Tag: politics
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From a conversation with a journalist
Hello, I had some concerns about the reporting in this story. I’m going to assume that this story is not completely unidimensional, and that there are people other than those who say it is all racism, although that is not apparent from the story itself. I am not saying, myself, that using such mascots and…
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The job of government
The job of government is to codify and enforce the rules of fair play, not ensure equal or specific outcomes. So government needs to make sure that the rules are uniform (which produces freedom and opportunity), not make sure that the results are uniform (which virtually always involves injustice and tyranny, even when well-meant). Private…
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Trump and conservatism
From a fiscal perspective, Trump probably did more damage to the conservative role in government than all the liberal presidents put together. He accomplished what no democratic president could ever do; he ran the fiscal conservatives out government. Far from it, the presence of an opposition president often galvanized conservative leaders. People like Paul Ryan…
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College for all?
The idea of college for all is tricky. For two reasons. First, a huge amount of money is already being wasted on college for people who take it for granted (especially those who aren’t paying for it) and don’t have any good reason to be there. They see it as an extension of high school,…
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Suicide, covid, and women
In response to the claim that the reason for the general increase in suicides (in Japan) during covid was due to women being stuck at home with abusive men. I asked, do they have data in that, or is that speculation? To which I received a very frosty glare and the rejoinder that people who…
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Who is the ideal modern feminist?
I heard a very curious argument from a transgender person today that is hard to respond to. He (or she, possibly, I’m going to assume he was intending to present as a she) was arguing that the whole point of feminism (as a movement) was to free the meaning of being a woman from the…
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The instinct against liberalism
There is an argument to be made that liberalism was an experimental strategy, one that had never been attempted on a large scale before and so had no real proven track record, and other forms of social organization had and have a better one across time and differing conditions. Liberalism ended up going pretty well…
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My application to the DEI board
As DEI programs become more commonplace across the country, it is very easy for such processes to become mired in political concerns and personal and social conflicts. It is easy for them to become reactive, focused on deflecting complaints and liability, rather than on the production of excellence in education. I believe that part of…
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Regarding Dan Crenshaw
I don’t agree with Dan about numerous things, but because he has a coherent and rational intellectual system inside which those disagreements could be discussed and progress could be made, I know that I could trust him and we could work together productively to make progress toward both our concerns. In other words, he has…
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In praise of gridlock
It’s actually a positive feature of our government that it’s easiest to get things done, get laws passed, and get people elected at the lowest and most local levels, and it is at those levels that the government should most impact your life. At its highest levels, the government has the most restrictions, hurdles, checks,…
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