Making Money, or Taking Money
An interesting screed passed through my social media today. Interesting, not in a "hm, that makes good points" way, but in a "blindered by ideology" way. The author, Heather Cox Richardson, is a professor of history at Boston College, and a quick perusal of her...
Defund The Schools
Robby Soave, a senior editor at the libertarian Reason.com, offered us a 'lemonade' opportunity yesterday, by suggesting we "defund" public schools if the teachers' unions decide to seize their moment and ensure even less work for their members in the face of the...
Progressives Need Aliens
Six weeks ago, after roughly a week of clashes between protestors rallied by George Floyd's killing and Seattle police, a six-block section of Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood was 'occupied' and declared the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ). Soon, it was...
A Second Amendment Event?
There's a public argument phenomenon that gun rights defenders and Second Amendment defenders are quite familiar with: "gotcha" questions written by the ill-informed. Step into any on-going debate over gun rights, and you'll almost invariably find the pro-gun people...
The End of Excellence
One fine fellow over at the New York Times has posited that symphony orchestras need to be more diverse, apparently because the adoption of "blind" auditions, intended to eliminate racial and gender bias, haven't produced an outcome they deem acceptable. Wait... It's...
Woke Word Salad
I do enjoy going on Internet safari from time to time. I find visits to far-left websites and social media pages enlightening and informative, even though I find less and less in common with their denizens' views with the passage of time. Used to be, a libertarian...
Change The Language, Change The Rules
A few weeks ago, I posted this comment in a political discussion in my favorite Facebook group: The idea of canceling history and wiping out the past by judging it through the prism of 2020 culture and understanding may be a precursor to doing the same to the...
Weekend Musings #3
EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the third of a recurring (and likely irregular) series of quick-hits. Because, not everything needs a thousand words. Thanks for reading! An Odd Hill A few readers took umbrage at my use of salty language in asking (yes, asking, I made no...
Budget Cuts And Crime Spikes
The argument over policing policy prompted by George Floyd's death has reached a contrasting climax: on the one hand, protestors have taken to the streets in numbers not seen since the Civil Rights marches (in the midst of a pandemic, no less). On the other, we have...
COVID Mask Follies
Have you noticed that our dear leaders have been all over the map regarding the wearing of masks or face coverings as part of the public response to the COVID-19 pandemic? Yeah, me too. First, masks were useless. Turns out that was a lie meant to ensure that...
The Canceler’s Privilege
The loony-Left's censorship follies have run so amok that a passel of leading liberal voices gathered (virtually, I presume) to sign an open letter "on justice and open debate, which just ran in Harper's Magazine. Needless to say, the cancelniks were not amused. No...
The Right Way to CHOP
The CHOP (Capital Hill Occupation Protest) in Seattle, has come and gone (to the surprise of no one). What can be learned? Mainly: The United States of America is actually the most socialist country in the world (the voluntary variant of socialism, that is). Until...
When We Are All Made Equal…
When it comes to cautionary dystopian tales, most of us know the biggies. Orwell's 1984 and Animal Farm (the latter proffering up this blog's name) are the gold standard. Aldous Huxley's Brave New World is another classic. More contemporary writers have put forth...
One Idiot…
Ever read something so stupid, you press the palms of your hands to your face in frustration? Fortunately, the Internet provides. Because I feel that frustration on a near-constant basis, I've collected a stash of face-palm memes, and offer them as appropriate...
Happy Independence Day!
When was the last time you read the Declaration of Independence? The whole thing, not just the second paragraph? It's not long - 1334 words. Should take you 5 minutes or so. 5 minutes wee spent, on the 244th anniversary of its ratification. Feel free to chuckle at the...
Always OPM
Were I tasked with offering one lesson about politics, whether it be to a group of wide-eyed high school sophomores, an over-educated class of grad students, or a conglomerated mass of voters from all over the political spectrum, it would be this: It's always about...
Policing Incentives Matter
That incentives matter is a core kernel of debate between libertarians and Lefties (ok, and everyone else). They matter in police reform, and they explain why politicians have an incentive to maintain the status quo on the chronic problems they are elected to address....
A Nation of Chamberlains
I caught a chunklet of an Internet conversation the other day, wherein a couple obviously left-leaning (and intersectional) commenters offered a perfunctory dismissal of Thomas Sowell (and Clarence Thomas and Ben Carson, because Black Non-Liberals are all the same,...
On the Permanent Progressivist Revolution
The issue is never the issue, the issue is always the revolution. The process and the way it manifests About a month ago, I was requested to put together a longer piece on the process I can summarize by term "permanent progressivist revolution". I was spoilt for...
Special Revelation and Social Justice
On my current reading list is a series of essays by libertarian writer George H. Smith on freethought and liberty. The ninth such essay discusses Deism, a form of religious belief that rests on a view of God as a non-interventionist "clockmaker." One of the tenets of...
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