Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Connor O’Keeffe
“It is an almost constant frustration for Democratic members of Congress, their ideological supporters, and the American left more broadly that — whenever they propose a new social program or demand-side subsidy — Republicans immediately push back that the program is unworkable because the federal government is drowning in debt and teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. And yet, after Republicans launched this extremely expensive war, nearly all the same politicians who had been preaching fiscal restraint have now rallied behind an operation that has already cost billions of dollars in the first few days alone. Democrats have been quick to point out this hypocrisy. … However, the left-wingers leading this charge right now are wrong to imply that the GOP’s hypocrisy is actually evidence that there is plenty to spend on all these government programs. There isn’t.” (03/18/26)
“anity can make people do stupid things. Want to look better in a bathing suit? Great goal, now with a small potential wrinkle: the treatment your doctor prescribes might be so good you won’t see your fat anymore, because that treatment made you go blind. This latest dispatch from the world of pharmaceutical safety comes from that drug class that is a gift that keeps on giving, the blockbuster weight-loss drugs known as GLP-1s. Branded as Ozempic, Wegovy, or the pill version Rybelsus, these drugs continue to be hailed as modern miracles …. According to a recent study published in the British Journal of Ophthalmology, people taking Wegovy may face a five-fold greater risk of a condition charmingly known as NAION for non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy. The European Medicines Agency released a warning last year about this risk, known in plainer English as an ‘eye stroke.'” (03/18/26)
“Freedom of speech is a natural right, not a privilege dispensed by governments when convenient. It precedes the state itself. Behind the vowels and consonants that leave our lips lie creative expression, communication, and ultimately liberty. As captured memorably in Good Will Hunting, ‘Liberty is the soul’s right to breathe.’ Yet in the digital age, speech is increasingly treated not as something to be protected but as something to be managed, licensed, monitored, and punished when it produces discomfort.” (03/18/26)
“It’s increasingly difficult for U.S. political commentators to neglect the centrality of socialism to the country’s affairs. We now see a spate of polling results and other commentary testifying to the popularity of socialist ideas, if not the label, as well as to the prospects of rising political stars like Mayors Zohran Mamdani in New York City and Katie Wilson in Seattle, as well as State Senator Omar Fateh in Minneapolis. Whenever democratic socialism has a moment in the mainstream media, as it is having now, pundits and reporters ponder what ’democratic socialism’ really means. Those on the Left speculate on how, if at all, it differs from ‘social democracy’ — generally taken to refer to the more egalitarian economic arrangements observed in the Nordic countries, and to a lesser extent across Western Europe.” (03/17/26)
“Joe Kent’s resignation is shocking, but not for the obvious reason. It is not shocking simply because it comes from within the Trump administration. Any administration of that size, stretching across thousands of officials, operatives and career personnel, will contain people who, despite the surrounding culture, still draw moral lines of their own. Even an administration defined by blunt militarism, racialized rhetoric and an unapologetic embrace of force is not morally monolithic. There is always room, however narrow, for someone to say: enough. What makes Kent’s resignation important is something else entirely: the language, the timing, and the political location from which it emerged. … He was not some liberal holdout inside a hawkish administration. He was the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, confirmed in July 2025, a former Green Beret, a former CIA paramilitary officer, and by every normal measure a deeply embedded figure within the national security state.” (03/18/26)
Source: Washington Post
by Cardinal Blase J Cupich
“On a summer day after the Civil War began in 1861, civilians including elites, politicians and socialites packed picnic baskets with sandwiches and cakes and drove their carriages to Centreville, Virginia, to watch, some through opera glasses, what would eventually be known as the First Battle of Bull Run. They expected a grand pageant that would be over quickly. Instead, they witnessed the visceral, blood-soaked reality of war. As Confederate forces launched a counterattack, Union soldiers and panicked civilians fled back toward Washington. Their romanticized spectacle of a ‘picnic battle’ had turned into a slaughter with nearly 5,000 casualties. More than a century and a half later, it seems Americans haven’t truly left Centreville — they’ve simply digitized the view.” (03/18/26)
“Post-liberalism landed on the mainstream’s radar in 2018 with the publication of Patrick Deneen’s Why Liberalism Failed — though its roots go back decades, with Alasdair MacIntyre considered a foundational figure. The most virulent form of the ideology is itself a rebranding of integralism, a counter-revolutionary movement with totalitarian historical associations. Despite this, since 2018, the movement has gained significant traction, to the point where it has a substantial intellectual network and high-profile politicians showing at least an openness to some post-liberal ideas. Conservatives and liberals alike ought to recognize the danger of this new right-wing ideology, and confront it head-on, even if it may seem to some that the post-liberals’ goals align with theirs.” (03/18/26)
“I’m something of a rarity: a liberal who is worried about declining birth rates across the West. I look at a rapidly aging and longer-living population with smaller and smaller birth cohorts, and see a future in which social spending buckles under top-heavy entitlement programs; workers struggle in sluggish economies; schools and libraries are forced to close or decay in the face of shrinking tax bases; and the national soul is harmed as more and more individuals fail to realize their desired family size. In recent years, concerns about declining family formation and fertility have spread to some respectable center-Left quarters. Yet liberals like me still find ourselves marooned on a small opinion island. One big reason for that is the work of the biologist Paul R. Ehrlich, who died over the weekend, aged 93. Ehrlich’s anti-birth, anti-human ideology continues to shadow every conversation about demographic change.” (03/18/26)
