Wanted: Moral Courage
powered by Surfing Waves “It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world, and moral courage so rare,” wrote Mark Twain more than a century ago. If moral courage means knowing what’s right and both doing it and defending it in spite of fear or obstructions, would you say we’ve improved over the years? My heart wants to say yes but my head tells me no. Every day seems to bring distressing news of moral courage in decline. When we see acts of moral courage, we should recognize and applaud t…
Smaller fists of fury, not monsters of the past, more likely with hurricanes
powered by Surfing Waves Unlike the 1930s through 1950s, when longer tracked storms would hit the US near their peaks, not since Hugo in 1989 has a storm that was a major for 3 days or more out, reached the coast at peak intensity. The list is amazing. Let’s start with Opal 1995. Georges had been a 4/5. made landfall as a 2/3. Floyd weakened to a 2 from a 4. Lily was a generous 2 from a 4 after having been called 12 hours before the worst hurricane ever to hit Louisiana. Remember. we are saying more than 3 …
Offshore wind costs bound to go up
powered by Surfing Waves If reducing CO2 emissions is the justification for industrializing the ocean with offshore wind, then we need to know what the cost per ton of CO2 reduction is. This number is likely to be ridiculously large, on the order of thousands of dollars a ton. We have already discussed the reduction analysis part, finding that the reductions are likely to be relatively small per MW of wind generating capacity. See my https://www.cfact.org/2023/05/31/offshore-wind-may-not-reduce-co2-emissions/ . …
Republican Presidential Candidates Lining Up in Support of War on Mexico
powered by Surfing Waves On April 10, I wrote about Republican presidential candidates being open to pursuing war on Mexico — sending the US military into Mexico to fight drug cartels despite the opposition of the Mexico government to such intervention. Mexican-American War II advocates, I noted, included candidates Donald Trump, Asa Hutchinson, and Vivek Ramaswamy. It turns out the list of Republican presidential candidates open to such US military action is longer. Republican presidential candidates Tim Sc…
Dethroning the Almighty Dollar?
powered by Surfing Waves This is the text of a talk by AIER Research Faculty Peter C. Earle at the June 7, 2023 Meeting of Alder Unplugged. Good afternoon and thank you for having me. I’ve planned for these remarks to take no more than ten minutes, but economists are about as good at forecasting as politicians are at budgeting. So, it may run a slight bit longer – apologies in advance if it does. About two months ago, on April 4th, I wrote an article entitled “ De-dollarization has Begun ” which w…
California Is Trying to Pass a Law That Would Stop Employees From Confronting Shoplifters. Here's Why It Would Be a Disaster
powered by Surfing Waves Thomas Baltimore Jr., the chairman and CEO of Park Hotels and Resorts, announced earlier this month that his company would stop paying a $725 million loan on two of San Francisco’s largest hotels, Hilton San Francisco Union Square and Parc 55. Baltimore cited low demand and “concerns over street conditions” as reasons to stop payments on the hotels, which will be returned to the lender. The decision is another blow to downtown San Francisco and California, which has experien…
The Anti-Communist Crusade
powered by Surfing Waves A central feature of the Cold War racket was the anti-communist crusade. At the behest of the U.S. national-security establishment, the entire nation became obsessed with the commies, both foreign and domestic. The Reds were coming to get us. They were everywhere. They were in Korea, Vietnam, Cuba, Russia, China, Guatemala, Chile, Indonesia, Brazil, and most everywhere else. They were in Congress, the military, the executive branch, the political system, the universities, and Hollywood. …
Social Plugin