Author: Redactor

Destutt de Tracy

[W]ith respect to economy . . . [u]nder this relation society consists only in a continual succession of E X C H A N G E S, and exchange is a transaction of such a nature that both contracting parties both gain by it. . . .

We cannot cast our eyes on a civilized country without seeing with astonishment how much this continual succession of small advantages, unperceived but incessantly repeated, adds to the primitive power of man.

It is because this succession of changes, which constitutes society, has three remarkable properties. It produces concurrence of force, increase and preservation of intelligence and division of labour.

The utility of these three effects is continually augmenting.

M. Destutt Tracy, Traité de la volonté, English translation titled A Treatise on Political Economy (Georgetown, D.C.: Joseph Milligan; W. A. Rind & Co. Printers, 1817), pp. xvi-xvii.

Today

David Ricardo

April 18 marks the 1772 birthday of David Ricardo, English political economist and one of the most influential thinkers in economic theory. An advocate for free trade and the abolition of slavery, Ricardo’s most famous work is his Principles of Political Economy and Taxation (1817).

Today

Ronald Hamowy

April 17 marks the 1937 birth of Ronald Hamowy, Canadian historian, who first came to international prominence for his writings in the short-lived New Individualist Review. Hamowy died in 2012.

Thought

Camille Paglia

Society is a system of inherited forms reducing our humiliating passivity to nature. We may alter these forms, slowly or suddenly, but no change in society will change nature.

Camille Paglia, Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson, p. 1.

Today

Letter from Birmingham Jail

Post author By Redactor
Post date April 16, 2018
No Comments on Letter from Birmingham Jail

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., penned his Letter from Birmingham Jail while incarcerated in Birmingham, Alabama, for protesting segregation, on April 16, 1963.

Thought

Ronald Coase

If you torture the data long enough, it will confess.

links

Townhall: Don’t Fiddle with the Franchise

Post author By Redactor
Post date April 15, 2018
1 Comment on Townhall: Don’t Fiddle with the Franchise

Well, the march to lower the voting age proceeds apace. Click on over to Townhall for Paul’s expanded thoughts from Thursday. Then come back here to expand thoughts on your own:

Washington Post: Youthful March for Our Lives revives push to lower voting age to 16 in D.C.
Washington Post: (editorial): Give a lower voting age a try
FairVote: Lower the Voting Age
Washington Blade: D.C. shouldn’t lower local and federal voting age to 16
Vox: The case for allowing 16-year-olds to vote
Guardian: ‘Have faith in our generation’: 16- and 17-year-olds on voting
RealClearPolitics: David Hogg — “Our Parents Don’t Know How To Use A F*cking Democracy, So We Have To”
Brookings: How Millennials voted this election

On Tuesday the 17th, this column appears on this site.

Today

Bergen-Belsen Liberated

On April 15, 1945, the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp was liberated.

video

Syriasly?

Well, this clears it all up:

But questions remain:

This time they are absolutely sure of their proof of evilness of the enemy:

We really can trust them this time.

Today

Americanisms

On April 14, 1775, the Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage, the first American organization committed to the abolition of slavery, was formed in Philadelphia.

On April 14, 1818, Noah Webster published his American Dictionary of the English Language, one of the first lexicons to include distinctly American words. The dictionary, which took him more than two decades to complete, introduced more than 10,000 “Americanisms.”

On April 14, 1988, representatives of the Soviet Union, Afghanistan, the United States, and Pakistan signed an agreement calling for the withdrawal of Soviet forces from Afghanistan. In exchange for an end to the disputed Soviet occupation, the United States agreed to end its arms support for the Afghan anti-Soviet factions, and Afghanistan and Pakistan agreed not to interfere in each other’s affairs.