Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger
“President Trump is cleaning house at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.. Upset over some of the center’s performances and possibly miffed over the fact that three honorees in 2017 didn’t want to meet with him, Trump fired Biden-appointed board members and others, criticized the center’s programming, and, amazingly, has appointed himself as the new chairman of the center. There is now speculation that Trump will orient the Kennedy Center toward country-music performances. The controversy demonstrates how different conservatives are from libertarians. While conservatives are hailing Trump for taking over the Kennedy Center and moving it in an appropriate — I.e., right-wing — direction, libertarians ask a fundamental question: What business does the federal government have in the arts? Our answer: No business at all, not even with Trump or some other right-winger in charge.” (02/19/25)
“Let’s be clear: the forced displacement of Palestinians is not a new idea. US President Donald Trump’s latest proposal to take ‘long-term ownership’ of Gaza, to ‘clean out’ the ‘mess,’ and to turn it into a ‘Riviera of the Middle East’ is just the latest iteration of efforts aimed at ethnically cleansing Palestinians from their homeland. What makes Trump’s comments dangerous is not the immediate threat of US military intervention in Gaza followed by the expulsion of its 2.2 million residents. The real danger lies elsewhere. First, Israel may interpret Trump’s words as a green light to push Palestinians out of Gaza or the West Bank. Second, the US could tacitly endorse another Israeli offensive under the guise of fulfilling the president’s wishes. Third, Trump’s remarks suggest his foreign policy on Palestine will remain largely unchanged from his predecessor’s.” (02/19/25)
“One predictor that a country will move to democracy after a civil war is whether activists relied on nonviolent tactics. The people of Syria, newly liberated from a violent dictator, are now trying to prove this point – that peace begets peace. From small villages to the famed Al-Rawda café in Damascus, civil society groups that kept the cause of nonviolence alive during 14 years of conflict are now convening in peaceful public forums around the Middle East country. They invite citizens to freely discuss issues and help make a transition from the current rule by a former rebel group that liberated Syria Dec. 8. They want the democracy they sought during the peaceful protests of the 2011 Arab Spring against the Assad regime. Damascus has become ‘a large workshop,’ Alma Salem, executive director of the Syrian Women’s Political Movement (SWPM), told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. last month.” (02/19/25)
Source: The American Conservative
by W James Antle III
“Legacy media gatekeepers are losing their grip on the public conversation and they don’t like it, even if they mostly deserve it. … In the past, the default position of most in the media would be to at least grudgingly find a kindred spirit in a public figure who delivers a defense of free speech, even if they dislike the person who delivered the message or find them a flawed messenger for the First Amendment and the Fourth Estate. The trouble is that a nontrivial number of influential media figures no longer see themselves in such appeals to free speech, especially when a conservative political leader takes up the mantle. They see their competitors and, more charitably, the purveyors of wrongthink against whom they are the last line of defense.” (02/19/25)
“Donald Trump is launching so many initiatives to curtail government power and its abuse that even students of policy find it hard to keep up. I don’t always agree with what he’s doing, but I often do. Sometimes, a hundred percent. In his second term, President Trump is following what Glenn Reynolds calls a libertarian path. Say, what?” (02/19/25)
“On Tuesday, Judge Tanya Chutkan declined to issue a temporary restraining order sought by 14 states that would have blocked Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) teams from the internal IT systems of multiple federal agencies. The denial was mostly on standing grounds, with Chutkan ruling that the plaintiff states did not establish irreparable harm from funding shortfalls or data vulnerability, just the possibility of it. Yet the case has thus far yielded some valuable information about Musk’s role in the government. In her ruling, Chutkan states clearly that Musk was not appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate …. any appointee ‘exercising significant authority pursuant to the laws of the United States’ would need to receive Senate confirmation.” (02/19/25)
“The central thesis of my The Case Against Education is that actually-existing education is a terrible waste of taxpayer money. Since signaling, not building human capital, is the main function of education, the main effect of government subsidies is credential inflation. In economic jargon, my claim is that education has a low (indeed, negative) social return. Along the way, however, I also show that the private (or, as I prefer to call it, the ‘selfish’) return to education heavily depends on pre-existing student ability. Despite misleading statements by mainstream education economists, college attendance in particular is not a good career investment for most of the population.” (02/19/25)
