That is the title of the new Judith Butler book, focusing mostly on trans issues. To be clear, on most practical issues concerning trans, I side with the social conservatives. For instance, I don’t think trans women have a right to compete in women’s weightlifting contests. And I have not been happy with how many […]
*Who’s Afraid of Gender?*
*Who’s Afraid of Gender?*
26 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economics of crime, economics of education, gender, law and economics, property rights Tags: Age of Enlightenment, conjecture and refutation, free speech, philosophy of science, political correctness, regressive left
“Blatantly Misogynistic”: UC Berkeley Students Declare That They Feel Unsafe After Professor Shares Dating Advice
24 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, economics of education, economics of media and culture, law and economics, politics - USA, property rights Tags: free speech, political correctness, regressive left
This week, parents of students at the University of California at Berkeley took the extreme step of hiring private security to protect their children at the school after years of complaints over rising crime and anti-police policies. The university, however, is focused this week on another threat that has led students to object that they […]
“Blatantly Misogynistic”: UC Berkeley Students Declare That They Feel Unsafe After Professor Shares Dating Advice
Hamas, not Israel, is the party refusing a ceasefire
23 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in defence economics, laws of war, war and peace Tags: Gaza Strip, Israel, Middle-East politics, regressive left, war against terror
Slate reports: Amid all the calls for an Israeli cease-fire in the war with Gaza, a few key facts are getting short shrift. Israel has put forth a cease-fire plan. It was negotiated along with U.S., Egyptian, Qatari, and Saudi diplomats. Its terms are quite favorable to Hamas. And Hamas is the party that’s rejecting […]
Hamas, not Israel, is the party refusing a ceasefire
Nikole Hannah-Jones on reparations for descendants of slaves
21 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economics of crime, economics of education, human capital, income redistribution, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, occupational choice, politics - USA, poverty and inequality, property rights, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: affirmative action, free speech, political correctness, racial discrimination, regressive left
As you know, I go back and forth on the question of affirmative action for college and professional-school admissions, and even after I thought I’d settled on a view (i.e., give some preference to minorities among those equally qualified for admission), it still keeps changing. After I read the long New York Times piece below […]
Nikole Hannah-Jones on reparations for descendants of slaves
Does Hamas want to cease fire?
19 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in defence economics, laws of war, war and peace Tags: Gaza Strip, Israel, Middle-East politics, regressive left, war against terror
Politics is Ugly
18 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in defence economics, International law, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA Tags: free speech, Gaza Strip, Israel, Middle-East politics, political correctness, regressive left, war against terror, World War II
My Dad once told about how the famous British General Bernard Montgomery was asked after WWII whether he might like to go into politics and he declined, saying: War is a dirty business, but politics, by gum! I’ve never looked into the story to see if it’s apocryphal but given that politics appears at the […]
Politics is Ugly
Marriage Fundamentalism: Professor Criticizes Marriage as an Institution Built on “White Heteropatriarchal Supremacy”
17 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of love and marriage, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA Tags: Age of Enlightenment, free speech, political correctness, racial discrimination, regressive left
George Mason Professor Bethany Letiecq is at the center of a firestorm of controversy over his article in the Journal of Marriage and Family declaring that the institution of marriage plays a key role in white supremacy. In considering what she labels “marriage fundamentalism,” Letiecq lashes out at the “two-parent married family” model. It is the […]
Marriage Fundamentalism: Professor Criticizes Marriage as an Institution Built on “White Heteropatriarchal Supremacy”
Further integrity problems for the Greens in suspending MP Darleen Tana
16 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights Tags: regressive left
Bryce Edwards writes – Is another Green MP on their way out? And are the Greens severely tarnished by another integrity scandal? For the second time in three months, the Green Party has secretly suspended an MP over integrity issues. Mystery is surrounding the party’s decision to first suspend Darleen Tana from her small business […]
Further integrity problems for the Greens in suspending MP Darleen Tana
Oh Canada: The Parliament Moves to Impose Potential Life Imprisonment for Speech Crimes
16 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics Tags: free speech, political correctness, regressive left
We have previously discussed the unrelenting attacks by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his allies on free speech. There has been a steady criminalization of speech, including even jokes and religious speech, in Canada. Now, the Canadian parliament is moving toward a new change that would allow the imposition of life imprisonment on those […]
Oh Canada: The Parliament Moves to Impose Potential Life Imprisonment for Speech Crimes
Israeli writer pulls out of scheduled talks before she gets canceled for having “wrong views”
15 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in defence economics, laws of war, war and peace Tags: Gaza Strip, Israel, Middle-East politics, regressive left, war against terror
Dina Rubina is a prominent Russian Israeli Jew who writes in Russian. Wikipedia gives this precis: Rubina is one of the most prominent Russian-language Israeli writers. Her books have been translated into 30 languages. Her major themes are Jewish and Israeli history, migration, nomadism, neo-indigeneity, messianism, metaphysics, theatre, autobiography and the interplay between the Israeli and Russian […]
Israeli writer pulls out of scheduled talks before she gets canceled for having “wrong views”
A good refutation of a bad article on the supposed “spectrum” of sex
14 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economics of education, gender, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA Tags: free speech, political correctness, regressive left, sex discrimination
On March 8, I wrote a critique of this article, which appeared in American Scientist (click sceenshot to read): When I wrote my piece, I had grown weary of people making the same tired old arguments against the sex binary, arguments like saying that sex isn’t binary because male orangutans come in two forms (“flanged” […]
A good refutation of a bad article on the supposed “spectrum” of sex
Hamas plays fast and loose with the casualty numbers from Gaza
14 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in defence economics, laws of war, war and peace Tags: Gaza Strip, Israel, media bias, Middle-East politics, regressive left, war against terror
This article from Tablet describes “How the Gaza Ministry of Health Fakes Casualty Numbers“, and while I have a few quibbles with it (or rather, alternative but not-so-plausible interpretations), the author’s take seems pretty much on the mark. Abraham Wyner simply gives the daily and cumulative death-toll accounts of Palestinians taken from the Hamas-run Gazan […]
Hamas plays fast and loose with the casualty numbers from Gaza
Once again: the claim that sex is non-binary, but there are no new arguments
13 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economics of education, gender, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA Tags: free speech, political correctness, regressive left, sex discrimination
Really? Do I have to rebut the same arguments about the definition of biological sex again? Well, here in American Scientist is a group of two anthropologists, one anatomist, and a gender-and-sexuality-studies professor, all telling us that there is no clear definition of sex, using the same tired old arguments to rebut the gamete-based sex […]
Once again: the claim that sex is non-binary, but there are no new arguments
“Banning Books is Never the Answer”: RuPaul’s “No Censorship” Bookstore Lasted Just Three Days
10 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA, property rights, Public Choice Tags: Age of Enlightenment, free speech, political correctness, regressive left
It took just three days. After drag performer RuPaul announced the creation of a “no censorship” Allstora bookstore, censorship was back with a vengeance after many on the left learned that free speech meant that opposing views might be sold at the site. While the sentiment was appealing, it became intolerable when activists noted that […]
“Banning Books is Never the Answer”: RuPaul’s “No Censorship” Bookstore Lasted Just Three Days
Not Bridgeable
10 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in comparative institutional analysis, discrimination, economic history, economics of crime, economics of education, economics of love and marriage, gender, income redistribution, labour economics, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA, Public Choice Tags: 2024 presidential election, free speech, political correctness, regressive left
In the last few years, especially after I started writing for this blog, I got more than a few comments about the need for bi-partisanship, not hating out ideological, let alone political opponents. What was notable about this was that they all came from the Right of the political spectrum. The Left seem quite happy […]
Not Bridgeable
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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