Source: Bacon’s Rebellion.

It is a sad state we have come to when school policy derives solely from ideology and not from practical need.

Here the writer notes:

• “Virginia already had laws and policies to address [bullying, including transgender bullying].”
• “Neither we nor the state nor those who sponsored and voted for the 2020 Virginia law knows how often transgender kids were bullied, but we know it was seldom.”
• The sponsors of the new law “felt we needed it anyway.”

That’s no way to run a commonwealth. Surely the legislature has better things to do, such as preventing the increase in electrical bills to be caused by Dominion Power’s wind turbine project.

Source: The Harvard Crimson.

I don’t find this story particularly compelling for any inherent reason, except that it mentions taboos, which is an interesting concept to contemplate.

Continue reading “Harvard Sex Week Begins With a Bang” →

Source: The American Conservative.

The writer is probably correct: The ODU professor’s work is likely an attempt or will have the effect of normalizing pedophilia. But I note something else in the account given.

Continue reading “Normalizing Pedophiles” →

Source: The Intercept.

Every now and then you read a piece of journalism that is so ignorant you just can’t believe it. The instant article is one of those.

It makes an argument as follows:

• Price inflation reduces the value of a dollar.
• Debt is measured in dollars.
• Therefore, price inflation reduces debt.

There are so many holes in this logic it is hard to know where to begin. For example:

• When dollars lose value, people can’t buy as many goods.
• Interest on debt offsets the loss of dollar value.
• Price inflation may reduce past or existing debt in a way, but it increases current and future debt in the same way.

Bottom line, there is no good argument to make for the benefits of price inflation. The Intercept should know better, but since it is promoting a hoax we should question its motives. Perhaps it wants to prop up Stumble Joe.

Source: Bacon’s Rebellion.

In approaching the question of race teaching in the public schools it helps to apply the traditional distinction between grammar school and college. For well over 1,000 years the standard has been that grammar school teaches HOW to think, whereas college offers exploratory WHAT to think opportunities.

Continue reading “No Indoctrination to See Here, Move Along Now — Albemarle County Edition” →

Source: ZeroHedge.

This tidbit from the Rittenhouse trial is astonishing.

Some people want Rittenhouse to burn for no better reason than the moral judgement they make of his conduct. But that line of thinking is the exact opposite of the rule of law. It is the rule of men.

This story reports that the prosecution in the case itself violated the rule of law — specifically (as I see it), Rittenhouse’s Fifth Amendment right to not incriminate himself.

I fear that those who want Rittenhouse to burn can’t or won’t grasp this fundamental concept.

Source: Mises Wire.

The article makes a profoundly useful observation about the nature of inflation. To an economist, inflation is an increase in the supply of money in relation to the supply of goods. Non-economists routinely get this wrong by assuming that inflation consists of higher prices.

Continue reading “In a Free Economy, Prices Would be Going down, Not Up” →

Source: American Thinker.

On cross examination, a star prosecution witness validates the defense argument.

I’m almost inclined to predict that a not-guilty verdict is inevitable, but I am more concerned about the sham factor on display in this case. Some people complain that the rule of law is insufficient for achieving social justice, but in Rittenhouse social justice isn’t even at issue. Instead we are witnessing a pure breakdown in the rule of law itself.

Source: Mises Institute.

I commented in another thread that the science of economics is changing beneath our feet. The subject article provides some examples of things that will almost certainly change.

Continue reading “Why There Is No Free Lunch” →

Source: Bacon’s Rebellion.

As one who often shares Mises Institute articles here in the Forum, I’m fascinated by the prospect of a “Mises Caucus” in Virginia and national politics. From what I have seen the “Mises people” are the only political faction in America that actively seeks to educate the public on basic principles of economics. Republicans don’t try very hard to teach the economics they believe in, and Democrats don’t know enough economics to teach. So, we are fortunate that someone is making an effort.

My only caveat to approval of a Mises caucus would be that economics itself is changing beneath our feet. I wrote recently in the Forum, for example, that the laws of supply and demand are completely invalidated in light of current knowledge.

Something new will take the place of supply-and-demand theory in economics. Let us hope that the Austrian school libertarians have the agility to bring the new science to the public as they have done with the old.