“I love old-school tipping; that is, letting a service provider know that you appreciate their outstanding service, whatever the realm may be, with a generous gratuity. It’s a great way for individuals to reward service providers who work hard and to signal your personal appreciation of the effort they have put in to your interaction. However, tipping has morphed from a signal of good work to something that resembles a socialist experiment or the dreaded school group project: everyone expects the same outcome, regardless of their effort or the service they deliver.” (07/27/26)
“Donald Trump is a terrible president, and he’s an even worse first lady. Things are falling apart in Iran, oil has been back over $100 a barrel, inflation is still inflating, and the president is out there spending his time with … party planning and decorating. Dwight Eisenhower he is not. Never mind that he is decorating badly—doesn’t this guy have other things to do? If he is not out there acting out an aneurysm in front of the White House press corps, he’s playing interior decorator and party planner, poking around at the edges of some low-stakes cultural stuff, and being the world’s most embarrassingly failed social climber. Isn’t that the kind of thing for which presidents have, you know, wives?” (07/27/26)
“Few figures from the First World War carry the force of Lawrence of Arabia, from the pages of Seven Pillars of Wisdom to a be-robed Peter O’Toole in David Lean’s 1962 epic. The legend swallowed the man almost as soon as the First World War ended. The shadow cast over both the historical Lawrence and the First World War in the Middle East more broadly, has, arguably, yet to be fully lifted. Examining this mix of man, myth, and movie, is a central goal of Lawrence of Arabia and ME, a solo show making its world premiere at this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe.” (07/27/26)
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Cláudia Ascensão Nunes
“The UK government has completed the forced nationalization of British Steel, the company that owns the Scunthorpe plant in Lincolnshire, the last facility in the United Kingdom capable of producing virgin steel in traditional blast furnaces. Celebrated by sectors on both the left and the right, this move represents a definitive transfer of risk from private shareholders to taxpayers, ignoring that many of the problems that led to it were largely created by the state itself and its aggressive green policies.” (07/27/26)
“Brexit was one of the defining political events of the early twenty-first century. Ten years ago, the world was shaken by the images of Prime Minister David Cameron announcing his resignation after losing the Brexit referendum. The vote transformed Britain’s relationship with Europe and offered a powerful lesson about the unpredictability of referendums in the age of social media and fake news.” (07/27/26)
“Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s recent decision to terminate the Covid-19 Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) declarations1 invites reconsideration of the evidence that launched this extraordinary regulatory chapter. The FDA’s first EUA for a Covid-19 vaccine rested on its determination that the known and potential benefits of the Pfizer–BioNTech vaccine outweighed its known and potential risks. Yet the pivotal trial report did not bring those benefits and risks together within a common quantitative framework. Better late than never: more than five years later, I did—and what I found was startling.” (07/27/26)
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by George Ford Smith
“As John Adams wrote to his wife Abigail following a congressional vote for independence on July 2, 1776, ‘[This date] ought to be Solemnized with Pomp and Parade with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.’ The future father of the Alien and Sedition Acts was justifiably proud and excited. … for those who took the risk of signing the Declaration, it was the document’s affirmation of the individual over government that became the hill they would die on if necessary. Government was a necessary evil, as Paine wrote, but that wouldn’t stop them from somehow putting the people at the top of the food chain.” (07/27/26)
