Topic: History

But Who Will Build the Roads: A Parable

– January 27, 2023

“Maybe, others one day will join the call once they hear how much cash could be recouped and costs and delays avoided by returning to the path once heavily traveled, the one where travelers, not Leviathan, decide how best to travel hither and thither.” ~ Robert E. Wright

Authoritarianism, Classical Liberalism, History

Obstacles to Freedom Can Be the Way to Freedom

– January 26, 2023

“If we set our purpose to learn from obstacles, today, there is no better opportunity to choose freedom over violence. Thankfully, Read, Aurelius, and Emerson point the way; the more significant the obstacles, the greater the potential change.” ~ Barry Brownstein

Classical Liberalism, History, Regulation

On the Primacy of the Consumer-Welfare Standard

– January 21, 2023

“Production is a means; consumption is the end. The consumer-welfare standard is nothing more, nor less, than an understanding and acceptance of this fundamental economic reality.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux

Authoritarianism, Government, History, Technology

The Power to Regulate Is the Power to Control

– January 19, 2023

“The ‘chilling effect’ of government censorship by corporate proxy has Americans on an icy slope that bottoms out in the sort of political slavery feared by the Founders and Framers.” ~ Robert E. Wright

Fiscal Policy, Government, History

After the Speakership Fight: What Now in the House?

– January 16, 2023

“Even if spending cuts don’t go beyond the House, the Republicans will at least be linking themselves to something more than the lurid distortions of Trumpism that spook centrist voters.” ~ David B. Frisk

Art and Culture, Government, History

An Omni-Wreck Waiting to Happen

– January 15, 2023

“It’s time for us to acknowledge the society they are creating and to hold them accountable. If our current legislators won’t apply the brakes on this train, we need to do so in the next election.” ~ Caroline Breashears

Books, Government, History

The Supreme Court’s Complicity in Our Loss of Freedom

– January 14, 2023

“Too many of the former and present members of the Court think of themselves as the nation’s conscience, but they have a great number of sins, both of commission and omission, to atone for” ~ George Leef

Authoritarianism, Classical Liberalism, Government, History

How Individuals Enable Tyranny

– January 13, 2023

“Mill, Havel, and Kundera all point us to a terrible truth: our moral weakness, desire to evade responsibility, and illusion that the majority makes right have led us down the slippery slope of forfeiting our freedom.” ~ Barry Brownstein

Books, Free Markets, History

Myth America: Our Facts are the Real Facts. Trust Us.

– January 11, 2023

“If history is not a debate about the facts, then it is not history. When you see your opponents’ views as all lies, myths, and legends, it might say more about the way you engage your opposition than the content of their arguments.” ~ Michael J. Douma

Classical Liberalism, Government, History

Conquistadors and Indian Rights

– January 3, 2023

“Though this counters today’s understanding of colonialism generally, and the conquest in particular, the fact is that Spanish treatment of Indians in the Americas was not the monolithically brutal affair it is so often portrayed to be.” ~ Paul Schwennesen

Government, History, Media

The Twitter Files and FDR’s Blue Eagle

– December 24, 2022

“Almost 90 years ago, for example, the US government used a different blue bird, The Blue Eagle, to coerce company compliance with the worst type of disinformation of all: that related to prices.” ~ Robert E. Wright

Fiscal Policy, Government, History

A President Who Warned Americans What Extravagant Federal Spending Would Do to Character

– December 18, 2022

“Cleveland saw his job as upholding the Constitution and keeping the federal government in its proper place, not weakening ‘the bonds of common brotherhood’ by robbing Peter to pay Paul.” ~ Lawrence W. Reed