Category Archives: Politics
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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Niall Ferguson on “Soviet America”
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 28th June 2024Niall Ferguson is one the most distinguished historians of the current century. King Charles III recently knighted him. We’re All Soviets Now is an article by him in which he notes the similarities between the late Soviet Union and current America. You can peruse his article and make your own judgment about the validity of…
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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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Essential Services
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 11th February 2024A financial writer recently mused over the complexities of Jerome Powell’s job as Chairman of the Federal Reserve. He focused on the problem of interest rates. Lower them too rapidly and inflation may recur or worsen. Keep them high for too long and consumers will be priced out of the loan market and even worse…
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Social Justice Fallacies – Book Review
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 4th December 2023I believe that a scientist looking at nonscientific problems is just as dumb as the next guy. Richard Feynman Thomas Sowell has been one of America’s greatest public intellectuals for over a half-century. During that span, he has published 48 books. His latest, written at age 93, is Social Justice Fallacies. He didn’t start life behind…
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Capital Punishment
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 3rd October 2023Jake Hegee’s opera Dead Man Walking opened the Met Opera’s new season last week. It’s based on a book of the same name by Sister Helen Prejean. Sister Helen is an ardent opponent of the death penalty. Though opposition to capital punishment is not a feature of Hegee’s opera its depiction of it and Sister…
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SenatorMcConnell’s Medical Condition
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 3rd September 2023A diplomat has been described as a person sent abroad by his government to lie for his country; the mission of a political doctor is very closely related. By political doctor I mean a physician charged with the care of a government official or a group of them. Dr Brian Monahan is the capital physician….
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Governance
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 8th July 2023People today seem utterly unsatisfied with the government under which they live. The more tolerant or representative a government is, the more vehement the expression of dissatisfaction. This obvious dissent from what the government proposes or allows among the democracies may merely reflect what people are permitted compared to governments that are more repressive. No…
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