I see history as centrally a race and conflict between “social power” — the productive consequence of voluntary interactions among men — and state power. In those eras of history when liberty — social power — has managed to race ahead of state power and control, the country and even mankind have flourished. In those eras when state power has managed to catch up with or surpass social power, mankind suffers and declines.
— Murray Rothbard
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Today is Tuesday, January 9th, 2024. It is National Law Enforcement Appreciation Day, National Static Electricity Day, National Apricot Day, and International Choreographers Day.
On This Day
In 1788, Connecticut became the fifth state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
In 1806, Sir Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, 1st Duke of Bronte, received a state funeral and was interred in St. Paul’s Cathedral. (Several months earlier, a French musketeer killed Nelson during the Battle of Trafalgar.)
In 1861, Mississippi became the second state to secede from the Union.
In 1916, the Gallipoli campaign concluded with an Ottoman Empire victory when the last Allied forces were evacuated from the peninsula.
In 1918, the American Indian Wars ended, after more than three centuries, at the Battle of Bear Valley in Arizona.
In 1927, a fire at the Laurier Palace movie theater in Montreal killed 78 children.
In 1960, Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser opened construction on the Aswan Dam.
In 1992, the first discoveries of extrasolar planets were announced by astronomers Aleksander Wolszczan and Dale Frail.
In 1997, Comair Flight 3272 crashed in Raisinville Township in Michigan, killing 29 people.
In 2015, a mass poisoning at a funeral in Mozambique left 75 people dead and over 230 people sick.
Today’s Birthdays
Singer-songwriter and left-wing fruitcake Joan Baez is 83. Jimmy Page, considered by many to be the greatest rock-and-roll guitarist of all time, is 80. Singer Crystal Gayle, born Brenda Gail Webb, is 74. Actor J. K. Simmons is 69. Actress Joely Richardson is 59. Singer-songwriter and musician Dave Matthews is 57. Actress Joey Lauren Adams is 56.
The Links
DC-Area Union Kitchen Employees Overwhelmingly Vote to Remove UFCW Union (National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation)
“We’re happy that Ms. Silva and her coworkers were finally able to exercise their right to vote out a union that actively worked against their interests. What’s concerning, however, is the fact that UFCW union officials could still prop up questionable allegations to stall the certification of an election that the very employees they claim to ‘represent’ asked for.”
MLB frees A’s from deadline to finalize Vegas stadium by changing definition of “finalize” (Field of Schemes)
“[T]eam execs then ‘used their external PR department, the Las Vegas Review-Journal, to disseminate their message.’”
As online gambling expands, so do concerns about addictions (Route Fifty)
“In blocking a bill that would have allowed mobile sports betting in Hawaii, state Rep. Daniel Holt told the Associated Press that the $7 million in revenue the state could gain ‘may not be worth putting our communities at risk.’”
9th Circuit Temporarily Restores the Right To Bear Arms As It Mulls California’s New Gun-Free Zones (Reason)
“That means Californians with carry permits can now use them without risking prosecution for entering the state's newly created gun-free zones, which cover most public places.”
Family First (Institute for Family Studies)
“In other words, working-class adults often have pro-family values that are in tension with material limits, stresses, and relational insecurities. They share an expectation of financial stability before kids, but it’s a fairly basic and prudent standard. Even so, the working class are more willing to bend here, to fudge standards, to make it work — sometimes because even a basic standard of stability feels out of reach. Their fertility choices involve wrestling with tradeoffs that more affluent people don’t have to make.”
Setting Aside Historical Accuracy (Abbeville Institute)
“‘Facts’ have been plucked, like ticks off a mangy mongrel, to show that Thomas Jefferson is racist, hypocritical — in short, incurably facinorous. The problem is that those who run Monticello know otherwise, and they just do not care. They are on a mission to rid the world of racism, and if Thomas Jefferson, like Chauvin and the three other officers with him, must fall in the process, then, according to the calculus of Consequentialist morality, that is a paltry price to pay for social justice. As Joseph Stalin often noted, the loss of 10 innocent lives in the process of executing the guilty one is well worth the effort.”
Transit Carried 74.9% of 2019 Riders in November (Randal O’Toole)
“Will transit ridership ever exceed 75 percent of pre-pandemic levels without the benefit of a month with one more business day than in 2019? Probably, but keep in mind that all other modes of travel have fully recovered to pre-pandemic numbers and are now growing at roughly pre-pandemic rates.”
Canada’s Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion reportedly 95% complete (U.S. Energy Information Administration)
“When it comes onstream, the expansion will nearly triple the pipeline’s current 300,000 barrels per day … capacity to move crude oil from oil sands in landlocked Alberta to Canada’s Pacific Coast for export to new customers in Asia or along the U.S. West Coast.”
Traders Most Bearish on Oil Since March 2023 (Oilprice.com)
“Additional downward pressure on oil could come this week from the annual rebalancing of the two biggest commodity indexes — the Bloomberg Commodity Index and the S&P GSCI — which is expected to prompt crude futures selling by funds tracking the indexes.”
NuScale cuts jobs, ‘refocuses on key strategic areas’ (World Nuclear News)
“[I]n November NuScale and Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems mutually agreed to terminate the Carbon Free Power Project … which was to have featured six NuScale power modules generating 462 MWe of electricity and which was pencilled in for operation by 2029.”
Electric Vehicles — the Nitro Glycerine of the Transportation World? (Watts Up With That?)
“EVs seem to pose a particular problem for ships. Ships have been destroyed by uncontrollable EV fires — automatic fire suppression systems which work on gasoline and diesel fires are helpless to extinguish EV fires.”
The situation with Astrobotic’s lunar lander appears to be quite dire (Ars Technica)
“The spacecraft was privately built and largely funded by NASA through its Commercial Lunar Payload Services Program. The US space agency paid $108 million for the delivery of several science experiments to the Moon, including a radiation sensor, spectrometers, and a laser retroreflector array on board Peregrine. Astrobotic has also sold some payload space to private companies.”
Justice Department Sends Teams to Mozambique and Ghana to Train Local Leaders on Timber Trafficking Reduction Efforts (U.S. Department of Justice)
“Investigating and prosecuting illegal timber harvesting crimes is a priority of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division.”
2024 Will Be the Year of ‘Defend the Guard’ (West Virginia State Delegate Pat McGeehan)
“With the Congress renouncing its solemn responsibility, over time, the process of throwing American troops into foreign wars has become a matter of unilateral decree by the president, an office swayed carelessly by the administrative state and impulsive bureaucrats from the Pentagon.”
Calling for a ceasefire while still making the bombs: an open letter to the UAW (Mondoweiss)
“As the genocide against Palestinians grinds on, we hope that the UAW leadership answers the question ‘which side they you on’ with the decisiveness that this moment calls for.”
Your Turn
1. Are you gladdened or saddened to pay taxes so U.S. Department of Justice staffers can travel “around the world” to investigate and prosecute “illegal timber harvesting crimes”?
2. Ever been to Connecticut?
3. Is most folk music lame?
4. Should online gambling be illegal?
5. Do you appreciate your local law-enforcement officers?
1. Are you gladdened or saddened to pay taxes so U.S. Department of Justice staffers can travel “around the world” to investigate and prosecute “illegal timber harvesting crimes”?
Is this a rhetorical question? I support smaller government with much fewer regulations on things like NG, Oil and even Coal. Although I support control of illegal harvesting in the US. I see little reason to exercise authority in foreign countries, unless it directly affects US citizens. IOW, extortion, bribery and money laundering by American Politicians! If these trees are not on our land, it’s a diplomacy situation and not a DOJ matter.
2. Ever been to Connecticut?
I’m a cowboy. There are no cowboys in King Arthur’s Court!!
3. Is most folk music lame?
Not if it’s Bob Dylan or Simon and Garfinkle.
Leadbelly, Dave Van Ronk, Ramblin Jack Elliot, Gillian Welch, Dave Rawlings, Janis Ian, Johnny Cash, Lyle Lovett, Doc Watson, Pete Yorn, Phil Ochs and Leonard Cohen also come to mind. Hell, even Dolly Parton was a folk artist, and there is a new generation of folk artists that have something to say. Folk music is part of the American expression of the times we live in, and while not all the artists meet my standards of a real relevant delivery of messaging, many should be appreciated for their contributions.
4. Should online be illegal?
Online what? Are you going to shut down the greatest encyclopedia of all time? The other question is, “What are the limits of freedom?”
Education and thoughtful discussion with our children is more important than banning rights!
However, if something is illegal or grossly immoral, I would take it into consideration.
5. Do you appreciate your local law-enforcement officers?
Yes, even when they pull me over! We need them more now than ever before. So, support and respect the Blue and make them the best they can be.
1. Are you gladdened or saddened to pay taxes so U.S. Department of Justice staffers can travel “around the world” to investigate and prosecute “illegal timber harvesting crimes”?
Isn't this something that should be done, if at all, by the ridiculous United Nations?
2. Ever been to Connecticut?
Not since Lowell Weicker signed the bill giving CT a state income tax.
3. Is most folk music lame?
I think older people like it more than younger generations. There was quite a lot of good stuff during the Depression Era as well as the Vietnam Era.
4. Should online gambling be illegal?
My libertarian side says that if people are stupid enough to gamble, they should have the freedom to do so without government intervention. As a practical matter, however, I think UT got it right. UT doesn't even allow lotteries (to the best of my knowledge). I think UT opposes all gambling for moral and/or religious reasons. It's consistent about it.
5. Do you appreciate your local law-enforcement officers?
Very much so. As the great Michael Savage says: "The police are our wolfhounds who protect us from the wolves."