Political Thought
Timothy Sandefur’s edifying review of the shift in legal thought on the Supreme Court during the era of President Franklin Roosevelt’s progressive revolution points, among other things, to the way in which political groupings do not draw straight lines across history, such that a conservative or progressive today would have agreed with their supposed forerunners:…
In a review of Kenneth Minogue’s The Servile Mind: How Democracy Erodes the Moral Life (subscription probably required), Diana Schaub touches on a topic that is subtle, but central to current political disputes. “Freedom is mentally and morally demanding; bondage is easy (painful and miserable, but easy),” she writes. Therefore, we are beginning to see…
News comes this morning that the inclusion of a repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell” has sunk a defense policy bill in the U.S. Senate: Senate Republicans on Tuesday blocked an effort by Democrats and the White House to lift the ban on gays from serving openly in the military, voting unanimously against advancing a…
I’ve been meaning to comment on the latest development in the governance of Central Falls: the city council’s decision to hire an independent lawyer, apparently without knowing how it will pay the bill if Receiver-King Mark Pfeiffer, appointed by the state, refuses to allow it. The move by the council is a reaction to state-appointed…
Among New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s accomplishments has been knocking President Obama from the cover of National Review magazine after a summer-long run. As the related article shows, however, Christie’s more significant accomplishment has been successfully plucking at strings that many of us have spotted before: … it was true so far as it went.…
Joe Mysak takes up the topic of Bell, California’s highly paid public servants: In his only statement to the press to date, the $787,637 man, [City Manager] Robert Rizzo, told the Los Angeles Times, “If that’s a number people choke on, maybe I’m in the wrong business. I could go into private business and make…
Amid examples of failed loan guarantees, Providence Journal reporter Bruce Landis interviews Gary Sasse about the 38 Studios deal, in which a videogame company has $75 million in backing from the state of Rhode Island: If the company doesn’t pay, Sasse pointed out, “The taxpayers of the state would be on the hook.” “You’re playing…
The article, by Neil Downing, takes the tack of describing people who find their Social Security checks indispensable, but the recipient numbers are the important part, to my mind: Now, 200,202 Rhode Islanders are collecting Social Security benefits, according to newly issued figures from the Social Security Administration’s Office of Research, Evaluation, and Statistics. ……
Thomas Sowell, writing about a planned vs. free-market economy, remarks on the contrast between wicked smart planners and the small decisions made by the average Joes and Jills: How was it even possible that transferring decisions from elites with more education, intellect, data and power to ordinary people could lead consistently to demonstrably better results?…
It’s always notably plausible that there’s a larger truth in the mix when I agree with Bob Kerr, but while his column lamenting the possibly fatal restrictions that the Tiverton Town Council has placed on an annual charity event, this year, counts in that regard, I’d suggest that he should think on the larger lessons…