John Cochrane is a tremendously talented economist and professor of finance @ Chicago’s Booth School of Business.  He’s probably forgotten more arcane financial reasoning than I know; but that doesn’t stop us from critically examining his thinking.  In today’s WSJ, Mr. Cochrane cheers the Fed’s balance sheet expansion as a good thing for the economy. […]

In the previous blog on Islamic ideology I focused on the historical development of the religion of Islam and of the terrorist groups that arose later.  But Islam is also a religion in its own right and is based on a written source—the Quran—which is subject to various interpretations.  It is true that for a […]

Cronyism and Sports Sometimes I feel as if I am just trying to “stir the pot” as it were and make my sports-loving friends angry.  So let me say before I continue that I love sports of many kinds—college football and basketball, cross country, track, bicycling, and a few others to a lesser extent.  But […]

Bereans Blog One of our Bereans colleagues e-mailed to say he wished one of us would blog on the situation in the Middle East and on Islamic radical ideology.  He had watched a Heritage Foundation event on the subject, which I had seen a part of as well.  Well, I will take up the challenge, […]

We have been out of the loop for about ten days or so, but we are, almost officially, back. There may still be a few problems with getting everyone here, and I have to verify that our Facebook and Twitter connections are still working the right way, but the new site is up and running. […]

“Wherever Law Ends, Tyranny Begins.” – John Locke

There are relatively few good arguments for actually going to a theater. The crowds are noisy. Cell phones too often pierce the cloak of darkness. The concessions require a credit check. And, to be frank, most movies aren’t worth paying the premium price to see. But still, I persist. Why? There are two reasons. First, […]

John Dickerson, over at Slate, has written a piece on the emerging field of GOP presidential candidates. In it, he labels the crop of candidates as the party’s best in forty years. Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, Paul Ryan, and Bobby Jindal are all rising stars in the party, and Rick Perry, Jeb Bush, and Chris […]

This blog is a supplement to my colleague Jeff Haymond’s very informative blog of July 26 entitled “Turning to the Left….” I wanted to add a further ethical dimension to the discussion of income inequality which Jeff was addressing with regard to recent comments by Thomas Ricks at Politico. Jeff’s comments are worth reproducing in […]

In Wednesday’s Politico, Thomas Ricks writes about how he is turning left politically mid-life, outlining a growing disillusionment with American military, government and economic results.  Much of his criticisms I don’t fault, such as his specific criticisms of how and why we fought in Iraq (a subject I won’t delve into here).  But he also […]