"no picnic sharing a surname w/a pedophile & pimp." I wince less when the podcasters refer to "Epstein" (Jeffrey pronounced it "steen," just as I do). But contra op-ed's Joseph Epstein, us Eps will not "live in peace" if/when full story is known. "Epstein" will endure in infamy.

"Now They Tell Us": In this brief, devastating video, @PeterBeinart quotes well-respected SUPPORTERS of Israel's war on Gaza now declaring that the goal of eliminating Hamas CANNOT be achieved. How, then, he asks, can the slaughter be morally justified? .

Cindy McCain, Sen. John McCain's widow & current Executive Director of the UN World Food Program. CBS, 5/26: “Have you seen evidence that it is Hamas stealing the food?”.McCain: “No. Not at all. Not in this round. Listen, these people are desperate & they see a World Food.

In his excellent Jan 2025 book, BEING JEWISH AFTER THE DESTRUCTION OF GAZA: A RECKONING, @PeterBeinart, not libertarian or far left, argues plausibly for the continued existence of Israel between the Jordan River & Mediterranean w/ALL inhabitants sharing full, equal citizenship.

RT @RandPaul: Hey everyone! My dad, the great @RonPaul, will turn 90 on August 20. If you are one of the millions who admire him, please s….

MY concern as a libertarian: gov't policies CAUSE inequality, starting w/gov't housing policies (making it hard for poor to move to high-wage areas) & restrictive licensure, making it hard for poor to get higher wage jobs. I AM concerned w/inequality, along w/many libertarians.

Truth-stranger-than-fiction? Say rather, a saga more shocking/incredible than fiction could ever be, told by @martyrmade's scholarly Darryl Cooper to @TuckerCarlson.

In 2024, charitable giving in the US hit a record high of nearly $600 billion. Doesn't include all the volunteer work people do for no $. Unsurprisingly, affluence under capitalism tends to encourage generosity & concern for others, not small-mindedness.

The Lancet study found that over the past 2 decades, higher temperatures have caused 116,000 more heat deaths annually — but 283,000 fewer cold deaths. On balance, that’s 166,000 fewer temperature-related deaths each year.

If firms really are underpaying workers or overcharging customers, they're vulnerable to competition from other firms that bid their workers away & charge consumers less. But of course, it has to be profitable to do so (as it often is)!.

I'm not a Christian (lack the gift of faith), but a key reason I'm a free market capitalist is that I can't ignore these words, as quoted below by @peterdaou : "Uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed. Rescue the weak and the needy. - Psalm 82:3–4".

Excited to read @peterkglein's book. I've been hearing about Mondragon from worker coop enthusiasts for 4 decades & yet no similar Mondragon in richer capitalist nation, US. But coops are just another version of private ownership of firms (capitalism) so fine w/me if it happens.

"'The Late Show' was racking up losses of 10s of millions a year."-NY Times. Naively surprising to me that a show w/such a simple, seemingly cheap format could lose so much. Of course, Johnny Carson, whose late-night show was quite profitable, averaged 4 times the audience.

RT @BjornLomborg: The vast majority of future emissions come from China, India, Africa, and other non-rich countries. The West obsesses abo….

Will This Time Be Different? This tracks the interest rate on the 10-year bond minus interest-rate on Federal Funds, part of Conference Board's Leading Econ Indicators, late 1960s-June 2025. Based on past patterns (negative, then positive), it's signaling recession (gray bars).

YouTube & podcast versions available for July 16 .Soho Forum debate on healthcare between @david_goldhill & Yale Prof @Jacob_S_Hacker, moderated by me.

Vegans who feel they're sparing animals should at least recognize that they, too, are animal-killers, often cruelly & painfully. ChatGPT:.Most forms of farming—even plant-based farming—involve the killing of animals beyond just insects. Here’s how:.1. Habitat Destruction.

"Governments regulate housing as if the product has massive net negative externalities, even though it actually has massive Net Positive Externalities!" @bryan_caplan on his brilliant comic book, "Build, Baby, Build.".