Yes Minister | The Whisky Priest | Civil Moral Vacuum
27 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in television, TV shows
Bill Maher’s new rule: The King’s speech
23 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in politics - USA, television, TV shows
Bill Maher’s latest “Real Time” clip argues that we should get rid of the State of the Union Address (coming up Tuesday), at least under Trump. That’s because to Maher it’s ludicrous that Trump keeps appropriating the powers of Congress for himself, violating our Constitutional separation of powers. The speech has become, says Maher, not…
Bill Maher’s new rule: The King’s speech
Bill Maher’s latest Rule
17 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in television, TV shows
In this week’s news-and-snark piece, Bill Maher offers a piece that may be controversial, for it’s about how men need to be “men” again. He avers that the loss of masculinity in males is one reason why women are disappointed in men, and why people are having less sex. The data are eye-opening; for example,…
Bill Maher’s latest Rule
Bill Maher’s New Rule on gambling
13 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in television, TV shows
Well, I can’t omit Bill Maher’s 8-minute weekly comedy monologue, especially because this week it’s about betting. I’ve always called gambling, betting enterprises, and lotteries “taxes on the stupid”, because people who spend their money that way don’t seem to know that the expectation of money is far less than they’re spending. And it’s a…
Bill Maher’s New Rule on gambling
Bill Maher on deranged Republicans
12 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in television, TV shows
I missed this Bill Maher “New Rules” clip from last October, but better late than never. In this segment called “Crazy in gov,” Maher assesses whether Democrats or Republicans are more deranged, Although he does point out some craziness on the part of “progressives,” but it is the Republicans who get the Most Deranged prize.…
Bill Maher on deranged Republicans
Bill Maher is back with New Roolz
01 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in television, TV shows
Bill Maher is back, and this week he has a particularly good comedy bit: “New Rule: Eyeroll Activism.” His topic is similar to Ricky Gervais’s scathing remarks at the 2020 Golden Globes in that both men excoriate Hollywood for its virtue signaling, with Maher beginning with the wearing of anti-ICE pins at the Golden Globes.…
Bill Maher is back with New Roolz
Knowing When It Works: Artists vs Producers
09 Jan 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of education, movies, Music, television, TV shows
Great artists are often distinguished not merely by talent, but by judgement. They possess an internal compass—hard-won, intuitive, and sometimes infuriatingly resistant to external advice—that tells them when a work works. This judgement is not always aligned with commercial logic, institutional taste, or the anxieties of producers and executives. The history of twentieth-century culture provides striking […]
Knowing When It Works: Artists vs Producers
What Star Wars AND Star Trek can teach us about economics
01 Jan 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, defence economics, economics of regulation, international economics, labour economics, labour supply, movies, television, TV shows, unions
This is not a “Star Wars vs Star Trek” post. I’m non-partisan. I enjoy both Star Wars and Star Trek about equally. And it turns out that I am not alone. Last December, John Hawkins (University of Canberra) wrote in The Conversation about what Star Wars can teach us about economics. This year, Hawkins (with Tesfaye…
What Star Wars AND Star Trek can teach us about economics
John Oliver goes after Bari Weiss and CBS News
22 Dec 2025 Leave a comment
in industrial organisation, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA, television, TV shows Tags: media bias
A reader sent me a video-containing email with the header “John Oliver destroys Bari Weiss”, with the message below saying, “Somebody had to do it.” Well, yes, somebody should criticize the Free Press, which is becoming, in my view, more political (right-centrist) and less full of news. And even news stories aren’t really written by…
John Oliver goes after Bari Weiss and CBS News
Dads Army- The British home guard
12 Dec 2025 Leave a comment
in defence economics, television, TV shows, war and peace Tags: World War II
“Who do you think you are kidding Mr Hitler” is the first line of the theme of the British sitcom Dad’s Army. A truly hilarious show. I remember one episode where Capt Mainwaring is telling a story how he met an Australian soldier. He had asked him “Did you come here to die?” whereupon the […]
Dads Army- The British home guard
3 Manuel Meltdowns | Fawtly Towers | BBC Comedy Greats
07 Dec 2025 Leave a comment
in television, TV shows
Bill Maher prognosticates the headlines
02 Dec 2025 Leave a comment
in television, TV shows
It looks as if “Real Time” will be off the air for a two months: yahoo! news says, “. . . . Maher will be taking a break from Real Time until late January.” I’ll miss the humor and also the posts. We don’t even have a “new rules” post today, but below are two minutes…
Bill Maher prognosticates the headlines
Bill Maher on how socialism is tainting the Democratic party
20 Nov 2025 Leave a comment
in Marxist economics, politics - USA, television, TV shows
This week’s comedy-and-news segment of Bill Maher’s “Real Time” explains why the creeping socialism of Democrats is good—but for Republicans. who wil exploit it to the max in attack ads. (We now have a socialist mayor of both NYC and Seattle.) Maher quotes Virginia’s new Democratic governor, Abigail Spanberger, saying that “If the party doesn’t…
Bill Maher on how socialism is tainting the Democratic party
The BBC’s Biggest Scandals
12 Nov 2025 1 Comment
in industrial organisation, television Tags: British politics, media bias
The BBC is one of the world’s most respected broadcasters and a pillar of British public life — which is exactly why its failures get so much attention when things go wrong. Below I’ve pulled together a chronological, readable guide to the BBC’s major scandals from the post-war period to the present. This is not […]
The BBC’s Biggest Scandals
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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