A great article by Zoran Rakovic. He starts by defining science: “Science must begin with myths,” Karl Popper wrote, “and with the criticism of myths.” The operative word is criticism. Science doesn’t function on reverence; it thrives on tension, on the perpetual risk of being wrong. That’s what makes it public. I don’t need a PhD […]
Best take yet on Mātauranga Māori and Science
Best take yet on Mātauranga Māori and Science
14 Nov 2025 1 Comment
in economics of education, politics - New Zealand Tags: conjecture and refutation, philosophy of science
BBC Finds Presenter in Violation of Network Standards in Correcting “Pregnant People” Reference on Air
09 Nov 2025 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economics of education, gender, television Tags: free speech, media bias, political correctness, regressive left, sex discrimination
There is a controversy at the BBC over a correction made by presenter Martine Croxall on air when she changed a reference to “pregnant people” to “women.” The network later received 20 complaints and agreed that Croxall had violated network policies. (For full disclosure, I previously worked as the legal analyst for BBC).
BBC Finds Presenter in Violation of Network Standards in Correcting “Pregnant People” Reference on Air
Some Links
09 Nov 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of education, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, politics - USA
TweetPhil Magness and Mike Ferguson discuss the recent oral arguments in the U.S. Supreme Court case against Trump’s use of IEEPA to impose tariffs. National Review‘s Dan McLaughlin dives deeply into what’s now on the U.S. Supreme Court’s plate regarding Trump’s IEEPA tariffs. Two slices: There are, however, two related problems for the government with…
Some Links
Supreme Court Issues Major Opinion on Transgender Identity and the Trump Passport Policy
09 Nov 2025 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economics of education, gender, law and economics, politics - USA, property rights Tags: free speech, gender gap, political correctness, regressive left, sex discrimination
In a significant win for the Trump Administration, the United States Supreme Court issued an opinion on Thursday afternoon on the Trump Administration’s requirement that passport holders use their sex assigned at birth and that such requirements do not violate equal protection guarantees. While a brief, unsigned opinion issued on the interim docket, it represents […]
Supreme Court Issues Major Opinion on Transgender Identity and the Trump Passport Policy
The erosion of medical journals
30 Oct 2025 1 Comment
in discrimination, economics of education, gender, liberalism, Marxist economics Tags: political correctness, regressive left, sex discrimination
Of all the papers in the special issue of the Journal of Controversial Ideas on censorship in science, the one below is perhaps the most important, as the censorship being imposed can cause permanent damage to humans. I’ve described this censorship before: it involves papers on or critiques of extreme claims of gender ideologues, especially […]
The erosion of medical journals
Why it’s not stupid to criticize aspects of leftist ideology that pollute science
27 Oct 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of education, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA Tags: Age of Enlightenment, conjecture and refutation, free speech, philosophy of science, political correctness, regressive left
I’m getting tired of virtue-flaunting miscreants who yammer about our anthology The War on Science (Lawrence Krauss, ed.). Their beef? By and large, the 32 chapters by 39 authors discuss the negative effects of woke ideology on science, effects that come largely from inside science: scientists themselves, journals, publishers, university programs, and so on. And, […]
Why it’s not stupid to criticize aspects of leftist ideology that pollute science
The sad fate of human evolutionary biology in Australia
24 Oct 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of education, politics - Australia Tags: evolutionary biology, free speech, political correctness, regressive left
Although the times when Homo sapiens reached Australia are under revision, the latest data suggests that they arrived between 45,000 and 60,000 years ago—about the time that our species left Africa for parts east. And although changes in water levels made it easier to get to Australia by water then now humans still had to […]
The sad fate of human evolutionary biology in Australia
Ten Modest Proposals to End the Gender Pay Gap
17 Oct 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, discrimination, economics of crime, economics of education, gender, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, occupational choice, politics - USA Tags: gender wage gap
An anonymous Swiftian guest essay
Ten Modest Proposals to End the Gender Pay Gap
Ancient Wisdom vs Science
11 Oct 2025 1 Comment
in economics of education, liberalism, Marxist economics Tags: Age of Enlightenment, conjecture and refutation, free speech, philosophy of science, political correctness, regressive left
Robert Bartholomew writes: For millennia, indigenous cultures have accumulated a vast repository of information that has helped them to adapt and survive. Prior to European contact, the Quechua of the Andes used quinine from the bark of the cinchona tree to treat fevers. It later proved to be the first effective treatment for malaria. Salicin from […]
Ancient Wisdom vs Science
Is the earned income tax overrated?
09 Oct 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of education, human capital, income redistribution, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, Public Choice, public economics, welfare reform Tags: taxation and labour supply
This policy has been so popular with economists on a bipartisan basis, yet a recent piece in ReStud raises some doubts, as the wage subsidies induce many to drop out of school: As a complement to the federal earned income tax credit (EITC), some states offer their own EITC, typically calculated as a percentage of […]
Is the earned income tax overrated?
University of Auckland set to make mandatory “indigeneity” courses optional, as students considered them a waste of time and money
08 Oct 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of education, politics - New Zealand
As I reported in September of last year, every entering student at New Zealand’s Auckland University was required to take an “indigeneity” course—and that includes prospective science majors. As I noted: . . . . at the University of Auckland—New Zealand’s most prestigious university—every student has to take a mandatory course related to indigenous knowledge, […]
University of Auckland set to make mandatory “indigeneity” courses optional, as students considered them a waste of time and money
University of Auckland set to make mandatory “indigeneity” courses optional, as students considered them a waste of time and money
08 Oct 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of education, politics - New Zealand
Jerry Coyne writes – As I reported in September of last year, every entering student at New Zealand’s Auckland University was required to take an “indigeneity” course—and that includes prospective science majors. As I noted: . . . . at the University of Auckland—New Zealand’s most prestigious university—every student has to take a mandatory course […]
University of Auckland set to make mandatory “indigeneity” courses optional, as students considered them a waste of time and money
The impact of taxes and transfers on inequality in New Zealand
08 Oct 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of education, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, politics - New Zealand, poverty and inequality
This week, my ECONS102 class covered inequality, and social security. Which is timely, because I have been meaning to blog about this Treasury Analytical Note from 2024, by Tod Wright and Hien Nguyen, for some time. Wright and Nguyen look at the distributional impact of taxes, transfers, and government spending (on healthcare and education).Importantly, they distinguish…
The impact of taxes and transfers on inequality in New Zealand
New issue of Econ Journal Watch
06 Oct 2025 Leave a comment
The End of Truth: In 1944, Friedrich Hayek warned that traveling down the anti-liberal road would lead us into serfdom under rogue government. One chapter, “The End of Truth,” explained the kit necessary to sustain the new feudalism, the kit of propaganda and clientelism promoting big lies that must be protected by censorship, intimidation, and […]
New issue of Econ Journal Watch
Thursday: Hili dialogue
04 Oct 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, economics of education, law and economics, laws of war, war and peace Tags: evolutionary biology
Welcome to Thursday, October 2, 2025, and Yom Kippur, which occupies all day and ends at sundown (it began at sunset yesterday). Considered the holiest day of the year by religious Jews, it’s the Day of Atonement, marked by fasting, praying, and confessing. There is no work for the very observant: no turning on ovens […]
Thursday: Hili dialogue
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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