August 09, 2012
The Nagasaki Bombing
On this day in 1945, the US dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki, murdering tens of thousands of innocent people. Just three days earlier, it had dropped an atomic bomb…
All posts in: Current Events
August 08, 2012
You Didn’t Build that Pencil
A few more thoughts on You-Didn’t-Build-That-Gate. (See my earlier posts here and here.) Leonard Read explained that literally no one on earth can make a pencil from scratch. This guy…
July 26, 2012
Can a Liberal Education Produce a Defense of Capitalism?
In the process of looking for something else this evening, I came across some remarks I delivered in 2006 as a respondent at a faculty colloquium where the main talk…
July 24, 2012
What Government Has Built
On Obama’s “you didn’t build that,” see Anthony Gregory’s excellent post.
July 24, 2012
Obama’s “you didn’t build that!”: A Long Pedigree
I am somewhat surprised by the reaction to the view expressed by Barack Obama, that successful people don’t deserve (all or much of the) credit for their success. Critics acted…
July 21, 2012
Locavores, Droughts, and Famines (and the Market)
I am currently in the middle of The Locavore’s Dilemma: In Praise of the 10,000-Mile Diet, by my long-time friends Pierre Desrochers and Hiroko Shimizu. It’s a wonderful book, so…