Politics, Moderate

Trump Is Not Thoughtful Enough to Be a Fascist: The Republican Presidential Candidate's Views Do Not Reflect Any Unifying Principle Other Than Self-Interest

Politics, Moderate / Jacob Sullum / Oct 30, 2024

John Kelly, the former Marine general who served as Donald Trump's second chief of staff, thinks the former president "falls into the general definition of 'fascist.'" Gen. Mark Milley, whom Trump appointed as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, goes further, describing his ex-boss as "fascist to the core."

Rebutting those charges, John ...Read more

Will Artificial Intelligence Lead to Alternate Reality?

Politics, Moderate / Jessica Johnson / Oct 25, 2024

When Geoffrey Hinton, popularly known as the "Godfather of AI," won the Nobel Prize in Physics earlier this month, he accepted this premier award in his field with cautious hesitation and probably some regret. Hinton received the Nobel with artificial intelligence researcher John J. Hopfield. Both men's work has provided the blueprint for the AI...Read more

The Georgia Case Against a School Shooter's Father Treats an Inattentive Parent as a Murderer: The Charges, Which Could Send Colin Gray to Prison for the Rest of His Life, Are Part of a Broader Attempt to Criminalize Parental Failures

Politics, Moderate / Jacob Sullum / Oct 23, 2024

Colin Gray, whose 14-year-old son is charged with murdering two students and two teachers at a Georgia high school last month, himself faces 29 criminal charges that could send him to prison for the rest of his life. The case is part of a troubling trend in which prosecutors seek to spread the blame for school shootings by criminalizing ...Read more

On immigration, taking a lesson from 1924

Politics, Moderate / Joe Guzzardi / Jun 03, 2024

A century ago, President Calvin Coolidge signed the Johnson-Reed Immigration Act, also known as the Immigration Act of 1924, which precipitated a two-generation-long pause in mass migration.

Upon Coolidge’s signature, multiple benefits to citizen workers ensued immediately. Immigration dropped from 707,000 in 1924 to 294,000 in 1925. Within...Read more

Will 25-year milestone bring a second wind?

Politics, Moderate / Danny Tyree / Nov 15, 2023

Tyrades! by Danny Tyree

Well, that quarter-century went by faster than the weaver’s shuttle!

(Almost as fast as younger readers Googling, “What the %$#@& is a weaver’s shuttle?”)

As of late October, I have been pounding out a Tyrades! column every week for 25 years without a single break, and with no plans to slow down.

Why ...Read more

Footing our growing debt service bill

Politics, Moderate / Tom Purcell / Nov 14, 2023

Well, that didn’t take as long as expected.

In case you missed it, our federal government is now estimated to pay more than $1 trillion a year to service just the interest on our national debt — about $200 billion more than we spend on our military or Medicare.

Why are we suddenly paying so much?

Because the cost to service our debt...Read more