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Feds Out of Portland

by | Jul 22, 2020 |

Maybe no one would have noticed if Trump had sent in some FBI guys just to help guard the federal courthouse in Portland, but Trump lives by the motto "Be ominously obnoxious or go home." So he sends in unidentified agents from customs, the border patrol, and other such agencies to scoop demonstrators off the streets. Now he's threatening to do the same thing in other cities, including Chicago. State and local officials in Oregon and around the country are concerned. Trump may like the optics in this election season. To many of us, however, it looks bloody fascistic. Let local communities...

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To Annex or Not to Annex — Is the Question Moot?

To Annex or Not to Annex — Is the Question Moot?

by | Jul 22, 2020 | , ,

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who remains under a cloud of personal corruption, had more or less promised to annex some of the West Bank in July. He's let his deadline slip, we've been told, because he doesn't want to proceed while his buddy Trump is preoccupied with other matters. He must need the cover, which is interesting in itself. Meanwhile leading Jewish Democrats like Sen. Chuck Schumer are uneasy with annexation talk, perhaps because his party is no longer solidly in Israel's corner. So who can say when and if a formal annexation will occur? I prefer to ask: does it...

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Free Speech Is Sadly Controversial

by | Jul 10, 2020 |

In the topsy-turvy world we live in, this otherwise unremarkable letter calling for respect for free speech, published in Harper's and signed by 153 writers, etc., has set off a nasty firestorm of statist-left criticism. It seems that some people are so insecure about what they think and who they are that they cannot tolerate a world in which others are free to say and write what they like. The hell with that. I'll take John Stuart Mill.

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TGIF: Mises, Ryle, and Me

TGIF: Mises, Ryle, and Me

by | Jul 10, 2020 | ,

In 1949, the first year of Harry S. Truman's only elective presidential term, three things happened that were of huge importance ... at least to me. Ludwig von Mises (1881-1973) published Human Action. Gilbert Ryle (1900-1976) published The Concept of Mind. And, oh yeah, I was born. The connection here is that Mises's and Ryle's books are two of the most influential things I have ever read. What's also interesting is what else the books have in common. Human Action sets out the logical structure of all purposeful action as well as its socioeconomic implications. Mises called the study of...

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Bostock v. Clayton County, Ga.

by | Jun 17, 2020 | ,

This week the U.S. Supreme Court, in Bostock v. Clayton County, Ga., ruled 6-4 that Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which bans workplace discrimination on the basis of various categories (race, religion, color, sex, etc.), by implication also covers discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation (i.e., homosexual and transgender persons). The case was really two cases, one involving the county government, the other a private company. The ruling has brought the usual conservative gnashing of teeth about unelected justices' making law rather than doing their proper job, interpreting...

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