Welfare Is Immoral in Any Country

Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Laurence M Vance

“The plain fact is that it is immoral to take money by coercion from one party and give it to another party. Just because the government does it does not make it any less immoral. Welfare is immoral in any country.” (10/09/26)

https://www.fff.org/explore-freedom/article/welfare-is-immoral-in-any-country/

Four dead, hundreds of thousands without power as Isaias sweeps inland from Gulf coast

Source: Washington Post

“Four people were killed and nearly 900,000 customers were without power after Isaias roared ashore near Destin, Florida, late Friday night as a Category 2 hurricane, packing wind gusts over 100 mph and a storm surge of up to six feet. A wind gust of 117 mph was recorded in Pensacola Beach, Florida, while nearby Santa Rosa Beach experienced a gust of 116 mph. The ferocious winds drove power outages for hundreds of thousands across Florida, Alabama and Georgia, according to poweroutage.us.” (10/10/26)

https://archive.is/AlgTY

A lovely example of why politics is bad at economics

Source: Adam Smith Institute
by Tim Worstall

“Let us imagine, just for a moment, that this climate change thing is really big and important. So much so that we’re going to subsidise people moving from internal combustion engines over to electric vehicles. No, no, don’t worry about whether all that is true or not, necessary or a good idea. That’s just the set up. We’ve got to shift that transport sector and we’re going to do it via subsidy. ‘Andy Burnham is preparing to raise tariffs on Chinese electric cars as part of a closer relationship with the EU.’ … The answer to climate change is that we both subsidise electric vehicles and also that we tax electric vehicles at a rate of 45%. That the political process would even consider this – this before how we all know there will be those who think it a good idea – shows, precisely, why politics and good economics just do not mix.” (10/09/26)

https://www.adamsmith.org/blog/a-lovely-example-of-why-politics-is-bad-at-economics

The Collective Is the Enemy of Community

Source: American Greatness
by Thaddeus G McCotter

“Whether reflecting on the impersonal essence of ‘virtual reality’ and the incessant stream of demands and anxieties it imposes upon our diurnal, increasingly alienated existence, or listening to the concerns of one’s fellow citizens, one hears a persistent leitmotif: the longing for true community, especially among the youth. One aspect of this longing has been well bruited: people’s gnawing sense that the myth of ‘virtual community’ is an alienating illusion that increasingly leaves them numb and pining for personal engagements—the flesh-and-blood amities, intimacies, and sundry other encounters of true community. Exacerbating this sense of loss, especially among the young, people are very concerned about ‘affordability’ (such as the inability to purchase a new home, rent an apartment, find an entry-level job, or keep the one they already have) due to the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and inflation.” (10/10/26)

https://amgreatness.com/2026/10/10/the-collective-is-the-enemy-of-community/

Trump urges Fetterman to switch parties and become a Republican

Source: SFGate

“President Donald Trump openly encouraged Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania to switch parties and become a Republican just weeks before the midterm elections could reshape control of Congress. ‘I’d love to see him as a Republican,’ Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews on Saturday as he returned to Washington from a rally in Tennessee. ‘He does better as a Republican than he does as a Democrat.’ The comments were among the most direct overtures by Trump to woo Fetterman into the GOP, a matter of growing importance as the party could lose its Senate majority in next month’s elections. With his everyman appeal, Fetterman was a Democratic star when he was first elected to the Senate in 2022. But during his time in Washington, he has split with Democrats on issues ranging from immigration to Israel, leading to speculation that he might switch parties.” (10/10/26)

https://www.sfgate.com/news/politics/article/trump-urges-sen-john-fetterman-to-switch-parties-22471864.php

“Socialism to Me”: Definition by Wishful Thinking

Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Joshua Mawhorter

“The masterful socialist strategy is to present only the benefits of their policies with no (or almost no) costs, and then assert that the consequences of state intervention are actually the costs of free-market capitalism. Ironically, however, the socialists need the genuine production and exchange from some degree of market capitalism in order to give anything to anyone. What does not exist or is not possessed cannot be given.” (10/09/26)

https://mises.org/mises-wire/socialism-me-definition-wishful-thinking

The Floundering Anglo-American Right

Source: The Weekly Dish
by Andrew Sullivan

“For the ancients, thymos always had to cede to reason to be exercised properly, and always, as for every virtue, in moderation. The consequences of unrestrained thymos could be disastrous, as Socrates taught, and Alcibiades, who rashly got Athens into a war it could not win, proved. So no, the West is not defined by ambition, nor by ‘the unapologetic pursuit of national power.’ For most of the last two thousand years, after all, ‘national power’ did not exist. Christendom did. The West is defined by reason allied with Christianity, which eventually gave us the liberal order. Rubio wants to replace that with unconstrained passion allied with the will to power. God help us. But that just reveals how virulently anti-Christian the American right has now become.” (10/09/26)

https://andrewsullivan.substack.com/p/the-floundering-anglo-american-right

Soho Forum Debate: Will Mamdani Make Housing More Affordable?

Source: Reason

“Economist Emily Eisner and former New York State Assemblyman Kenny Burgos debate the resolution, ‘Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s housing policies will make housing more affordable for most New York City residents.'” (10/09/26)

https://reason.com/podcast/2026/10/09/will-mamdani-make-housing-more-affordable/