Source: spiked
by Ella Whelan

“Discussions about children’s online experiences and the dangers they might face are nothing new. But in recent months, officialdom seems to have become increasingly concerned about protecting children’s ‘wellbeing,’ rather than protecting them from ‘harm.’ So instead of concerns about children seeing extreme content or writing nasty things about each other, the current focus is on the amount of time kids spend on social media. … This focus on the duration of kids’ social-media use is revealing. It shows the extent to which calls for a ban are rooted in a lack of confidence in parental authority – a lack of confidence, that is, in parents’ capacity to control their kids’ behaviour and limit the amount of time they spend on social media.” (01/21/26)

https://archive.is/wUSq2

Source: The American Prospect
by David Dayen

“I get why Congress could be a good gig for a social climber or a rich dude looking for flattery and prestige and stock tips. As an entity for managing the country and meeting its challenges, today’s Congress is rather inert, especially when the biggest challenges come from within. Since the beginning of Trump’s term one year ago, I have been studying the tools available to Congress to assert itself as the primary institution of American government, expressed in Article I of the Constitution. Sadly, most of those tools have not found their way out of committee. Democrats shut down the government last October, for instance, but did not demand that they would only agree to pass appropriations if they were guaranteed to be spent.” (01/21/25)

https://prospect.org/2026/01/21/so-cute-how-you-write-laws-congress-appropriations-ice/

Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Wendy McElroy

“C. Hartley Grattan (1902–1980) was a journalist, author, and polymath who many view as the foremost American scholar on Australia and the Pacific Southwest. To libertarians, however, Grattan should be important as a revisionist historian who was respected by decades of antiwar activists from H.L. Mencken to Murray N. Rothbard. Although Grattan is still occasionally discussed by anti-interventionists, such as the historian Justus D. Doenecke, Grattan has become largely a footnote. Indeed, I learned of him through three intriguing footnotes in Rothbard’s book The Betrayal of the American Right.” (01/21/26)

https://www.fff.org/explore-freedom/article/reviving-a-revisionist-clinton-hartley-grattan-part-1/

Source: Reason
by Jacob Sullum

“The antiquated statute arguably allows the president to deploy the military in response to nearly any form of domestic disorder.” (01/21/26)

https://reason.com/2026/01/21/the-insurrection-act-which-trump-keeps-threatening-to-invoke-is-alarmingly-vague-and-broad/

Source: The Daily Economy
by Antón Chamberlin

“Many debates on economic topics hinge on a set of familiar words: production, prices, costs, value. These terms appear constantly in political speeches, news articles, and policy discussions. Yet they are rarely used with much precision (at least where academic economists are concerned). As a result, people often talk past one another while believing they are in agreement — or disagreement — about the same thing. Confusing colloquial meanings with technical definitions can lead to deeply flawed conclusions about how markets work and what governments can realistically accomplish.” (01/21/26)

https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/when-production-isnt-production-and-prices-arent-prices/