Category Archives: government
Why Socialism Has More Lives Than the Phoenix
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 26th June 2026Socialism, in its purest and most advanced form, is a political and economic system in which the means of production and the distribution of goods and services are owned, controlled, or directed by the government. In one form or another, it has been around for more than two centuries. It eventually disappears or degenerates into…
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Extinction Denied?
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 14th June 2026Two basic events seem to be converging. First, our technology advances at an astonishingly rapid pace, while our behavior hasn’t changed since our ancestors were kicked out of Eden. Thus, we now have the capacity for endless mayhem (I’m ignoring all the benefits of technology, as they can be extinguished in a millisecond), coupled with…
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Can Politics be Rational?
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 6th August 2025How can I, that girl standing there,My attention fixOn Roman or on RussianOr on Spanish politics,Yet here’s a travelled man that knowsWhat he talks about,And there’s a politicianThat has both read and thought,And maybe what they say is trueOf war and war’s alarms,But O that I were young againAnd held her in my arms. WB…
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The Crash at Reagan Airport – Why Primary Prevention Often Fails
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 31st January 2025An article in the Wall Street Journal offers an instructive example of the failure of primary prevention. Primary prevention in medicine is the attempt to avoid a disease event that has yet to happen. An example is the use of lipid-lowering drugs to prevent cardiovascular disease in a subject who has never suffered from CV…
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Religion and Politics
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 20th November 2024Religion, regardless of form or complexity, has been a constant in all human societies for as long as we can recall. Politics is likely just as ancient. I’ll define religion as the belief in and worship of a superhuman power or powers, especially a God or gods. The reader can extend the definition if so…
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Law, Lawyers, and Other Fables
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 9th September 2024“No one is above the law” is a bit of thick BS that usually comes from the mouth or pen of a person of malign intent whose goal is to deprive others of their liberty or property. Unspoken is their self-exemption from the principle which seems to have no real use save as a cudgel….
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Polybius and Government
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 17th July 2024Edward Gibbon wrote, “History is indeed little more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind.” His great predecessor the Greek historian Polybius (c. 200 – c.118 BC) seems on close analysis by the reader to have believed that history was little more than the register of different people doing the same things over…
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Making Life Better
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 6th July 2024Those passionate about improving things but without the wit to do it are the most dangerous humans on the planet. One sees this everywhere. Its most virulent form is the complex system. Solitary pursuits are the least affected. Those most committed to improving whatever slice of life has seized their attention invariably turn to the…
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Jefferson and the Tree of Liberty
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 8th June 2024In 1787 the new US Constitution had just been constructed. William Stephens Smith the son-in-law of John Adams sent Jefferson a copy. Jefferson was minister to France and was in Paris at the time. The letter he wrote thanked Smith for sending him the document which he had not received by the time of the…
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A Crook in Crook’s Clothing
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 4th March 2024The title above eventually is apropos of any politician or legislator given a sufficient interval. But it doesn’t stop there. It spreads like the pox to anyone with even a whiff of authority. There’s a gene on chromosome 17, SKNK23a, that’s expressed in early childhood in all humans and amplified by experience that manifests the…
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