Aphorism says Personnel is policy Trump’s team in chaos — No one knows what’s next Actors and actions in flux, Regime’s uncertain — Situation grim Investment makes little sense No prospect of growth    

For as long as political and ideological movements have sought to engage large followings, they have embraced slogans and catch phrases that give pithy expression to their views, aversions, and objectives. Slogans are dangerous in that they substitute rote declarations for serious thought, yet they may sometimes serve a purpose even for thoughtful people...
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One by-product of the Paris terrorist attack on Charlie Hebdo was an outpouring of support for freedom of speech. While there was general agreement that the magazine’s content has been, beyond a doubt, offensive to some (and not only Muslims), almost everyone agreed that freedom of speech is a fundamental right that should be...
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To follow up on the superb “Creepy Uncle Sam” videos satirizing Obamacare (see here and here), the new “Something Creepy This Way Comes: Creepy Uncle Sam Obamacare Care-nival” has now gone viral on the Internet: For the pivotal alternative to Obamacare, please see the Independent Institute’s widely acclaimed book: Priceless: Curing the Healthcare Crisis,...
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My fellow blogger William Shughart recently gave a good critique of the Patent and Trademark Office’s decision to rescind protection of the Washington Redskins’ name. I agree with him that whether some people view a trademark as offensive should not be a criterion for determining whether it should be protected. If a large number...
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As pointed out in my forthcoming Independent Institute book, Patent Trolls: Predatory Litigation and the Smothering of Innovation, the American patent system is in need of an overhaul. This is no laughing matter, but Stephen Colbert, in the following, recent segment from “The Colbert Report” on Comedy Central takes Amazon to task for claiming...
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Those of us recovering from tax day should be more than ready to answer a simple subtraction problem: What’s 427 – 316? If you mastered elementary math sometime before the onset of Common Core national standards and after “new math” had fallen out of fashion, then you can solve this problem in about three...
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First, we have singers Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood mocking Obamacare at the Country Music Awards. As reported by Aaron Blake in the Washington Post, “Hey do you have that Obamacare?” Underwood asks when Paisley says he needs to see a doctor. “Oh, it’s great. I started signing up last Thursday, and I’m almost...
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In response to the current, “Progressive” (i.e., authoritarian) jihad against the Second-Amendment right of Americans to own and use firearms non-invasively, here is the Independent Institute’s new archive page of articles, books, and videos, “Firearms, Violence and the Second Amendment,” to arm everyone with the facts. In addition, GLOCK Inc. has just produced three,...
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With just a week to go, election predictors puzzling over the too-close-to-call polls, have a choice of numerous proxy market predictors, among them the 7-11 Cup Poll, Intrade, and the Iowa Electronic Markets. And now: the Chia president. As reported in the San Francisco Business Times: Chia Obama was trouncing Chia Romney 69.6 percent...
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