Juliet Moses writes at Quillette: The furore surrounding the storied Adelaide Writers Festival, the longest-running and largest literary festival in Australia and one that receives significant taxpayer funding, has made international headlines. Our drama ostensibly begins when the Festival’s board disinvites Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah, an Australian writer with Palestinian heritage. Its climax sees a cultural…
The Adelaide Writers Festival
The Adelaide Writers Festival
07 Feb 2026 1 Comment
in defence economics, discrimination, economics of crime, law and economics, laws of war, liberalism, Marxist economics, war and peace Tags: Age of Enlightenment, free speech, Gaza Strip, Middle-East politics, political correctness, regressive left, war against terror
Double murderer has been freed on parole – but would he have been jailed if the Maori Party had been running things 20 years ago?
07 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, law and economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: crime and punishment, law and order, criminal deterrence
The New Zealand public learned today that Tauranga double murderer Anthony Doyle has been released on parole after serving 20 years. It turns out he was freed before the New Year. Doyle blasted a couple to death with a shotgun under a bridge near Tauranga in 2005 after a dispute over a drug debt. He […]
Double murderer has been freed on parole – but would he have been jailed if the Maori Party had been running things 20 years ago?
New Zealand Emancipation Day
06 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in economic history, economics of crime, law and economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: age of empires, Age of Enlightenment, constitutional law, economics of slavery, regressive left
Today we celebrate the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi – a day which should be called Emancipation Day. For on the 6th of February 1840, slavery became illegal in New Zealand. The granting of British citizenship to Maori freed the slaves in law (the practice took a while longer to end) Slavery was not…
New Zealand Emancipation Day
Border Security Type I and Type II Errors
03 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of bureaucracy, economics of crime, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, politics - USA, Public Choice Tags: economics of immigration
One way of looking at the a policy of increased ICE enforcement of US border security is as a debate over decision error costs. The expressed goal is to remove the worst of the worst criminals. Few would disagree with this goal. However, in this dragnet, immigrants without criminal backgrounds have also been detained. The…
Border Security Type I and Type II Errors
The execution of deserter Eddie Slovik
01 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economics of crime, law and economics, laws of war, war and peace Tags: World War II
Eddie Slovik was executed on January 31, 1945, becoming the only American soldier put to death for desertion since the Civil War. Of approximately 40,000 U.S. service members who deserted during World War II, only several thousand were court-martialed. Forty-nine received death sentences, but Slovik was the only one whose sentence was executed. Private Eddie […]
The execution of deserter Eddie Slovik
Maarten Boudry on the policing of academia
31 Jan 2026 1 Comment
in defence economics, economics of crime, economics of education, International law, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, war and peace Tags: free speech, Gaza Strip, Middle-East politics, political correctness, regressive left, war against terror
My friend Maarten Boudry, a Belgian philosopher, has been increasingly demonized for his heterodox views, especially on the Hamas/Israel war, since he is sympathetic to Israel (he isn’t Jewish). In the latest post on his Substack site, also published in condensed form in The Jewish Chronicle, Maarten recounts how there is a near-unanimity among European…
Maarten Boudry on the policing of academia
No wonder Te Pāti Māori wants to abolish prisons when Māori make up most of the inmates
30 Jan 2026 Leave a comment
in politics - New Zealand, law and economics, economics of crime Tags: crime and punishment, criminal deterrence, law and order, regressive left
Te Pāti Māori says it wants to abolish prisons by 2040.
No wonder Te Pāti Māori wants to abolish prisons when Māori make up most of the inmates
Female Nazi Guards: The Forgotten Perpetrators of the Holocaust
25 Jan 2026 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economics of crime, law and economics, war and peace Tags: Nazi Germany, The Holocaust
Female Nazi Guards: The Forgotten Perpetrators of the Holocaust When discussing the Holocaust and the atrocities of Nazi Germany, the image that often comes to mind is of male SS officers enforcing brutal policies. However, women also played significant roles in the Nazi regime’s machinery of oppression and genocide. Among these women were the female […]
Female Nazi Guards: The Forgotten Perpetrators of the Holocaust
Nathan Whetton: Civil Disobedience, Protest and the Jury Trial Reforms
23 Jan 2026 1 Comment
in economics of crime, law and economics, politics Tags: British constitutional law, British politics
On 2 December 2025, the Lord Chancellor and Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy announced significant reforms to criminal trials in England and Wales. Defending his proposals on the BBC Sunday programme on 4 January 2026, Lammy justified restricting jury trial on the basis of his strong sense of justice, explicitly pointing to the fact he had a photograph […]
Nathan Whetton: Civil Disobedience, Protest and the Jury Trial Reforms
Yes Islamist terrorism is religiously inspired
21 Jan 2026 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economics of crime, economics of religion, law and economics, liberalism, war and peace Tags: regressive left, war against terror
A crazy article by Halim Rane at the ABC: In the aftermath of violent attacks, public commentary quickly reaches for a familiar label like “religiously motivated terrorism”. The term sounds intuitive but it is analytically flawed, socially harmful and counter-productive to both national security and social cohesion. I would argue that a more accurate and useful…
Yes Islamist terrorism is religiously inspired
The Guardian defends a moral monster
16 Jan 2026 1 Comment
in defence economics, economics of crime, economics of media and culture, International law, law and economics, laws of war, war and peace Tags: Gaza Strip, Israel, media bias, Middle-East politics, regressive left, war against terror
When we say that the Guardian is institutionally antisemitic, we mean, in party, that they’re willing to defend, or publish sympathetic coverage of, almost… The post The Guardian defends a moral monster appeared first on CAMERA UK.
The Guardian defends a moral monster
Silence on Iran’s murder of its own people: more hypocrisy from anti-Israel protesters
16 Jan 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, International law, law and economics Tags: Iran, Israel, media bias, Middle-East politics, regressive left
It is reported that Iran has massacred 12,000 pro-freedom protesters in less than a fortnight: https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/least-12-000-possibly-20-185320083.html Where is everyone who has been protesting Israel’s actions weekly over the past two years? The Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa accused Israel of genocide three days after the Iranian-funded massacre of Israeli civilians on October 7, before Israel had…
Silence on Iran’s murder of its own people: more hypocrisy from anti-Israel protesters
The black market crisis in tobacco
16 Jan 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, economics of regulation, health economics, law and economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: economics of smoking
A comprehensive article in the SST about the rise in black market tobacco sales in NZ. Some extracts: This is again a reminder that prohibition doesn’t work, and neither does trying to tax something so much to prohibit it.
The black market crisis in tobacco
The ICE Elephant: Why the Law Requires All the Facts
13 Jan 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, law and economics, politics - USA
Below is my column in The Hill on the refusal of many to consider all of the facts in the…
The ICE Elephant: Why the Law Requires All the Facts
Paul O’Connell: Anticipatory Repression and the Proscription of Palestine Action
12 Jan 2026 1 Comment
in defence economics, economics of crime, International law, law and economics, war and peace Tags: British constitutional law, British politics, Gaza Strip, Israel, Middle-East politics, regressive left, war against terror
The proscription of Palestine Action in July 2025 represents more than an aggressive application of counter-terrorism law. It reveals a broader, qualitative shift in the British state’s approach to political dissent—one best understood, I argue, through the concept of ‘anticipatory repression’. Proscription and Its Critics Palestine Action is a direct action network that has, since […]
Paul O’Connell: Anticipatory Repression and the Proscription of Palestine Action
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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