclosure agreements, treating transparency as a nuisance rather than a requirement.” (01/20/26)
“For more than 80 years, the law has been clear. The government can’t force public school children to stand and recite the Pledge of Allegiance. One Tennessee school was either oblivious to this settled First Amendment principle or chose to ignore it. But thanks to a letter from FIRE, the school district has stepped in and promised to investigate.” (01/20/26)
“In my opinion, if I pay to own something, I’ve paid to own all the things it can do … assuming I can figure out how to make it do those things. The manufacturers of ”owned,’ but with subscription-only features’ goods, though, frown on homebrew tinkerers jail-breaking those products instead of forking over cash in perpetuity. And they’ve got ‘intellectual property’ law on their side. They don’t have to care about your happiness.” (01/20/26)
“One of the positions that conservatives pride themselves on most is their dedication to free markets. They extol the virtues of the free market in pamphlets and speeches, and they regularly denounce the idea of government control. … Certainly, American conservatism has long been defined by the rhetoric of free markets. But a quick glance at conservative policy positions is all that is needed to call the sincerity of this rhetoric into question. Indeed, the policies conservatives advocate very often go against the free-market principles that they claim to hold. Perhaps the most glaring example of this contradiction is the conservative position on free trade.” (01/20/26)
“One Friday morning in September 2023, my neurologist told me she suspected that I had ALS. I was completely healthy — or so I thought — and in the prime of my life. I had two adult children, a great career, and a wonderful marriage. I was 56, and both of my parents were still alive. My diagnosis was confirmed two months later. I felt as if I had just been told not only that I would die, but that I would be tortured to death, and that it would drag out over several years. … About a year after my diagnosis, joy returned to my life thanks to the support of my family and friends, therapy, antidepressants, and a daily meditation practice. But the most important factor in my emotional recovery was gaining the knowledge that I can make the decision to end my own life when my suffering becomes unbearable.” (01/20/26)
“Supporters of the acquisition often cite estimates suggesting Greenland holds between roughly $2 trillion and $4 trillion in natural resources, including rare earth elements, hydrocarbons, and other critical minerals. At the same time, media reports and policy commentary have floated a hypothetical purchase price in the range of approximately $500 billion to $800 billion. Taken together, these two claims reveal a glaring contradiction. Natural resources are not cash balances. They represent long-dated option value: future streams of potential revenue that may or may not be realized depending on extraction costs, infrastructure investment, environmental constraints, political consent, and commodity prices. … Even setting aside valuation, the Greenland proposal fails a more basic test: symmetry. If historical ties, strategic relevance, and latent economic value were sufficient grounds for territorial acquisition, then several European powers could assert claims to US territory with equal legitimacy.” (01/20/26)
