“For writers, the future has long been a tricky terrain. While the past can prove unsettling and the present uncomfortable, the future seems to free the mind from reality’s restraints and let the imagination soar. Yet it has also proven full of political pitfalls. Sometimes writers can tweak a trend of their moment to produce a darkly dystopian future, as with George Orwell’s omniscient tyranny in 1984, Margaret Atwood’s institutionalized misogyny in The Handmaid’s Tale, or Ray Bradbury’s book-burning autocracy in Fahrenheit 451. And ever since H.G. Wells’s War of the Worlds (about technologically advanced Martians invading this planet) was published in 1898, space has been a particularly fertile frontier for the literary imagination. It has given us Isaac Asimov’s seven-part galactic Foundation fable, Frank Herbert’s ecological drama Dune, and Philip K. Dick’s post-nuclear wasteland in Blade Runner, opening us to possible techno-futures beyond our mud-bound presence on this small planet.” (12/23/25)
“The Trump administration’s approach to the military balance in the Middle East is not determined solely by politics, but also by the requirement in US law to maintain Israel’s ‘qualitative military edge’ (QME). The policy was originally conceived almost 45 years ago as a way to ensure Middle East stability by guaranteeing Israel’s military superiority over regional rivals. But the QME requirement has created perverse incentives that have the potential to sustain destabilizing military action by Israel, to fuel arms races, and ultimately to undermine US strategic interests in the Middle East.” (12/23/25)
“Kentucky appears to be breaking its own education law. The Kentucky Education Reform Act of 1990 is meant to guarantee a stable, trustworthy assessment system for parents and lawmakers. Yet the state is now moving to dismantle the only reliable measure of high‑school performance it has ever had: the ACT. The alternative the education establishment has chosen does not meet Kentucky’s legal requirements. For nearly two decades, every Kentucky junior has taken the ACT. It is the sole long‑term trend line the state possesses, the one measure that has remained consistent through four different state‑assessment regimes. It has revealed something uncomfortable but important: since 2016‑17, Kentucky’s ACT scores in reading, math and science have declined.” (12/23/25)
“Sometimes I hear a soon-to-become-former patient of mine – occasionally an already-former patient of mine – tell me how they hate it, but they can’t come to see me any more since I don’t take their insurance. No, that’s incorrect. I assure you, you can come see me. But, because your insurance is a big pain in the neck for a single-doctor office like mine, I will not do the paperwork and take the discounts that they require to get any pay for my work. In fact, I will be happy to see you in my office. But, you will need to tell us how you will be paying for the visit.” (12/23/25)
“If anyone doubted that the rich would use their control of the media to push their agenda and silence dissent, CBS removed it with its decision to censor the scheduled ’60 Minutes’ broadcast on CECOT prison. CECOT is the notorious maximum-security prison in El Salvador where President Donald Trump has sent a number of the people that he has deported. There have been numerous accounts of torture and abusive treatment in the prison, which presumably would have been highlighted in the segment. CBS, under its new ownership, decided that we shouldn’t see the ’60 Minutes’ segment, or at least not the one its team had prepared for broadcast last night. Apparently, they were worried it would offend the Trump administration..” (12/23/25)
“[Charlie] Kirk’s murder, and the reaction to it, confirmed that the Western left [sic] has abandoned any belief not only in free speech and democracy, but also in basic humanity. He was not a president or the sort of powerful individual targeted in past political assassinations in America. He was murdered simply for holding right-wing opinions – and having the nerve to express them in public. The world should now know that cancel culture is not about protecting the vulnerable from hateful words or any of that guff. It does not stop at censorship, but can end with ‘No Platforming’ the speaker permanently. To paraphrase Chairman Mao’s views on political power, in 2025, cancel culture came out of the barrel of a gun.” (12/23/25)
“With the holidays upon us, what could be better than Christmas movies? And Christmas songs? And Christmas movies with great Christmas songs, like ‘Silver and Gold’ as sung by Burl Ives in Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer? And of course, there’s the profit-seeking entrepreneur-prospector, Yukon Cornelius, obsessed with finding silver and gold. If silver and gold are so great, why don’t we use them for everything? Silver conducts heat and electricity more efficiently than any other metal. Why don’t we wire our houses with it? Make electric stoves out of it? Or why don’t we do these things with gold?” (12/23/25)
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Wanjiru Njoya
“The idea is now widespread that communities or groups exercise a form of collective thought, which can be duly expressed by the leader of the group as the thoughts of the group mind. Community leaders often purport to speak on behalf of all members of their group when expressing the wishes or needs of the group. For example, when demanding reparations for historical injustices, they identify themselves and every member of their group as a collective unit deserving redress. … The justification for this, the identitarians claim, is that group identity is important and members of the group have a common experience that unifies them and makes it appropriate to see them as a group. This also has important implications for how history is understood, with historical events often being explained by reference to group opinions or group motivations. However, double standards apply.” (12/23/25)
“For Americans wondering about the future of China and its relationship with the West, the latest verdict in the Jimmy Lai case proves an ominous harbinger of Hong Kong’s continued slide towards authoritarianism. Lai, the self-made billionaire, media entrepreneur and pro-democracy activist, has been held prisoner of the Chinese Communist Party for five years under Hong Kong’s National Security Law. He was finally convicted Dec. 14 on trumped-up charges of sedition. This verdict, handed down in 855 pages of meaningless gobbledygook, is Lai’s second conviction during his state-sponsored persecution since Hong Kong’s 2019 pro-democracy protests. Lai was previously found guilty of lease violations in connection with Apple Daily, his popular former newspaper that was closed by the Chinese government in 2021, and sentenced to 69 months in prison. The latest charges, for which Lai will be sentenced in early January, carry a penalty of 10 years to life in prison.” (12/23/25)
“Yet again, the military community is struck with the death of two outstanding individuals in the midst of unnecessary military involvement in Syria. And yet again, there will not be a single person bearing the burden of this loss other than close family and friends. In the latter half of the Global War on Terror, the American people have largely remained unaffected by continuous years of war and politicians have deferred all responsibility to the office of the President. Our involvement in the Middle East continues regardless of which party holds the Presidency, with virtually no accountability when soldiers are killed in what is perhaps our nation’s most baseless war to date.” (12/23/25)
