The Geographic History of Us
“Dartnell’s lesson isn’t that geography determines, but that geography shapes. It set the ground rules for how the climate behaves, how the currents run and the winds blow, and along those rules all human history progressed. ‘The Earth,’ he appropriately ends, ‘shaped our history.'” ~ Joakim Book
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For Pete’s Sake, There Is a Better Road!
“America’s transportation system could again become a privately-owned and competitive one, both as to mode and route. All we have to lose are our chains, the policies that prevent competition on transportation price and quality alone.” ~ Robert E. Wright
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Cancel Culture Is Just the Beginning
“In fact, the current arrangement defies the revolutionary credo that there should be no taxation without representation. The notion was that instead of taxing the people directly, large, distant governments, like those in London and later Washington, should tax only indirectly, like with tariffs or imposts, lest the harpies feared by Jefferson, Parker, and the other Founders multiply and eat out the people’s substance.” ~ Robert E. Wright
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The Best Part of Life in the 21st Century? Not Being Dead
“Is the modern world perfect for everyone? Of course it isn’t, but it’s trending in the right direction. The Covid pandemic has been a setback, but it has only delayed the day when everyone has first-world problems like a closet full of clothes with nothing to wear. That day is coming, though, and in our world of incremental progress, more of us will be there to see it.” ~ Art Carden
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The Presidents of Paine
“America suffers hyper-partisanship even in its courts of law. If Paine still exists on some spiritual plain, he certainly feels the pain of his adopted homeland as it struggles to revivify its founding principles and regain independence from King Woke.” ~ Robert E. Wright
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Massachusetts Bans Dancing Like It’s 1684
“Under lockdowns, society is divided between the clean and unclean, not for reasons of spiritual sin, but for reasons of exposure to SARS-CoV-2, as proven by a PCR test which is then tracked and traced to root out all stains of germ from the community. Despite the 300 years between them, the ideological distance between Rev. Increase Mather and Governor Charlie Baker is not that great.” ~ Jeffrey Tucker
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Can Private Businesses Legally and Morally Force Customers to Wear Masks?
“In practical terms, businesses may fear that if they do not keep up pandemic LARPing frightened members of the public may take their business elsewhere. Any decent business, though, knows how to handle heterogeneous customer preferences. Transition back to normal by initiating masked and maskless hours or locations and allow customers and employees to opt into either based on their preferences.” ~ Robert E. Wright
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A Short History of America’s Foes
“Americans can reunite culturally by exulting their anti-Removal, anti-slavery, and pro-Civil Rights history and rejecting the too-often-untoward policies and actions of its governments and specific individuals, as suggested by the Woodson Center’s 1776 Project. And prosperity will return with economic freedom, especially the termination and disavowal of lockdowns and politicized economic planning more generally.” ~ Robert E. Wright
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The Case for a Ceremonial Monarch
“The process of depoliticizing the head of state’s ceremonial functions creates a mild constraint on the abilities of politicians. That, alone, is something of great value. Indeed, great democracies are stable and functioning when they are liberal (i.e. they impose constraints on the exercise of power). If that is true, then these ceremonial monarchs preserve liberal democracy.” ~ Vincent Geloso
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The Iceman Cometh Not
“During the winter of 1918-1919, not much ice was harvested and stored away. New York City faced an ice famine. The city faced the prospects of riots and the starvation of children, said some. The legislature repealed the act establishing an Ice Comptroller, and the market found an equilibrium given the shortage of natural ice. The next year, things were back to normal.” ~ Clifford F. Thies
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The Maoist Roots of Social Justice in Higher Education
“Those who actually want to make efforts to forward amiable goals like diversity, equity, and inclusion should distance themselves from radical far-left doctrines in favor of one that does not seek political domination while using minorities as a wedge. If that cannot be done, it would be understandable for demands for social justice to be thoroughly rejected by those who wish to preserve the integrity of higher education.” ~ Ethan Yang
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W. S. Jevons (1865) on the Limits to Renewables
“William Stanley Jevons was the first intellectual to question the ability of renewables to serve as primary energies for industrial society. The deep, thorough insight of the father of energy economics remains relevant today.” ~ Robert L. Bradley Jr.
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