The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) is under fire this week after it censored a leading scientist, atheist, and board member, Jerry Coyne, a professor emeritus of ecology at the University of Chicago. The FFRF took down a column in which Coyne published a column titled “Biology is not bigotry,” a critique of an earlier […]
Atheist Orthodoxy: The Freedom From Religion Foundation Censors Scientist Over Transgender Views
Atheist Orthodoxy: The Freedom From Religion Foundation Censors Scientist Over Transgender Views
03 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economics of education, gender, health economics, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA, property rights Tags: Age of Enlightenment, conjecture and refutation, free speech, Freedom of religion, gender gap, philosophy of science, political correctness, regressive left, sex discrimination
DON BRASH: TIME TO SUBMIT ON THE TREATY PRINCIPLES BILL FAST RUNNING OUT
03 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in economic history, income redistribution, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: constitutional law
This Parliament is being asked to pass a significant number of important Bills during the course of its three-year life – Bills related to resource management planning, to infrastructure, to education and to health. But few Bills are of greater significance than the Treaty Principles Bill which David Seymour has sponsored. Why? Because it goes…
DON BRASH: TIME TO SUBMIT ON THE TREATY PRINCIPLES BILL FAST RUNNING OUT
Some Links
03 Jan 2025 1 Comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, defence economics, economic history, economics of crime, economics of regulation, industrial organisation, international economics, International law, law and economics, politics - USA, war and peace
TweetArnold Kling ponders producers versus parasites. A slice: What I notice is that the elites on the Republican side tend to earn a living as producers. They make things that other people want or need. In contrast, elites on the Democratic side include many people one may think of as parasites. They depend on producers…
Some Links
Te Pati Maori promise retrospective legislation
02 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, economics of regulation, industrial organisation, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights Tags: constitutional law
Te Pati Maori have written to organisations saying that if they are part of a Labour-led Government, they will pass retrospective legislation to punish organisations for actions that were entirely legal. You wonder how much more they need to do, to have media hold them to the same account as any other political party. They […]
Te Pati Maori promise retrospective legislation
Some Links
02 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of regulation, history of economic thought, industrial organisation, politics - USA
TweetMike Munger explains that “the only way to gain jobs is to lose jobs.” Two slices: Politicians want to create jobs, “good-paying union jobs,” in existing industries. But that’s not what markets do. The “destructive” part of creative destruction eliminates jobs in existing industries. In a dynamic economy, innovations indivision of labor can create good-paying…
Some Links
Some Jimmy Carter observations from the 1970s
01 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in business cycles, defence economics, economic history, economics of regulation, energy economics, macroeconomics, monetary economics, politics - USA, war and peace Tags: Middle-East politics
Usually I am reluctant to criticize or even write about the recently departed, but perhaps for former Presidents there is greater latitude to do so. I never loved Jimmy Carter, and I saw plenty of him on TV and read about his administration on a daily basis in The New York Times. I fully appreciate […]
Some Jimmy Carter observations from the 1970s
A cowardly cop killer
01 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, law and economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: crime and punishment, criminal deterrence, law and order
Stuff reports: A police officer has died after a car “being used as a weapon” hit her and a colleague, in a New Year’s Eve incident in Nelson. After hitting the two officers, the vehicle allegedly returned and rammed a police car with an officer and a member of the public inside. After due process […]
A cowardly cop killer
Nordhaus on the Perils of Long-Term Forecasting
01 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, econometerics, economic history Tags: The Great Enrichment
When people try to think about the long-term future, by which I mean here looking a half-century or a century ahead, they often suffer a lack of imagination. As a common example, they take today’s problems and just multiply them by a factor of ten. Or they assume that improved central planning, in one form…
Nordhaus on the Perils of Long-Term Forecasting
The Great Enrichment
01 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in development economics, economic history, growth disasters, growth miracles Tags: The Great Enrichment
Genetic tweak to three key crops massively boosts their growth
01 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of climate change, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming Tags: anti-GMOs movement, GMOs
By Paul Homewood h/t Philip Bratby Who would have thought! Global demand for food may rise by 60% mid-century. A central challenge is to meet this need using less land in a changing climate. Nearly all crop carbon is assimilated through Rubisco, which is catalytically slow, reactive with oxygen, and a […]
Genetic tweak to three key crops massively boosts their growth
‘The Black Swan Election’
31 Dec 2024 1 Comment
in politics - USA Tags: 2024 presidential election, Internet
Politico has a fascinating interview with two of Trump’s primary campaign managers, Co-campaign manager Chris LaCivita (the other was Susie Wiles, the incoming Whitehouse Chief of Staff) and chief pollster Tony Fabrizio. They brought a lot of experience to the table. Bald and bearded, the two Italian-Americans are veterans of many a Republican campaign. Fabrizio […]
‘The Black Swan Election’
Scoring my 2024 predictions
31 Dec 2024 Leave a comment
My 2024 predictions were here. How did I do. Overall score is 10/20 – possibly my worst year. However some of them were deliberately chosen as long shots or tongue in cheek – see 8, 10 and 20. I’ll do my 2025 predictions after Christmas.
Scoring my 2024 predictions
DEI Days are Numbered in Ivory Towers
31 Dec 2024 1 Comment
in discrimination, economics of education, gender, liberalism, Marxist economics Tags: Canada, free speech, political correctness, racial discrimination, regressive left, sex discrimination
Leigh Revers writes at National Post Canada Universities better get prepared for Poilievre’s anti-woke agenda. Excerpts in italics with my bolds and added images. ‘Even the dullest minds in the upper administrations of Canada’s top universities — and trust me, they are spectacularly dull — must see the writing on the wall’ The recent spectacular […]
DEI Days are Numbered in Ivory Towers
Ratbag Kainga Ora tenants finally face consequences
31 Dec 2024 Leave a comment
in labour economics, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights, welfare reform
https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360528298/huge-increase-evictions-disruptive-kainga-ora-tenants-due-new-approach Not sure what is more amazing – that the “reporter” couldn’t bring itself to mention that this is National led government policy in action after Labour evicted zero KO tenants for years, or that National have completely failed to trumpet this announcement in their own press release. Anyway, this is great news for long […]
Ratbag Kainga Ora tenants finally face consequences
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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