Source: David Friedman’s Substack
by David Friedman

“‘It is never too much to remember how much ethnic cleansing was made in the past based on ‘scientific evidence’ that some races were ‘not as intelligent as ours’ … (Comment on my blog) … Claims of this sort, about genocide, slavery, or ethnic cleansing, are offered as a reason not to talk about group differences. The implicit argument is that even if the average IQ of Africans is lower than that of Europeans or fewer women than men are talented at mathematics it is better not to say so, better to pretend it isn’t true. People making the argument rarely put it that way but it is pretty clearly what they believe. This raises three questions.” (08/30/26)

https://daviddfriedman.substack.com/p/ethnic-cleansing-other-horrors-and-a42

Source: Liberal Currents
by Judith Starr

“The Privacy Act of 1974 is the most important bulwark against federal government misuse of the enormous amount of personal data it collects. This applies to information that can be used to confirm an individual’s identity, either alone or when combined with other information linkable to a specific individual. The Privacy Act limits access to and disclosure of such information to those with a need to know regarding the performance of their duties. Individuals harmed by unlawful disclosure may sue the agency in federal court, but only for actual damages. … When officials override agency safeguards, Privacy Act remedies have been insufficient to stop ongoing harms or provide complete relief to a harmed individual. Recent events involving investigation of the President’s political enemies demonstrate the holes in the remedial framework.” (08/30/26)

https://www.liberalcurrents.com/guardrails-for-democracy-how-congress-can-reinforce-privacy-rights-and-independent-oversight/

Source: The Jolly Libertarian
by Marco den Ouden

“Truth, the old saying goes, is stranger than fiction. Which may be why I like biographies. They’re the stories of real people. They tell us about real heroes. Role models. Inspirations. But the most interesting and inspiring of such stories are often autobiographies. Autobiographies go a step beyond the biography. They give us a glimpse into a person’s soul. They reveal personal struggles in a visceral way.” (08/30/26)

https://jollylibertarian.blogspot.com/2026/08/this-is-not-real-life.html

Source: The American Prospect
by Ryan Cooper

“The data, as it were, are in: The American people really, really, really hate data centers. A poll conducted by Heatmap News finds that over the course of a year, opinion has gone from 43 percent net support and 42 percent net opposition to 75 percent net opposition and 15 percent net support—a swing of 61 points. Fully 61 percent of Americans now say they strongly oppose the facilities. Dozens of them have been canceled. In every demographic you can think of—urban or rural, young or old, even Democrat or Republican—huge majorities of respondents register disapproval. Brothers, sisters, come together! This has Republican politicians scrambling to memory-hole their very recent history of being fanatically pro-AI and pro–data center. And one piece of legislation in particular is going to haunt nearly all of them in Congress.” (08/31/26)

https://prospect.org/2026/08/31/data-centers-ai-republicans-big-tech-american-democracy/