Potpourri
==> The alert von Pepe sends me this Peter Boettke post relaying Samuelson, who claimed that Mises would’ve won a Nobel had it been offered early enough. Very interesting.
==> Now that Trump is doing genuinely alarming things, I will be able to join in the opposition on some of his policies. But I have to tell you, it’s hard to get calibrated, because so much of the hysteria leading up till now was wildly exaggerated. For example, look at this headline, compared to the actual position Pence articulates in the article.
==> I had to look this up for an essay I was writing. It’s hilarious. Check out this 2012 CNN story about Secretary of State Clinton criticizing the Russian elections. This is the kind of thing that RT did to the US a few years later, which was evidence in the recent intel report of how Putin was interfering with our elections.
Free to Exchange: Salter and Luther on Financial Regulation and Bitcoin
Ben Powell hosts a local public access TV show, but he was out of town so let the inmates run the asylum.
Tom and I Assess the Obama Legacy
Tom and I break all the rules by deviating from Krugman’s column, and talk about the 8 Obama years. Not pretty.
Special announcement: Defying all the bookmakers’ odds, we are hosting a 2017 Contra Cruise!
Jesus Is Many Things to Many People
I’m sorry for the slim pickings lately for Sunday posts. I keep thinking I’ll do some great stuff on Sunday afternoons and then I get sidetracked by other things.
I went to church today to an Episcopalian service (long story) and everybody was in mourning about Trump. Several of the people had gone to Austin the day before to participate in the Women’s March. It was fascinating because the stereotype is that Southern Christians would be pro-Trump.
However, the more I listened, the more I understood the distinction. These people were definitely followers of Christ. But they stressed His compassion, mercy, and healing, and wanted to do the same in this broken world.
In contrast, the more well-known variant of Christians who get into US politics are also followers of Christ. But they stress the fact that He is the only door to the Father, and they often remind people that He is returning with a flaming* sword of truth coming from His mouth to judge the world.
What’s interesting is that both groups are right. I read a book Joshua when I was younger, in which Jesus came back (but the people didn’t realize it was Him). In one part he built two statues for two churches. One statue was of a bold powerful Jesus, while the other was meek. The congregations didn’t like the statue Joshua had built for each, and they switched. They wanted to continue in their comfortable focus on just some of Jesus’ qualities.
(Before angry Catholics bite my head off in the comments: Yes the book was apparently written by a heterodox Catholic priest and so you can draw whatever conclusions you wish. I’m not endorsing the book, I just remember that part of it and thought it was neat when I was a kid.)
* I have always pictured the sword flaming that is coming out of Jesus’ mouth. Do I have any reason to think that? It doesn’t say that explicitly in the Revelation passage. Am I just getting confused with the flaming sword guarding the Garden of Eden?
Potpourri
==> The IER team (including me) respond to Obama’s article in Science.
==> A proposed Bill of Children’s Rights in California.
==> Steve Landsburg writes a touching reflection on McCloskey as a teacher at Chicago. I nitpick in the comments.
==> Bryan Caplan makes a great point about the California grocery bag rule: It’s not a tax, it’s a price floor. Textbook economics ensues.
==> Just put this Tucker Carlson interview on in the background. It gets hilarious as it unfolds. (It’s also important because I think some of you in the comments a few days ago were pointing to this group of “Demand Protesters” as evidence of some point you were making, but it turns out to be a hoax.)
It’s Almost Like PolitiFact Is Biased
Check out these two PolitiFact items and tell me what you guys think about the scoring.
==> This one on Trump on Obama.
==> This one on Rand Paul on ObamaCare.
My Talk at the Heartland Institute
The sound was messed up (for the streaming, not the audience) in the beginning, so you miss my jokes. This is why you should always come hear me live. Anyway, I summarize some of Mises’ contributions, and then there’s a lengthy Q&A.
How NeverTrumpers Should Respond to Manning Commutation
“This is a horrendous violation of the rule of law, that threatens the very foundation of our institutions! There are plenty of whistleblowers who are still suffering injustice. Rather than doling out piecemeal pardons or commutations to those prisoners who (for various reasons) are chic among the smart set, Obama should’ve worked on across-the-board criminal justice reform.
I’ve seen some fools claim that this somehow is a ‘boon for liberty.’ No, because our prisons are at capacity, the total man-hours of prison time will be constant over the next few decades. By commuting Manning’s sentence, Obama simply increased the time served by other prisoners.
And it’s not just a wash, either. Now the families of prisoners will waste resources trying to bring publicity to their particular case, making us all poorer while the total amount of injustice is held constant.
Obama is Literally Hitler, and I can’t believe any libertarian applauds this move.”
P.S. Note that I have tagged this post with “Humor” as well. I am sharing the analogy here on my blog, and not on social media, so as to limit the outrage from those who lack humor.
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