The Vietnam draft conscripted hundreds of thousands of young Americans into an integrated military. I combine near-random draft lottery variation with administrative voter data to study the long-run racial integration effects of coerced national service. Black and Native American veterans became more likely to marry white spouses, identify as Republicans, and live in more-integrated neighborhoods.…
The Vietnam War and racial integration
The Vietnam War and racial integration
07 Mar 2026 Leave a comment
in defence economics, discrimination, economics of love and marriage, politics - USA, war and peace Tags: marriage and divorce, racial discrimination, Vietnam war
What if Hitler had been killed?
06 Mar 2026 Leave a comment
in defence economics, war and peace Tags: Nazi Germany, The Holocaust, World War II
On July 20, 1944, a group of German officers planned a daring assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler. This attack was part of a broader conspiracy within the German army and administrative elite, known as the July 20 plot or Operation Valkyrie. In the early afternoon, Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg placed a bomb in a briefcase […]
What if Hitler had been killed?
When Rubber Was the Critical Imported Good
05 Mar 2026 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economic history, transport economics, war and peace Tags: World War II
At the start of World War II, the US economy relied almost exclusively on imported rubber as the key material for making, among other things, tires for cars and airplanes. The dependency was well-known, but in April 1942, when Japan cut off the foreign supply, the US was unprepared. Synthetic rubber ended up being part…
When Rubber Was the Critical Imported Good
More Bark Than Bite: Kaine’s War Powers Resolution is an “Imminent” Failure
04 Mar 2026 Leave a comment
in defence economics, International law, laws of war, politics - USA, war and peace Tags: regressive left
We now have a glimpse of the War Powers Resolution promised by Sen. Tim Kaine (D., Va.), which is reportedly…
More Bark Than Bite: Kaine’s War Powers Resolution is an “Imminent” Failure
Iranian women: 1970 vs. 2020
03 Mar 2026 Leave a comment
in defence economics, discrimination, economic history, gender, labour economics, liberalism, Marxist economics Tags: Age of Enlightenment, Iran, sex discrimination
I put something like this up years ago, but it’s a good way to see, with just a few clicks, what happened to Iran after the “Revolution”. Let’s taken women’s dress, a touchstone of misogyny and theocratic oppression. Before the Islamic Revolution of 1979, it was a pretty free country in that respect, and everyone…
Iranian women: 1970 vs. 2020
One view of Iranian strategy
02 Mar 2026 1 Comment
in defence economics, laws of war, politics - USA, war and peace
Some observations and comments on Trump and Israel’s war on Iran: 1. Tehran is not looking for a ceasefire and has rejected outreach from Trump. The reason is that they believe they committed a mistake by agreeing to the ceasefire in June – it only enabled the US and Israel to restock and remobilize to…
One view of Iranian strategy
Epic Fury: Trump Can Rely on Past Democratic Presidents for the Authority to Attack Iran
01 Mar 2026 Leave a comment
in defence economics, International law, politics - USA, war and peace Tags: constitutional law
Below is my column on Fox.com on the legal authority for Operation Epic Fury. There are good-faith arguments that such…
Epic Fury: Trump Can Rely on Past Democratic Presidents for the Authority to Attack Iran
The history of anti-semitism
27 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economic history, economics of crime, law and economics, liberalism, politics, war and peace Tags: Nazi Germany, The Holocaust racial discrimination, World War II
Ashley Church writes: The Holocaust did not begin with the gas chambers of Auschwitz or Treblinka. It began much earlier, with ideas, laws, exclusions, and the slow normalisation of cruelty. The part that history often forgets. When Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in 1933, there was no plan to exterminate the Jews. What did exist…
The history of anti-semitism
Woke Wellington strikes again
25 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economics of education, economics of religion, politics - New Zealand
The Herald reports: A bicultural overhaul of Army doctrine that features Māori cosmology at its core has led to a Government revolt, with the NZ Defence Force putting on hold part of the controversial programme. The NZ Army’s new “general orders” to soldiers uses a pantheon of te ao Māori gods as guiding influences for…
Woke Wellington strikes again
The Moral Failure of Pacifism
24 Feb 2026 1 Comment
in defence economics, laws of war, liberalism, libertarianism, Marxist economics, war and peace Tags: World War II
Pacifism presents itself as the highest moral ground: a principled refusal to engage in violence, an insistence that all killing is always wrong, and a hope that moral purity can disarm brutality. In practice, however, pacifism is not merely naïve but morally evasive. It refuses responsibility for consequences, confuses intentions with outcomes, and ultimately relies […]
The Moral Failure of Pacifism
A course of indoctrination at the University of Chicago
19 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in defence economics, discrimination, economic history, economics of crime, International law, law and economics, laws of war, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA, war and peace Tags: economics of colonialism, Gaza Strip, Israel, Middle-East politics, regressive left, war against terror, West Bank
There are many courses in universities that seem not to be exercises in objective teaching and learning, but rather courses designed to foist certain political ideologies or points of view on students. One of them at this university was called to my attention by several in our community; it seems to be a course on…
A course of indoctrination at the University of Chicago
Forgotten History-The Swiss Airforce during WWII.
16 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in defence economics, laws of war, war and peace Tags: Switzerland, World War II
Although Switzerland remained neutral throughout World War II, it had to deal with numerous violations of its airspace by combatants from both sides – initially by German aircraft, especially during their invasion of France in 1940. Zealous Swiss pilots attacked and shot down eleven German aircraft, losing two of their own, before a threatening memorandum […]
Forgotten History-The Swiss Airforce during WWII.
Framing and omission in BBC coverage of Israeli president’s Australia visit
11 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in defence economics, politics - Australia, war and peace Tags: Gaza Strip, media bias, Middle-East politics, regressive left, war against terror
Early on February 9th the BBC News website published a report by Sydney correspondent Helen Livingstone headlined “Israeli president lays wreath at Bondi at… The post Framing and omission in BBC coverage of Israeli president’s Australia visit appeared first on CAMERA UK.
Framing and omission in BBC coverage of Israeli president’s Australia visit
Terrorists again missing from BBC reporting on strikes in Gaza Strip
10 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in defence economics, laws of war, war and peace Tags: Gaza Strip, Israel, media bias, Middle-East politics, regressive left, war against terror
On the night between February 3rd and 4th a group of Palestinian terrorists attacked IDF soldiers on the Israeli side of the ‘yellow line’… The post Terrorists again missing from BBC reporting on strikes in Gaza Strip appeared first on CAMERA UK.
Terrorists again missing from BBC reporting on strikes in Gaza Strip
Media bias on display: the headlines should have been “Hamas terror tunnels beneath ANZAC cemetery in Gaza turn cemetery into military target, responsible for destruction of veteran headstones”
09 Feb 2026 1 Comment
in defence economics, war and peace Tags: Gaza Strip, media bias, Middle-East politics, regressive left, war against terror
Recently a number of news outlets including the Herald and Newstalk ZB published articles about the IDF’s desecration of ANZAC graves in Gaza. Headlines included for example “New Zealand World War 1 graves among those bulldozed at Gaza cemetery”: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/new-zealand-world-war-i-graves-among-those-bulldozed-at-gaza-cemetery/3BU24SYRSNFSHGPWOBP2PT7PP4/ and “Graves of 20 NZ soldiers killed in WW1 and WW2 bulldozed by IDF at…
Media bias on display: the headlines should have been “Hamas terror tunnels beneath ANZAC cemetery in Gaza turn cemetery into military target, responsible for destruction of veteran headstones”
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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