The Case against Education: Why the Education System Is a Waste of Time and Money by Bryan Caplan (Princeton University Press, 2018, 395 pages). Almost every book on education policy (and I have read a great many of them) springs from the set of assumptions that education “experts” embrace: that schooling builds our stock of knowledge and skill, that it needs to be done mainly by government, that it makes us better human beings, and that we owe our prosperity to our great “investment” in education, kindergarten through college. Among the tiny number of books that challenge the...
spending
New SCOTUS Petitions Highlight COVID-19 Abuse of Due Process
(Image: Woman arrested for not wearing mask in NY subway to sue police for $10 million https://abcn.ws/30RetW4) If one were to reflect on the essential elements of society, one would quickly identify the need for peaceful dispute resolution. Indeed, on even the most primitive tribal level, peaceful dispute resolution has been the necessary result of human coexistence. We know this because even the most primitive of existing tribes have developed some peaceful form of dispute resolution. In the Anglo-American legal system, the concept of due process emerged as the state assumed the role of...
Abolish Society Security
Social Security is the compulsory government retirement program Americans are required to pay into for as long as they are employed. All revenue which is used to pay for Social Security is acquired through payroll taxes. More specifically, it is acquired through Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) taxes, which also fund Medicare and Social Security disability benefits. A specific portion of these taxes then pay for the benefits received by retired Social Security beneficiaries, currently a pension averaging $1,657 per month which is eligible to individuals over the age of 62. In...
Biden Requested a $813 Billion Military Budget, Congress Likely to Give Him More
For the 2023 fiscal year, President Biden requested a massive $813 billion military budget, about a 4% increase from the $782 billion that was approved for 2022. But for hawks in Congress, it’s not enough. Republicans are largely united in their calls for more military spending than what Biden wants. Republican hawks want the military budget to take inflation into account and add real growth on top of that. Last month, inflation reached 7.9%, a 40-year record high. Enough Democrats are on board with the idea of giving Biden more money than he asked for that Congress is expected to vote in...
Its Not Getting Better: Cops in the U.S. Still Kill Someone Every 8 Hours
It has been nearly two years since Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd. At the time, Floyd’s death would set off massive protests across the country as politicians and political pundits played lip service to Black Lives Matter and others, as they offered up their hollow support. Illustrating the extremely hollow nature of their “support” is the fact that despite all the appeals to emotion, the toothless “reform” bills, and incessant gaslighting—absolutely nothing has changed. As the fourth month of 2022 begins, American cops are keeping to their deadly numbers like clockwork. One quarter...
Pentagon Seeks $12 Billion for Missile Defense, Plans More Space-Based Systems in 2023
The whopping $813 billion war budget proposed by the White House on Monday includes $12.3 billion for missile defense programs. Over $9 billion will go to the Missile Defense Agency (MDA). The Pentagon is hoping to deploy more space-based systems next year. The bulk of the MDA’s budget - $7.9 billion - is for research and development. Some of those projects are space-based sensors meant to detect hypersonic or ballistic missiles. The Pentagon is seeking to spend over $200 million on these programs in 2023. The spending proposal allocates over $100 million for the Aegis Ashore systems in...
White House Hides War Spending in State Department and USAID Budgets
On Monday, the White House released its spending proposal for the 2023 fiscal year. The whopping $5.8 trillion budget includes $773 billion for the Pentagon. However, billions in war spending are allocated to other government agencies, including the State Department and US Agency for International Development (USAID). The Biden administration’s spending plan calls for the two agencies to receive a combined $60 billion for various global projects. One program directed by the State Department doles out military aid. In the coming year, Isreal will get $3.3 billion, Jordan will receive $1.45...
Pentagon Seeks to Scrap Problematic Littoral Combat Ships in 2023
The Pentagon's 2023 budget proposal calls for retiring 24 ships to make way for more expensive vessels. All nine of the Navy's Freedom-class Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) would be among those scrapped. The LCS program has been plagued with issues. The most serious are failures in the population system. Last year, a major defect was found in the transmission, causing new ship deliveries to be halted. The frequent issues have led to the nickname "little crappy ships." Many of the Freedom-class crafts to be cut are the newest in the American fleet, with five ships commissioned in the past...
Biden’s Budget Includes Billions for Cyber Warfare
The White House released a massive $5.8 trillion budget for the 2023 fiscal year on Monday. The spending proposal calls for the Pentagon to receive $11.2 billion for cyber operations, and $11 billion will be distributed to the rest of America’s domestic government agencies for various cyber projects. Under the spending plan, the Pentagon will expand its Cyber Command’s Cyber Mission Force (CMF). Five new teams will be added to the CMF, bringing the total to 142. According to a Department of Defense fact sheet, part of the team’s mission is to carry out offensive cyber operations...
Inflated
Inflation. Today’s inflammatory word of the day. Apparently, I’m permitted to share critical thought in this regard since I majored in Finance and Econ in college, correct? I haven’t written anything on today’s other hot topic, Ukraine. With 13 years of military intelligence experience apparently, I might be permitted to posses and share a thought there as well. Scott Horton has done, as always, a wonderful job in this regard so what more is there to say really? My quick take; there are no good guys in this story. None. So, Inflation. Side A: Joe Biden is the worst! Side B: Greedy...