New Rule: Tough Love Dems | Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO)
16 Nov 2024 Leave a comment
in politics - USA, television, TV shows Tags: 2024 presidential election, Age of Enlightenment, free speech, political correctness, regressive left
DON BRASH: A picture paints a thousand words
16 Nov 2024 Leave a comment
in law and economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights Tags: constitutional law
A picture paints a thousand words and the photograph above is a snapshot of the most disgraceful reading of a Bill I can recall in New Zealand’s history. The Treaty Principles Bill is not the first controversial and polarising Bill to have been introduced to New Zealand’s Parliament. We have debated abortion, same-sex marriage, and…
DON BRASH: A picture paints a thousand words
Resolving the infrastructure deficit
16 Nov 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of bureaucracy, economics of regulation, environmental economics, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights, Public Choice, public economics, transport economics, urban economics
Peter Dunne writes – Last week the government announced plans to build two new tunnels in central Wellington to ease traffic congestion. One will be a second tunnel through Mount Victoria to improve the flow of traffic to the eastern suburbs and Wellington International Airport. The other will be alongside the existing Terrace tunnel to […]
Resolving the infrastructure deficit
TARGETED BEIRUT: THE 1983 MARINE BARRACKS BOMBING AND THE UNTOLD ORIGIN STORY OF THE WAR ON TERROR by Jack Carr and James M. Scott
16 Nov 2024 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economics of crime, law and economics, politics - USA, war and peace Tags: Lebanon, Middle-East politics, war against terror
(The scene around the U.S. Marine Corps base near Beirut, Lebanon, following a massive bomb blast that destroyed the base on Oct. 23, 1983) On October 7, 2023, Hamas launched an unspeakable terrorist attack on Israel killing over 1200 men, women, and children, and seizing over 200 hostages. The Israeli response was a brutal attack […]
TARGETED BEIRUT: THE 1983 MARINE BARRACKS BOMBING AND THE UNTOLD ORIGIN STORY OF THE WAR ON TERROR by Jack Carr and James M. Scott
Trumping the Electric Vehicle Mandate
15 Nov 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of climate change, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, politics - USA, transport economics, urban economics Tags: 2024 presidential election, electric cars
Four principles will likely guide the Trump Administration’s actions on the auto industry in the next several months: (a) tariffs to protect domestic auto industry jobs, (b) fighting against mandates that tilt the playing field toward an EV technology that is both widely unpopular especially for load-carrying vehicles, (c) lowering the overall cost of owning reliable transportation for American consumers, and (d) consumer choice, not government mandates, must drive the auto and truck marketplace.
Trumping the Electric Vehicle Mandate
Marsden Fund goes even more woke
15 Nov 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of education, politics - New Zealand Tags: conjecture and refutation, free speech, philosophy of science, political correctness, regressive left
In September I looked at the proportion of Marsden Fund grants that go towards actual science over time. The summary was: 200820172023Science88%80%72%Humanities8%11%13%Maori3%5%8%Identity1%2%5%Political0%3%2% We now have 2024 grants, and the big winner is of course anything to do with Maori. 2008201720232024Science88%80%72%73%Humanities8%11%13%7%Maori3%5%8%17%Identity1%2%5%3%Political0%3%2%1% Some examples include: We all aspire for a future that is fair, just and sustainable.…
Marsden Fund goes even more woke
How would NZ Labour do using this vision
14 Nov 2024 Leave a comment
in politics - New Zealand, politics - USA Tags: 2024 presidential election
Prominent leftwing commentator Matt Yglesias posted a nine point vision for how the Democrats can return to “common sense”. They resonate with many and are below. None of these are radical. I thought it would be interesting to assess NZ Labour and Greens against the nine points.
How would NZ Labour do using this vision
Trump’s victory: Golden age or fiscal reckoning?
14 Nov 2024 Leave a comment
in business cycles, economic growth, fiscal policy, industrial organisation, international economics, labour economics, law and economics, macroeconomics, monetary economics, politics - USA, property rights, public economics Tags: 2024 presidential election
Oliver Hartwich writes – In his victory speech, Donald Trump promised Americans a new “golden age”. While he had the numbers to win the election, the economic realities he faces will make delivering on his promise challenging. Trump’s victory reflects many Americans’ frustrations with living standards and inflation during the Biden-Harris administration. Vice President Kamala […]
Trump’s victory: Golden age or fiscal reckoning?
Two senior minister firings: Germany and Israel
14 Nov 2024 Leave a comment
in politics Tags: Germany, Israel
The past week saw the heads of government in both Israel and Germany dismissing a senior member of their coalition cabinet. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz fired the Finance Minister, Christian Lindner, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. Both Scholz and Netanyahu head coalition governments. The result of the dismissal in […]
Two senior minister firings: Germany and Israel
Hikoi organiser will walk in the name of the Treaty – but not talk about it (at least, not to people who lack “expertise”)
13 Nov 2024 Leave a comment
in law and economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights Tags: constitutional law
Source: TheFacts Bob Edlin writes- An editorial in The Press – reproduced in The Post – acknowledged that it should be possible to have a respectful, informed national conversation about the interpretation of the Treaty of Waitangi and its application in present-day New Zealand. This would include such fundamental questions as whether an ongoing partnership […]
Hikoi organiser will walk in the name of the Treaty – but not talk about it (at least, not to people who lack “expertise”)
Move over, modern medicine: it’s time to collaborate with Rongoā Māori
13 Nov 2024 Leave a comment
in health economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: cranks
Rongoā Māori is the “indigenous way of healing”: a combination of herbal and spiritual medicine used by the Māori of New Zealand. As The Encyclopedia of New Zealand notes, there were both supernatural and human illnesses, with the former treated through spiritual means (e.g., prayers, dunking in water, and other treatments described below), and the […]
Move over, modern medicine: it’s time to collaborate with Rongoā Māori
PNAS publishes an opinion piece arguing that the politicization of science is bad (contradicting the NAS President’s views)
13 Nov 2024 1 Comment
in discrimination, economics of education, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA Tags: affirmative action, political correctness, racial discrimination, regressive left
I’m actually surprised that the article below was published in The Proceedings of the National Academies of Science (PNAS), one of the more high-quality science journals, just a tad below Science and Nature in prestige. It has had a reputation for being “progressive” (e.g., woke), one that I discussed last year when Steve Pinker had […]
PNAS publishes an opinion piece arguing that the politicization of science is bad (contradicting the NAS President’s views)
The Second Resistance Movement: Why the Campaign Against Trump This Time is Different
12 Nov 2024 Leave a comment
in politics - USA Tags: 2024 presidential election, free speech, regressive left
Below is my column in The Hill on the growing calls for an organized resistance to the Trump Administration by Democratic governors and prosecutors. They may find, however, that the resistance movement this time around will be facing significant legal and political headwinds. Here is the column:
The Second Resistance Movement: Why the Campaign Against Trump This Time is Different
Curtain Pull: How Trump’s Election Produced a Moment of Unintended Honesty
11 Nov 2024 Leave a comment
in politics - USA Tags: 2024 presidential election
Below is my column in Fox.com on the response of media figures to the Trump victory on election night. The meltdown was a moment of honesty for some in revealing the bias harbored by many in the industry. That curtain pull offered a glimpse of the Great Oz that some will be difficult to unsee. […]
Curtain Pull: How Trump’s Election Produced a Moment of Unintended Honesty
Ananish Chaudhuri: The sheer lunacy of contemporary progressive politics or How I became a right-wing extremist
11 Nov 2024 Leave a comment
in discrimination, gender, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights, Public Choice, public economics Tags: Age of Enlightenment, economics of pandemics, free speech, political correctness, regressive left
With Kemi Badenoch taking over the leadership of Tories in the UK, newspapers have been replete with how this represents a radical turn to the right. Similar headlines appeared when Labour was booted from power in New Zealand. There was a time when I would have thought: “Shame. Why can’t these people not be more…
Ananish Chaudhuri: The sheer lunacy of contemporary progressive politics or How I became a right-wing extremist
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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