Source: Law & Liberty
by Richard Smith

“Admittedly, governments have reasons for guaranteeing long terms of copyright protection. It’s easy to argue, for example, that an author should control the product of his labor during his lifetime. And if an author pens the Great American Novel in his 20s, and lives to 100, then — good for him! US copyright law, however, adds a further 70 years of copyright protection beyond the life of the author. Again, the reasons are laudable — post-life extensions of this sort originated in France, and with the aim of providing for the livelihood of an author’s widow and children. But what if an author sells his copyright to a corporation?” ()5/07/24)

https://lawliberty.org/book-review/the-corporate-takeover-of-copyright/

Source: Common Dreams
by Eran Zelnik

“Earlier this week Israel marked the Holocaust in an official memorial day ceremony. Sirens blared for one minute across the country, as all Israelis were urged to drop everything, pull their cars to the sides of the road, and observe a minute devoted to ruminating about the Holocaust and its lessons. Growing up in Israel, as a youth whose grandmother and great grandmother survived Auschwitz, I felt the burden of that moment and concentrated deeply while two different commitments brewed within me. On the one had my commitment to my country, Israel, the safe haven of all Jews; on the other, my promise to myself to act as ‘chasidei umut ha’olam’ …. a special honor bestowed by the state of Israel upon those few non-Jews who during the Holocaust risked their lives and their families’ lives to help save Jews without any promise of recompense.” (05/07/24)

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/2-lessons-holocaust-gaza

Source: Philadelphia Inquirer
by Will Bunch

“If you follow politics, you’ve surely heard the expression about ‘saying the quiet part out loud.’ But when the conversation turned to the looming possible government ban of TikTok at a recent forum featuring two of the most powerful men in America — Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and departing Sen. Mitt Romney, the GOP’s 2012 presidential candidate — the once quiet part about one of the reasons behind the move became a deafening scream. … if the real motivation for zapping TikTok from your phone is to silence legitimate political speech, just because a lot of members of Congress don’t like it, then this bill is the worst attack on the First Amendment since the government was sending World War I critics like Eugene V. Debs and Kate Richards O’Hare to prison, more than 100 years ago.” (05/07/24)

https://www.inquirer.com/columnists/attytood/tiktok-ban-protests-gaza-israel-houston-flooding-climate-change-20240507.html

Source: EconLog
by Scott Sumner

“During the period following the 2020 Covid pandemic, many countries experienced relatively high inflation. This reflects two factors: 1. All countries were hit by shocks such as Covid-related supply chain disruptions and the Ukraine war. 2. Most countries enacted very extensive stimulus programs, which had similar effects in each case. It was appropriate to allow some increase in inflation in response to negative supply shocks. That’s the whole idea behind ‘flexible’ average inflation targeting. But the actual rate of inflation also reflected excessive aggregate demand growth, and thus was inappropriately high in many countries, including the US. I worry when people seem to suggest that there wasn’t much the Fed could have done about the inflation surge because it also occurred in many other nations. In fact, not all countries experienced extremely high inflation.” (05/06/24)

https://www.econlib.org/was-high-inflation-inevitable/

Source: Town Hall
by Salena Zito

“For a brief moment, it was like stepping back in time when a series of 1920s Bentley Roadsters chugged up along the ridge of the winding Lincoln Highway in the mountains of Somerset County. The drivers and passengers alike were wearing goggles, their scarves billowing in the wind. The smiles on their faces, so carefree and joyful, were something you wished you could bottle and save for yourself. It was only when an 18-wheeler with bright Dollar General signs on both sides came barreling up behind them that the whimsical spell was broken. What is it about seeing something from the past that makes us want to capture a long-gone part of time that either we’ve experienced in our childhoods, or with which our parents or grandparents have captivated us through storytelling?” (05/07/24)

https://townhall.com/columnists/salenazito/2024/05/07/the-right-sort-of-nostalgia-makes-democracy-work-better-n2638707