How do you get people to make good decisions? You can be negative and punish bad decisions or you can be positive and incentivize good decisions. Our language is full of cliches articulating these options: carrots and sticks, honey and vinegar. Farmers make decisions every day about what to grow, […]
Each Diamond “Strike-A-Fire” Fire Starter (SAF stick) is kind of like a giant match which is 5.75 inches long, 1.13 inches wide, and 0.25 inches thick. The shaft of a SAF stick seems to be made out of some sort of pressed wood that is impregnated with a waxy substance. […]
“The United States boldly broke with the ancient military custom of swearing loyalty to a leader. Article VI required that American Officers thereafter swear loyalty to our basic law, the Constitution… Our American Code of Military Obedience requires that, should orders and the law ever conflict, our officers must obey […]
President Donald Trump, in a Friday memorandum, directed Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Acting Director Jim O’Neill “to review best practices from peer, developed countries for core childhood vaccination recommendations — vaccines recommended for all children […]
JWR’s Introductory Note: This is an update to an article that I wrote for SurvivalBlog back in June, 2008. It includes an adenda from my first wife Linda (“The Memsahib”), who passed away in 2009. It is part of a series of SurvivalBlog 20th Anniversary update re-posts, in recognition of the […]
European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde steps in every time a government attempts to implement monetary policy. The centralized power now has the final say, sorry, but sovereignty is not an option for European Union members. Italy proposed declaring gold an asset of the people, but Lagarde has found a […]
Gleaming office buildings, concrete flyovers and ever-sprawling housing developments and industrial parks, the modern city is increasingly presented as a symbol of progress. But what if this very ‘progress’ conceals a destructive order? What if the modern city represents the command-centre of an extractive, neoliberal order that has reshaped land, […]
The government shutdown “proved an argument that conservatives have been making for 45 years: The U.S. Department of Education is mostly a pass-through for funds that are best managed by the states.” The most significant thing about this statement in a November 16 USA Today editorial is not its substance. […]
New Zealand has become the latest Western country to restrict the use of puberty-blocking drugs for minors experiencing gender dysphoria, citing insufficient evidence of long-term safety and efficacy. The ban, announced by Health Minister Simeon Brown on Nov. 19, follows similar moves by the U.K., Finland, Sweden and Norway, reflecting […]
The elite aren’t stupid. They can see that our society is coming apart at the seams all around us, and so they want to live some place safe. In fact, for many among the elite security has become the number one priority when choosing a new home. Unfortunately, the vast […]