Commentary

"Yesterday's dramatic congressional testimony about the deadly Sept. 11, 2012 terrorist attacks on U.S. interests in Benghazi, Libya convincingly corroborated what was widely reported within days of the attack: that senior American officials on the ground knew immediately, despite the Obama administration's storyline to the contrary, that the assault did not arise out of a 'spontaneous' demonstration outside the U.S. Consulate in protest of an obscure YouTube trailer of a homemade anti-Islam movie called Innocence of Muslims." (05/13/13)

"Taiwan, a small country, controls its foreign exchange. Not for nefarious purposes (think Venezuela and Zimbabwe), but because -- when it comes to monetary policy -- size has consequences. Though fiscally and economically sound, Taiwan is vulnerable to currency manipulation from a multitude of sources." (05/12/13)

"This place is a paradise -- or rather, it’s a place that always could have been but never was. The people of St. Helena like to call themselves 'Saints.' In a number of odd and interesting ways, they are the saints who lost paradise. And it turns out those ways are very relevant and instructive for us today." (05/13/13)

"It seems to me that Guantanamo is a three-fold scandal: (1) the abomination of the cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment given those prisoners; (2) the reality that most of those remaining were cleared for release more than three years ago; and (3) the fact that Moran’s was the very first congressionally sponsored public 'briefing' of its kind -- more than 11 years late." (05/14/13)

"Late last week we learned that the Barack Obama Administration’s Internal Revenue Service (IRS) was subjecting conservative non-profit organizations to ridiculous levels of additional, extra-legal scrutiny. The Administration’s immediate, reflex response was to lie about it." (05/13/13)

"My colleague Geoffrey Taunton-Collins argues that nationalism is a force for good, as the loyalty and fellow-feeling it generates are necessary to create high trust law-abiding societies. He says that examples of atrocities committed partially in the name of nationalism -- the Rwandan genocide, the second world war and Holocaust, strife in the middle east -- are all better explained by ethnic tribalism or religion. I disagree." (05/10/13)

"The half-century mark since the assassination of John F Kennedy was supposed to be some kind of event. Lots of books were in the offing. Broadcasters were primed. We were going to get some really huge revelations, some kind of major step forward in coming to terms with this event that has so affected America and so divided its population. And guess what? Eh. Basically, eh. Nothing so amazing (to be really generous), and, sorry to say, hardly anyone is paying real attention." (05/14/13)

"The Senate passed the fraudulently-named 'Marketplace Fairness Act' last week. You can see how they voted here. It forces so-called 'large' online businesses to pay out-of-state sales taxes for the products they sell. But a new tax is like a noose. It will only tighten, which means ... Your taxes will go up. Only the Senate has passed this bill. We need to stop it in the House." (05/13/13)

"I had earlier posted about the SNAFUed boondoggle also known as the Eastern span of the Oakland-San Francisco Bay Bridge (here and here), but the bad news just keeps rolling in. Yesterday it was revealed that the tower supporting the entire self-anchored suspension bridge rests on bolts that are likely to fail, causing the tower to move. A 'veteran seismic engineer' has helpfully pointed out: That’s something you don’t want." (05/13/13)

"Presumably, the chief purpose of this huge amount of American social policy is to improve the lot of the poor. While a policy of allowing in more low-skilled immigrants might well pull down statistical measures of well-being in America (for example, the average level of schooling), it will certainly and immediately improve the well-being of millions of actual, flesh-and-blood people -- who find better lives in America -- and also improve the lives of actual, flesh-and-blood Americans over time by strengthening the economy with both a deeper division of labor and the dynamism that is fueled by immigration." (05/12/13)

"An Internet meme featuring U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren is currently circulating to boost support for her very first bill, the 'Bank on Student Loan Fairness Act,' introduced on Wednesday. Everyone should be skeptical of legislation with the word 'fairness' in its title, especially the people it is allegedly designed to assist." (05/13/13)

"I've found myself getting frustrated lately due to assumptions I've made regarding my convictions, mostly religious. I've gotten ahead of myself and wound up confused and dissatisfied with where things were going. It's time to take a step back and reassess my knowledge banks; to really dig into my mind and categorize everything (okay, a fraction of everything) into two lists: what I know, and what I don't know." (05/13/13)

"The Nation has just published a piece by BHL’s old friend Corey Robin where Robin tries to draw a significant connection between Austrian economics’ view of economic value and Nietzsche’s far broader value skepticism (also see Robin’s CT post here). The upshot, from what I can tell, is that Austrians are guilty both of a kind of nihilism about objective value (whatever that is) and that they implicitly endorse the sort of elitism that is more explicit in Nietzsche’s writings. The argument fails." (05/13/13)

"Is your hand wash slowly killing you as government regulators sit idly by? Sounds silly, but that’s what environmentalists seem to think about an antibacterial agent called triclosan, which is used in soap and other consumer products." (05/13/13)

"Americans live in the infinite now. They are happy not to be burdened with the knowledge of their past or the long-term future. Zbigniew Brzezinski, former national security adviser to President Jimmy Carter, says that Americans are totally ignorant of the world around them. America’s leaders are not much better. He is right. The United States of America’s priorities are distorted. 'We the People' seems now an oddball concept. It’s the threat era: China, Cyber, Climate, Terror, Drugs, Sequester, Avian Flu, Shooters and Insecurity." (05/11/13)

"I need a civics lesson. This according to the keepers of acceptable opinion at two divergent publications. Both The Economist and the Montgomery Advertiser recently ran opinion pieces skewering nullification, specifically state efforts to block unconstitutional federal gun laws in Kansas and Alabama." (05/13/13)