Nightcap

  1. Faith in a time of fascism Markus Weidler, Age of Revolutions
  2. Nation-building Alesina & Reich, NBER
  3. The hierarchy of human activity Finn Bowring, TLS
  4. Is it okay to have children? Meehan Crist, LRB

Or, why I don’t vote

I had been rooting for Senator Klobuchar a bit here at NOL over the past couple weeks. Nothing crazy, but I liked what I read. Now, I must eat my words. It turns out the Senator was a government prosecutor before she became a politician, something I did not know.

So, I am glad she’s out of the race. Being a government prosecutor is how most politicians in Washington start their careers. How many people can you put behind bars? How much “crime” can you prevent? If you’re answer is “LOTS” then you’re well on your way to a seat in federal Congress.

I’m not much of a political junkie anymore. I’ve just come to accept that I’m ignorant of far too many things to waste my time in a voting booth, or listening to politicians promise me stuff.

I understand that democracy is the the worst form of government, except for all the others. But I’m ignorant. When I’m old, and bored, I’ll probably get back into politics. I can think of nothing more intellectually stimulating, actually, than participating in political events as a senior citizen. The crowds, the organizational effort, the sense of belonging. I get it now.

The most heartening, encouraging thing I’ve read about the American primaries is that young people are still staying away from the polls. Liberty is alive, well, and aflame.

Nightcap

  1. Normal Joe (Biden) and the 2020 election Jacques Delacroix, NOL
  2. More campaign finance fiction Ethan Blevins, NOL
  3. The Good Life vs reality Mary Lucia Darst, NOL
  4. Prediction: Trump-Sanders 2016 Rick Weber, NOL
  5. “Medicare For All” will never work: a Brazilian view Bruno Gonçalves Rosi, NOL
  6. Bernie fans should want Bernie to lose the primary Bill Rein, NOL

Nightcap

  1. Bernie, Cuba, literary, and ill-gotten gains Irfan Khawaja, Policy of Truth
  2. The weird global coronavirus data Scott Sumner, EconLog
  3. Why the Fed shouldn’t “Do Nothing” George Selgin, Alt-M
  4. Corporatism (“anarchy”) on the Indian subcontinent Priya Satia, LARB

Nightcap

  1. Learning to love the Bern Matthew Yglesias, Vox
  2. Is there still a West? Jared Lucky, Commonweal
  3. Bernie doubles down on his Israel remarks Matthew Choi, Politico
  4. The politics of logic Alexander Klein, Aeon

Nightcap

  1. Giving the Devil his due (in praise of Trump) Irfan Khawaja, Policy of Truth
  2. Turkey (a NATO ally) launches Syrian offensive Amberin Zaman, Al-Monitor
  3. The case for Amy Klobuchar in 2020 David Leonhardt, New York Times
  4. The only gaijin in the village Kris Kosaka, Japan Times

Nightcap

  1. Three strands of anti-federalist thought Nathan Coleman, Law & Liberty
  2. Globalization and postcolonial states Gupta & Sharma, Current Anthropology
  3. On the question of urban utopianism Philip Ball, homunculus
  4. Auschwitz and the new anti-Semitism Simon Schama, Financial Times

Nightcap

  1. Why is the public so obsessed with Nazis? Roundtable, History Today
  2. The forgotten fascist surge in postwar Britain Jerry White, Literary Review
  3. Failed states and failed civilizations Nick Nielsen, The View from Oregon
  4. The use and abuse of ethnic minorities Salvatore Babones, spiked!

Be Our Guest: “What’s the Voter’s Value?”

John Lancaster has a new guest post up. Here’s an excerpt:

Even if one cannot verbally clarify the reasoning behind an action, evidence from said action can be gathered and formulated into a coherent reason. Whatever an individual chooses to do, it provides discernible information about the person behind the action.

This phenomenon of voluntary choice extends to abstention. 

Read the rest, and if you’ve got something to say, be our guest and say it!

Nightcap

  1. How millennial socialists make the case for a kinder politics George Scialabba, New Republic
  2. Affirmative Action: the uniquely American experiment Orlando Patterson, New York Times
  3. Imagining Africa (clash of civilizations?) Clive Gabay, Disorder of Things
  4. Anáhuac and Rome: indigeneity and religion in Mexico Arturo Chang, Age of Revolutions

Nightcap

  1. In the 1940s, one-third of Baghdad was Jewish Farah Abdessamad, Asian Review of Books
  2. Theory of non-territorial internal exit Trent MacDonald, SSRN
  3. Native American reservations as socialist archipelagos Andrei Znamenski, Mises Daily
  4. East meets West at Ueno Kōen Nick Nielsen, The View from Oregon

Nightcap

  1. My mother’s last words Lee Rourke, New Statesman
  2. The conscience of a human being Michael Huemer, Cato Unbound
  3. In praise of Barcelona’s crosswalks Irfan Khawaja, Policy of Truth
  4. Islam and the French Revolution Ian Coller, Age of Revolutions

Nightcap

  1. The century of Chinese corporatism Reza Hasmath, American Affairs
  2. The wealth and size of nations Donald Wittman, JCR
  3. The fertility of city-states Bryan Caplan, EconLog
  4. The WTO: irrelevant and unnecessary Ryan McMaken, Mises Wire

Nightcap

  1. More death: Croatian literature Angela Woodward, LARB
  2. Immigrants as scapegoats Chris Dillow, Stumbling & Mumbling
  3. On the number and size of nations Alesina & Spolaore, NBER
  4. Lots of respectable people embraced eugenics Alan Judd, Spectator

Amy Klobuchar is the libertarian candidate we don’t deserve

Here’s Slate on the person I would vote for, if I voted. Instead, the Democrats are gifting the Republicans a Jewish socialist with a Brooklyn accent to run against Donald Trump…