“In 2003, the Macedonian police arrested Khaled el-Masri, a German citizen vacationing in their country. They handed the unfortunate man over to the CIA, who shipped him off to one of their ‘black sites.’ For those too young to remember (or who have quite understandably chosen to forget), ‘black sites’ was the name given to clandestine CIA detention centers around the world, where that agency held incommunicado and tortured men captured in what was then known as the Global War on Terror. The black site in this case was the notorious Salt Pit in Afghanistan. There el-Masri was, among other things, beaten, anally raped, and threatened with a gun held to his head. After four months he was dumped on a rural road in Albania. It seems that the CIA had finally realized that they had arrested the wrong man.” (04/20/25)
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger
“While left-wingers are lamenting President Trump’s threats against Harvard University to terminate or reduce its federal dole, I myself have no sympathies whatsoever for the school. In fact, I think Trump is providing a tremendous service in educating Harvard and the rest of the country of the price that is paid when one goes onto the dole. … As far as I’m concerned, Harvard’s hiring practices and its protest policies are its own business. Except for one thing, which Harvard is learning from Trump: The dole comes with control. Or to put it another way, he who pays the piper calls the tune.” (04/21/25)
“The contemporary French political philosopher Pierre Manent is widely acknowledged as a thinker of the first rank, one whose approach to the study of human affairs renews political philosophy’s original ambition to provide a truly ‘architectonic’ or comprehensive grasp of the human world. Manent’s concerns are the age-old ones of the city and the soul. He approaches them through the study of the great texts of political philosophy and political history and through a patient ‘phenomenological’ description of human motives (the useful, the pleasant, and the noble), as well as the virtues and vices of men.” (04/21/25)
“What is the mission of the Washington, D.C.-based Tax Foundation? Even a quick review of the Tax Foundation’s output makes it perfectly plain: to help make average Americans see the richest among us as terribly overtaxed. … last fall, the Tax Foundation produced a study that had billionaire Warren Buffett paying taxes at a rate of over 1,000 percent. A few years back, early in the Biden years, I deconstructed another Tax Foundation claim, that the passage of tax changes the Biden White House was then pushing would leave the estate of a hypothetical taxpayer worth $100 million facing a tax rate of 61.1 percent. My response detailed the absurdity of that claim. But what if that 61.1 percent had turned out to be an appropriate calculation? Would that 61.1 percent rate have really amounted to an oppressive tax levy? The Tax Foundation sure wants people to think so.” (04/21/25)
“Remember when your family doctor was actually your doctor? That quaint historical period when physicians made independent medical judgments instead of reading from pharmaceutical scripts? When they looked at you as a unique human being rather than a collection of compliance metrics needing correction? Those days are fucking gone. Today’s primary care physician is something entirely different — a pharmaceutical compliance officer with a prescription pad, a corporate protocol to follow, and overlords tracking their every move. They’ve transitioned from healers to hustlers, from medical professionals to medication pushers, from trusted advisors to glorified drug dealers with better parking.” (04/21/25)
“Harvard has refused to accept the orders of a Trump administration commission concerning its chronic problems with anti-Semitism, campus violence, and racial tribalism, bias, and segregation. Yet, unlike some conservative campuses that distrust an overbearing Washington, Harvard and most elite schools like it want it both ways. They do as they please on their own turf and yet still demand that the taxpayers send them multibillion-dollar checks in addition to their multibillion-dollar private incomes. Aside from the issues of autonomy and free expression, there are lots of campus practices that higher education would prefer were not widely known to the public. But soon they will be, and thus will become sources of public anger. Perhaps envision elite private colleges as mossy rocks, which seem outwardly picturesque — until you turn them over and see what crawls beneath.” (04/21/25)
“One prof I know likes to answer students’ yes-or-no questions by saying something like, ‘The short answer is ‘yes’ and the long answer is ‘no.’’ Asinine as it may seem, that is often the correct answer in legal matters: rules from a distance may seem straightforward and strict, but as a lawyer or court draws closer, they dissolve into an abstract pattern of unconnected dots that no one can decipher, much less enforce. The Supreme Court has been giving this kind of answer on fraught occasions for virtually all of American history — and it has given that answer to challenges to Donald Trump’s ascent: boldly proclaiming the rule of law while noting that there may be a very particular reason why this particular rule can’t be quite, you know, enforced just so at present. Like a Magic 8 Ball, the Court may suggest we ‘Ask Again Later.'” (04/21/25)
“Just in case I thought one couldn’t feel more forlorn right now, the word came this morning of the death of Pope Francis. It hit me hard, not because I’m a Catholic (I’m a Methodist) but because I had always felt buoyed by his remarkable spirit. If he could bring new hope and energy to an institution as hidebound as the Vatican, there was reason for all of us to go on working on our own hidebound institutions, and if he could stand so completely in solidarity with the world’s poor and vulnerable, then it gave the rest of us something to aim for. I thought this from the start, when he became the first pope to choose the name of Francis (that countercultural blaze of possibility in a dark time) and when he showed his mastery of the art of gesture, washing the feet of women, of prisoners, of Muslim refugees.” (04/21/25)
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Justin Madura
“Carl Schurz (1829-1906) was one of many Prussian exiles who arrived in the United States following the failed revolutions of 1848. After reforms failed to materialize in Europe, Schurz became one of the German ’48ers’ who came to America to escape political persecution for his role in the unsuccessful uprisings. Schurz went on to contribute to his new homeland as a political reformer, a Union Army officer in the Civil War, a US Senator, presidential cabinet member, and commentator. He shaped a unique legacy throughout the Gilded Age as a determined classical liberal who advocated civil service reform, sound currency, low tariffs, and a non-interventionist foreign policy. Many key episodes in Schurz’s life offer meaningful lessons for Americans today, but perhaps none more distinctive than his 1897 dispute with a sitting US Senator.” (04/21/25)
“The relentless march of artificial intelligence (AI) is not confined to Studio Ghibli memes and automated email responses. It is rapidly becoming a central pillar of national security strategy. Within the labyrinthine corridors of the U.S. Intelligence Community (I.C.), which includes the military, CIA, and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), among other organizations, an AI transformation is underway. It’s driven by the promise of AI to collect previously indecipherable data, uncover hidden connections, and anticipate threats with unprecedented speed and scale. Yet, as the I.C. races towards an AI-infused future, profound questions about governance, ethics, privacy, and due process loom large.” (04/21/25)
