King Canute and the Virus Tide
Nine-hundred years ago, the English historian Henry of Huntingdon wrote down an older Anglo-Saxon story/myth of King Canute who claimed…
Authoritarianism in Auckland
For months we’ve heard the cry: oh how wonderfully New Zealand dealt with the Coronavirus! They did the tightest lockdown…
We Need a Principled Anti-Lockdown Movement
Shell-shocked is a good way to describe the mood in the U.S. for a good part of the Spring of…
Madness in Melbourne
Melbourne, that glorious city in the state of Victoria in Australia, granted me some of the best travel days of…
Is Immunity a Case of Rothbard’s Lost Knowledge?
Murray Rothbard’s wonderful History of Economic Thought opens with a blast against what he called the Whig theory of intellectual…
The Virus Doesn’t Care about Your Policies
Based on the data, there seems to be no relationship between lockdowns and lives saved. That’s remarkable, given that we…
The Bloodless Political Class and Its Lack of Empathy
Why watch COVID press conferences and briefings by politicians? They are just upsetting. These people seem to have no clue…
How Global Capitalism Boosted Immunities
From the beginning of this virus, political elites have used the language of war. The invisible enemy would be contained,…
Fauci Is Wrong: New York Did Not Do it “Correctly”
After a months-long struggle to contain COVID-19, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo seems confident that he has steered the state…
Policing Can and Should Be Privately Provided (Video)
The U.S. is at a crossroads on the topic of policing. The usual binary has framed the debate: support the…
Who Should Be on Trump’s New C-19 Advisory Commission?
I’m an enthusiast for Trump’s attacks on bad showerheads and low-flow faucets and toilets. Six months ago, he was just…
The New York Times Revives Its Grim Past
Walter Duranty of the NYT, as featured in the 2019 film Mr. Jones The resignation letter from former New York…
The Lockdowns Might Be Killing the Arts
What’s closed in the arts? Nearly everything. Unless you want to switch on your laptop. Otherwise forget it. Hardly anyone…
When Will the Madness End?
I was sitting in the green room in a Manhattan television studio on the day that the storm seemed to…
Can They Really Get Away with Banning TikTok?
The Trump administration announced yesterday that it might follow India’s lead and ban TikTok for Americans. There is some sense…
The Metaphysics of Lockdown, According to Albert Camus
For many people, it was their first experience in a full denial of freedom. Locked in their homes. Prevented from…
What Good Comes from this Tragedy?
Many millions have spent the last four months in sadness and depression. It’s hard to watch the world shattered by…
Smallpox Ravaged the Soldiers but They Still Fought and Won a Revolution
One of the most marvelous books I’ve read this year is Donald Henderson’s personal story of the eradication of smallpox.…
The Dubious Origins of the Lockdown Idea (podcast)
Peter R. Quinones interviewed me on his podcast on the topic: the origin of the lockdown idea. This was the…
Why Election Markets are Betting Against Trump
The betting markets judge Trump’s prospects for keeping the presidency with more negativity each day. As of this writing, there…
Broadway Closed but Porcfest Stayed Open
It was the 17th year for the Porcupine Freedom Festival in Lancaster, New Hampshire, held at the Rogers Campground. It…
Small Convertibles are Safer? Why?
It’s some kind of intuition we have. We see a little convertible with the top down, buzzing here and there.…
Smart Society, Stupid People
We’ve lived through the most bizarre experience of human folly in my lifetime, and perhaps in generations. Among the most…
At Least Some Politicians Admit Error (Sort of)
We live in the age of pretend. Governments have behaved more regrettably, ignorantly, arbitrarily, and capriciously than in a generation…
The Return of Brutalism
The lockdowners probably had no idea what they were about to unleash. On paper, their plans all seemed fine. Keep…
The Day First-World Problems Became Real
Ten years ago or so, a popular meme spread on the Internet called first-world problems. The idea here is to…
World Health Organization Walks Back Claim about Asymptomatic Spread
People are so bored with COVID-19 these days that it takes a special kind of disease news to light up…
Why Did they Close the Schools?
On March 12, 2020, a banshee-like cry went out to an email list of public health professionals and government officials…
America Rediscovers Empathy
From early in the lockdown days, it became clear that this crisis would not make us “come together” and be…
Why Does the New York Times Brazenly Deny the Obvious?
Don’t laugh derisively, as people do these days, but I’ve always admired the New York Times. First draft of history.…