Category Archives: government
Liberty and Honor
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 28th February 2022A reader asked me to define liberty as used in my post COVID – 2 Years and Counting. I will lean on JS Mill, Isaiah Berlin, and Frederich Hayek in the formulation that follows. Broadly assessed, liberty can be divided into two species – positive and negative. I realize this is a gigantic oversimplification, but…
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Three Army Recruitment Ads
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 12th December 2021The video below displays three recruitment ads. One for the Chinese Army, the Russian Army, and finally one for the US Army. We seem to be willing to bring a cookie cutter to an artillery fight. We are in big trouble if our ad accurately reflects the warrior ethos of the US Army. One viewer…
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Maverick – Book Review
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 13th October 2021Jason Riley is a fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a member of the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal. His latest book, Maverick, is an intellectual biography of the economist and public intellectual Thomas Sowell. Focusing mainly on Sowell’s thinking, it presents only the bare facts of his life. Sowell has averaged about…
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Government – A Few Thoughts
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 9th September 2021Governments began as soon as humans stopped travelling in small bands and started to congregate in imobile groups which gradually transformed from villages to cities. Strongmen were the first leaders who governed according to their might. They continue to hold sway over a large swath of the planet to this day. Two and a half…
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Noise – Book Review
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 6th June 2021Noise – A Flaw in Human Judgement is a book by Daniel Kahneman, Oliver Sibony, and Cass Sunstein. The noise that is their subject is not that of honking geese or backfiring motorcycles; it’s the unwanted variability in judgement or decision making when the facts behind the decision or judgement are the same. Noise and…
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On Corruption
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 22nd February 2021Lord Acton’s famous line about the relationship of power and corruption needs no more than its first phrase. The two are conjoined twins. Under the right circumstances all of us are likely to succumb to the corrosive effect of authority. Some occupations have it as part of their job descriptions. While corruption is ineluctably part…
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COVID-19 Six Months In
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 2nd September 2020It’s just about half a year since we recognized that the coronavirus had taken residence in the US and just about everywhere else. We took a while to realize that the bug was going to stay longer than The Man Who Came to Dinner. Though epidemics have been a feature of human existence ever since…
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Back to Work by March 30: A Coronavirus Imperative
Written by Robert Luddy | 24th March 2020America has no choice if it is to avoid total disaster. China and Russia are open for business and working at close to capacity, as America shutters most all business and industry in states such as Pennsylvania, New York, California, New Jersey, and Connecticut. In many cases only select manufacturing companies are allowed to operate,…
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Cats Can’t Count and Only Centenarians Should Vote
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 25th May 2019Cats, like many other species, can’t count. Our feline acquaintances have come up with an interesting work-around to deal with their deficient numeracy. When a mother cat decides, for whatever reason, to move her kittens she takes one by the scruff of the neck to its new location. Since she can’t count she doesn’t know…
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Some Things Speak for Themselves
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 23rd April 2019Medicare to go broke three years earlier than expected, trustees say. Bernie Sanders Unveils ‘Medicare for All’ Bill.
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