LAST WEEK The Waitangi Tribunal released Tino Rangatiratanga me te Kāwanatanga: The Report on Stage 2 of the Te Paparahi o Te Raki Inquiry (Wai 1040). For the sake of brevity, I shall refer to this spawling document as the Northland Report. Sadly, the Report seems destined to make the already fraught relationship between Māori…
CHRIS TROTTER: Contested ground
CHRIS TROTTER: Contested ground
12 Dec 2023 Leave a comment
in comparative institutional analysis, economic history, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: Age of Enlightenment, constitutional law, free speech, political correctness, regressive left
The University of Chicago’s Students for Justice in Palestine justify the terrorism and barbarity of Hamas on October 7, tout other forms of antisemitism
12 Dec 2023 Leave a comment
in economic history, International law, law and economics, laws of war, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA, war and peace Tags: Gaza Strip, Israel, Middle-East politics, useful idiots, war against terror, West Bank

The campus climate of hate and divisiveness is not limited to MIT, Harvard, Princeton, or Columbia; it’s now metastasized to the University of Chicago. It’s largely promoted by the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and UChicago United for Palestine (UCUP), who are constantly demonstrating on campus and have had its members arrested for trespassing […]
The University of Chicago’s Students for Justice in Palestine justify the terrorism and barbarity of Hamas on October 7, tout other forms of antisemitism
Wellington
11 Dec 2023 Leave a comment
in politics - New Zealand, urban economics

Yesterday’s Sunday Star-Times had an article built around some comments from me and from Infometrics economist Brad Olsen on the economic prospects of Wellington. The headline captured the gist of my contribution, “Sorry, Wellington, things could get worse and they probably will”. The question the journalist, Kevin Norquay, had posed to me a week ago […]
Wellington
All very small and short ranged
11 Dec 2023 Leave a comment
in energy economics, environmental economics, global warming, politics - New Zealand, transport economics

Another Great Moment in Government-Run Healthcare
10 Dec 2023 Leave a comment
in health economics, politics - USA Tags: Canada, health insurance

Because of misguided government policies, health care in America is expensive and inefficient. But it’s always possible to have a system that is even worse. I have often cited the United Kingdom, which has genuine socialism (government employs the doctors and runs the hospitals). However, as part of an ongoing series about “great moments in […]
Another Great Moment in Government-Run Healthcare
JERRY COYNE: A powerful University dean in New Zealand touts merging higher education with indigenous spirituality
09 Dec 2023 Leave a comment
in economics of education, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: Age of Enlightenment, conjecture and refutation philosophy of science, free speech, political correctness, regressive left

Jerry Coyne writes – This article from New Zealand’s Newsroom site was written by Julie Rowland, the deputy dean of the Faculty of Science at the University of Auckland as well as a geologist and the Director of the Ngā Ara Whetū | Centre for Climate, Biodiversity & Society. In other word, she’s a scientist. One key to […]
JERRY COYNE: A powerful University dean in New Zealand touts merging higher education with indigenous spirituality
BREAKING: Green Party to Oppress Woman, Gays and Trans
08 Dec 2023 Leave a comment
in laws of war, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, war and peace Tags: Gaza Strip, Israel, Middle-East politics, war against terror

It’s hard to believe I know, but what other conclusion can be made based on what Green MP (and superstar) Chloe Swarbrick said the other day at the “Pro-Palestine” rally in Auckland: … after what we’ve witnessed, I want to say strongly, clearly and vehemently, the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand stands for a […]
BREAKING: Green Party to Oppress Woman, Gays and Trans
Douglas Murray on the West
07 Dec 2023 Leave a comment
in liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA Tags: Age of Enlightenment, free speech, political correctness, regressive left
“Today the West faces challenges without and threats within. But no greater threat exists than that which comes from people inside the West intent on pulling apart the fabric of our societies, piece by piece. By assaulting the majority populations in these countries. By saying that our histories are entirely reprehensible and have nothing good […]
Douglas Murray on the West
Really?
06 Dec 2023 Leave a comment
in budget deficits, business cycles, economic growth, fiscal policy, inflation targeting, labour economics, macroeconomics, monetary economics, politics - New Zealand, unemployment Tags: monetary policy

It doesn’t seem to have been the best week for the Reserve Bank since the release of the latest Monetary Policy Statement last Wednesday. Of course, one could make a pretty compelling case that in the Orr years few weeks have been, and especially not any weeks when Bank figures actually say or do anything. […]
Really?
Ceasefire: IDF vs. Hamas
06 Dec 2023 Leave a comment
in defence economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA, war and peace Tags: Gaza Strip, Israel, Middle-East politics, war against terror

An interesting post by one “Diogenes” on the recent ceasefire in Gaza that occurred for about a week until Hamas made a terrorist attack inside Israel, Was the Ceasefire Worth It? The question is worth asking because there was much criticism of both Israel and the USA over allowing this ceasefire to occur; the primary […]
Ceasefire: IDF vs. Hamas
MICHAEL BASSETT: MODERN MAORI MYTHS
06 Dec 2023 1 Comment
in discrimination, economic history, economics of education, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: Age of Enlightenment, constitutional law, free speech, political correctness, regressive left
Many of the comments about the Coalition’s determination to wind back the dramatic Maorification of New Zealand of the last three years would have you believe the new government is engaged in a full-scale attack on Maori. In reality, all that is really happening is that ministers are stopping the crusade waged by the Ardern/Hipkins…
MICHAEL BASSETT: MODERN MAORI MYTHS
The Guardians of Democracy: Democrats Move to Protect Democracy from Itself
05 Dec 2023 Leave a comment
in law and economics, politics - USA Tags: 2024 presidential election

Below is my column in the Hill on efforts to bar or limit voting in the primary and general presidential elections. What is so striking is how these distinctly anti-democratic actions are being taken in the name of democracy. Here is the column:
The Guardians of Democracy: Democrats Move to Protect Democracy from Itself
CLIVE BOONHAM: Should Te Pati Maori MPs be allowed to swear the oath of allegiance?
04 Dec 2023 Leave a comment
in politics - New Zealand Tags: constitutional law
This article is a continuation of the article Swearing in of new MPs: The constitution versus the Treaty activists. __________________________ On 1 December 2023 Te Pati Maori published an official press release on its Facebook page entitled An Oath to our Mokopuna. It was published in the name of Hana Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke and five others,…
CLIVE BOONHAM: Should Te Pati Maori MPs be allowed to swear the oath of allegiance?
Chuck Schumer delivers Senate speech on antisemitism
04 Dec 2023 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economics of crime, economics of education, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA Tags: political correctness, racial discrimination, regressive left, The Holocaust
You can read Chuck Schumer’s recent op-ed in the NYT, “What American Jews fear most,“, or you can watch his 40-minute speech on the topic given in the Senate (video below). I recommend listening to the speech, of which the op-ed is a short distillation. Alternatively, read the transcript, which you can find here. Schumer […]
Chuck Schumer delivers Senate speech on antisemitism
‘Antisemitism’ is an ideological abstraction that leftists reject….
04 Dec 2023 Leave a comment
in economics of education, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA Tags: free speech, political correctness, racial discrimination, regressive left

… because it appears to refer to a certain type of person and behavior that their ideological purity tells them that they couldn’t be. They’re not the sorts of people who talk about ‘jewing down’ or believe in the inferiority of races and therefore, even while they’re smashing Jewish store windows and attacking a Holocaust […]
‘Antisemitism’ is an ideological abstraction that leftists reject….
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