“The Trump administration unveiled the outlines of a health care reform plan last week and, surprisingly for any policy proposal these days, it contains some decent ideas that would empower individuals instead of bureaucrats. Unsurprisingly, though, ‘The Great Healthcare Plan’ doesn’t really undo the bad government interventions and restrictions that limit choice and raise costs. The plan might offer some improvement over what we have, but it should be a lot better. In fact, legislation that would greatly improve the plan has already been presented to Congress.” (01/19/26)
“It has taken European leaders nearly a year to recognize what they were up against in Donald Trump. The 47th president has been browbeating and insulting them since he returned to the White House. He has called Europe a ‘decaying’ continent led by ‘weak,’ ‘incompetent’ people who ‘are not doing a good job,’ and his administration has vowed to ‘cultivate resistance’ to continental governments, replacing them with far-right populists. Still, most European leaders have been afraid to push back, wary of alienating the great power that has guaranteed the continent’s security and prosperity for over 80 years. But this dynamic appears to be changing as Trump ratchets up his threats to take over Greenland — the autonomous territory of a loyal NATO member — either ‘the easy way’ or ‘the hard way,’ with the use of force.” (01/19/26)
“The 1920s were an era in which everything seemed up for grabs. Critics left and right declared the liberal consensus dead. But Aurel Kolnai stood in the center, not falling to the right or to the left of extremism. As certain voices today sing tunes from the hymnals of a century back, it is worth looking at this forgotten philosopher, who fought for human dignity in the face of ideology. The fascists and communists of the 1920s were not all crazed lunatics; many of them were simply conservatives or progressives who took the wrong road, who, step-by-step, were desensitized to their own radicalization. Kolnai shows us how we can retain our balance.” (01/19/26)
“Zora Neale Hurston was a blistering critic of collectivism and identity politics. Here I go taking liberties in another in a series of conversations with the dead.” (01/19/26)
“It’s hard to believe we’re a year into the second Trump administration, but here we are. A year of virtually no illegal [sic] immigration, a year of fewer deaths from fentanyl, a year of declining violent crime in major cities like Memphis and Washington D.C., a year of Biden-era inflation finally beginning to come down, a year of putting America first in our dealings with foreign nations, a year of conservative policies making countless American lives better. It hasn’t been perfect, but hell, it’s been pretty damned good and infinitely better than the alternative. But there’s another, more ominous countdown that lies at the back of all our minds. Less than one year from now, another Congress will be seated, one that could be run, at least in the House, by Democrats.” (01/19/25)
“The AI promoters have made grand promises about how AI will change everything and give us all happier, healthier lives. Maybe that will be proven right, but it’s fair to say they have not yet delivered. However, AI workers may have the power to do something very important in the present, not some distant or not so distant future. They can save democracy. Their route to saving democracy is by not doing AI, or at least not doing AI with their current employers.” (01/19/26)
“Heritage authors claim that the fact that Americans have gotten less religious in recent decades is part of the ‘family crisis’ they’re ostensibly trying to correct. The authors claim, ‘The data are strong that religious people are more likely to get married, marry earlier, divorce less, have more children, and beneficially influence their children’s social development.’ But that, or at least the divorce part, is patently and obviously false. Problem number one with that claim is that the divorce rate has decreased in recent decades. Those same decades, actually, in which religiosity was declining. Hmmmm. The second problem with that claim is that the divorce rate has actually declined among Americans in the top-half of the income and education distribution. Most divorces are among bottom-half folks, who are, if anything, on average more religious than top-halfers.” (01/19/26)
“On the 2023 campaign trail, Vice President Kamala Harris’s first major economic speech included proposing a ban on so-called ‘price gouging.’ Jason Furman, a top economist in the Obama administration, said it was ‘not sensible policy.’ As economists across the political spectrum will tell you, capping prices would discourage new companies from ramping up supply, invariably creating shortages. Donald Trump called the plan ‘SOVIET Style price controls.’ He was right, if overly dramatic. Harris’s proposal ended with her campaign. President Trump’s flirtation with controlling markets is just getting started.” (01/19/26)
“When I sat down to interview Sir Niall Ferguson about his 2006 book The War of the World, I had twenty years’ worth of questions. I discovered the book just after graduating from college and before I joined the Marine Corps. The book did three things for me: it rectified four years’ worth of an undergraduate education woefully devoid of history; it prepared me for the complex interplay of ethnic hatred and economic impoverishment I would encounter as an intelligence officer in the Middle East; and it solidified my view of human nature’s tragic propensity for conflict under even the most abundant of material conditions. I’ve re-read the book multiple times since that first encounter, and twenty years after its initial publication, I continue to gain a deeper appreciation of its historical insight and contemporary relevance.” (01/19/26)
