California's Zero-Emission Car Mandate Is Empty Virtue Signalling

Recent news reports contained some eye-opening news, at least for those of us who are car aficionados: "In a stunning announcement, GM says it will stop making all diesel and gas-powered cars," according to Motor Biscuit. The planned implementation date is 2035, which isn't particularly far into the future. I'm still grumpy about the disappearing manual...

1h

Global Freedom Is Losing Ground

Not that it's surprising after a year of lockdowns, travel restrictions, and emergency powers, but the world is becoming less free. A new report says that pandemic-era authoritarianism is an acceleration of a pre-existing trend rather than a new phenomenon. For years, liberal democracy has been losing ground, not just in the way governments treat their...

1h

Today in Supreme Court History: March 5, 1934

3/5/1934: Nebbia v. New York decided.

1h

Current Cassis

In 1911, the logging industry lobbied for a national ban on black currants, arguing that they were hosts for certain forms of fungal diseases that threatened pine trees. The lobbyists succeeded in passing this prohibition, but botanists developed disease-resistant varieties of the berries as the century progressed. The feds eventually allowed states...

2h

Wollstonecraft

If you've heard of the 18th century English writer Mary Wollstonecraft, it's likely because of her 1792 book A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, a much-cited entry in both the feminist and the classical liberal canons. In Wollstonecraft: Philosophy, Passion, and Politics, the Cambridge historian Sylvana Tomaselli aims to reveal the rest of Wollstonecraft's...

3h

Brickbat: Government Work

A federal grand jury has indicted Cleveland, Ohio, City Council member Kenneth Johnson on corruption charges. Johnson is accused of engaging in two separate schemes: one involved improper reimbursement for expenses and the second involved steering federal grant money to political and personal allies.

4h

Why Do We Need More Ownership to Protect the Environment?

This post is adapted from our new book, Mine!: How the Hidden Rules of Ownership Control Our Lives, available March 2. To learn more about the book, visit minethebook.com. Yesterday, we introduced Al Appleton and showed how he persuaded New York City to invest in green rather than gray infrastructure, trees instead of concrete. The result: impressively...

9h

"The Neoracism in the Suspension of a Law Professor for Nothing Whatsoever at the University of Illinois in Chicago"

That's from a John McWhorter column [link fixed, d'oh!] on the Kilborn controversy, which came out in late January but which I somehow missed; here's the introduction: Law professor Jason Kilborn cited the N-word (and the B-word) on an exam thusly: n****, b****. It was in a question about an employment discrimination case. He has done so for years...

12h

California's Requirement That Nonprofits Disclose Donor Information Poses a Grave Threat to Freedom of Association

Sixty-three years ago, in a case challenging Alabama's requirement that the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) disclose its membership lists, the Supreme Court recognized that such demands can pose a grave threat to freedom of association. In that case and subsequent decisions, the Court established a test for compelled...

18h

California's Teachers Unions Are Still Fighting To Keep Children at Home

A majority of California's K-12 schools have been closed for in-person instruction for an entire year. During this time, the federal government has given California schools about $8 billion to retrofit buildings for better ventilation, to stock up on masks and sanitation gear, to create rapid COVID testing procedures, and to reconfigure classrooms to...

18h