Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) yesterday called for the denaturalization of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) after a controversial speech was uncovered in which she pledged to put Somalia first in Congress and her work. While I have been a long critic of Omar, her views expressed in this speech are not only protected speech, but […]
No, Omar Cannot be Denaturalized on the Basis of her “Somalians First” Speech
No, Omar Cannot be Denaturalized on the Basis of her “Somalians First” Speech
31 Jan 2024 Leave a comment
in law and economics, politics - USA
MICHAEL BASSETT: Shane Jones deserves support about the Waitangi Tribunal
31 Jan 2024 Leave a comment
in constitutional political economy, income redistribution, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: constitutional law
Michael Bassett writes – Shane Jones deserves full support for his round-arm swing at the Waitangi Tribunal which is now fiddling about with a constitutional inquiry and deciding who can take part in it. A clause in New Zealand First’s coalition agreement with the National Party commits the government to amending the Waitangi Tribunal’s legislation […]
MICHAEL BASSETT: Shane Jones deserves support about the Waitangi Tribunal
MICHAEL BASSETT: SHANE JONES DESERVES SUPPORT ABOUT THE WAITANGI TRIBUNAL
31 Jan 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of bureaucracy, income redistribution, law and economics, liberalism, politics - New Zealand, property rights, Public Choice, public economics, rentseeking Tags: constitutional law
Shane Jones deserves full support for his round-arm swing at the Waitangi Tribunal which is now fiddling about with a constitutional inquiry and deciding who can take part in it. A clause in New Zealand First’s coalition agreement with the National Party commits the government to amending the Waitangi Tribunal’s legislation so that the body…
MICHAEL BASSETT: SHANE JONES DESERVES SUPPORT ABOUT THE WAITANGI TRIBUNAL
Treaty principles?
30 Jan 2024 Leave a comment
in law and economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights Tags: constitutional law
When ACT’s leader said they wanted legislation to state what the Treaty Principles mean, my first thought was this will controversial and divisive. Clearly it is. The first reference to the Principles of the Treaty were contained in the 1975 Act establishing the Treaty of Waitangi Tribunal. But the Principles were not defined by Parliament, then or […]
Treaty principles?
PLAYING WITH FIRE: THE 1968 ELECTION AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF AMERICAN POLITICS by Lawrence O’Donnell
29 Jan 2024 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economic history, politics - USA
(The 1968 Democratic Convention demonstration on the streets of Chicago) The publication of MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell’s new book, PLAYING WITH FIRE: THE 1968 ELECTION AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF AMERICAN POLITICS comes at a propitious moment in American political history. According to O’Donnell 1968 is the watershed year that set our current politics in motion […]
PLAYING WITH FIRE: THE 1968 ELECTION AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF AMERICAN POLITICS by Lawrence O’Donnell
Seymour raises tax and Treaty issues in his “state of the nation” speech (which has not been posted on the Beehive site)
29 Jan 2024 Leave a comment
in comparative institutional analysis, discrimination, economic history, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights, Public Choice Tags: constitutional law
Buzz from the Beehive Just one statement has been posted on the government’s official website since Attorney-General Judith Collins announced the appointment of a new High Court Judge late last week. It deals with education and the government’s aims to get better results from school students.
Seymour raises tax and Treaty issues in his “state of the nation” speech (which has not been posted on the Beehive site)
More from New Zealand, a nation whose science is circling the drain
28 Jan 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of education, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: Age of Enlightenment, conjecture and refutation, free speech, philosophy of science, political correctness, regressive left

I’ve written a lot about New Zealand lately, in particular the schools’ and government’s attempt to force the teaching of “indigenous ways of knowing” (mātauranga Māori) into the science classroom as a system coequal in value with modern science. That means not only equal classroom time, but equal respect, treating indigenous ways of knowing as […]
More from New Zealand, a nation whose science is circling the drain
Legal Blow: Hunter’s Defense Hammered by Discovery of Cocaine on Gun Pouch
26 Jan 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, law and economics, politics - USA Tags: 2024 presidential election

Below is my column in the New York Post on discovery of cocaine on the pouch holding Hunter Biden’s gun. Biden’s team is likely to move to keep the tests out of the trial due to the breaks in custody (it was first thrown into a dumpster and then discovered by a man rummaging through […]
Legal Blow: Hunter’s Defense Hammered by Discovery of Cocaine on Gun Pouch
Water metering – a small piece of silver buckshot
25 Jan 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of bureaucracy, environmental economics, industrial organisation, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights, Public Choice, survivor principle Tags: economics of networks, privatization
Chris Parker at Treasury sometimes quips that there are no silver bullets for solving housing in NZ, only pieces of silver buckshot. Basically you’ve got to do a lot of things to solve the problem; any one of them on their own won’t do it. I was on RNZ’s The Panel yesterday afternoon (here, from around…
Water metering – a small piece of silver buckshot
My letter to the Chicago Maroon about Students for Justice in Palestine
25 Jan 2024 Leave a comment
in defence economics, discrimination, economics of crime, economics of education, law and economics, laws of war, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA, war and peace Tags: Age of Enlightenment, free speech, Gaza Strip, Israel, Middle-East politics, regressive left, war against terror

Over the last several months, I’ve seen and read about demonstrations on our campus by the pro-Palestinian group Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), which apparently has roughly 200 campus branches in the U.S., Canada, and New Zealand. SJP has been particularly active since last year’s October 7 massacre of Israelis and others, which they […]
My letter to the Chicago Maroon about Students for Justice in Palestine
The danger of the Treaty debate wearing us down
25 Jan 2024 Leave a comment
in economic history, economics of crime, economics of education, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights Tags: constitutional law
Screeds have been written about the Treaty of Waitangi. And there’s more to come as division over race and rights ramps up.Its content and meaning are getting lost in the crossfire and the danger of ‘contestants’ talking past each other looms, if not already happening.When matters get murky, and misunderstandings abound, there is also a…
The danger of the Treaty debate wearing us down
GEOFFREY MILLER: New Zealand’s huge shift in the Middle East
24 Jan 2024 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economics of crime, law and economics, laws of war, liberalism, politics - New Zealand, war and peace Tags: Gaza Strip, Israel, Middle-East politics, political correctness, regressive left, war against terror
Geoffrey Miller writes – New Zealand is reshaping its foreign policy via the Middle East. A decision to provide intelligence support for future US and UK airstrikes on Yemen is highly symbolic. The Prime Minister, Christopher Luxon, announced the deployment of the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) troops to support the US-led military response to the attacks […]
GEOFFREY MILLER: New Zealand’s huge shift in the Middle East
MICHAEL BASSETT: TV ONE’S BEAT-UP ON THE TREATY AND THE KING’S HUI
21 Jan 2024 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economic history, income redistribution, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: constitutional law
Last Friday night, TV One’s lead item on the 6pm news was a story by reporter Te Aniwa Hurihanganui. She had scored a leaked piece of advice not yet considered by Cabinet that was intended to warn ministers in the new government that they would run into trouble with Maori if they backed David Seymour’s…
MICHAEL BASSETT: TV ONE’S BEAT-UP ON THE TREATY AND THE KING’S HUI
Bill Maher has a new rule, which is his
21 Jan 2024 Leave a comment
in liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA, television, TV shows
Here’s an eight-minute clip from Bill Maher in which he touts a new rule: 2024 is supposed to be “The Year of Sanity”. Maher gives several examples of pervasive insanity, the most prominent being the likely reelection of Trump as President. He also mentions tolerance of shoplifting, pro-Palestinian activists, admiration for the Houthis, frantic rumors […]
Bill Maher has a new rule, which is his
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