U.S. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) gave a speech today at the Ronald Reagan Building, a monstrous governmental complex that sits adjacent to the White House. (Put aside, at least for a moment, the great irony of a massive government building named after an apostle for small government.) Paul, an emerging voice in the G.O.P., appears […]

Politico has the article today, which is sure to get major hits since its currently the lead Drudge Report article.  Staffers and aides are being forced to transition into Obamacare in lieu of their existing health care benefits, yet if they retire now they can continue on their current plan.  This is apparently a non-partisan […]

Edward Snowden, the man behind the PRISM leak that has turned elite America upside down, discussed his reasons for the leak here. How do we deal with Snowden if we examine him from a biblical perspective? Let’s be clear that my sympathies lie with Snowden. I agree with his basic position regarding the impropriety of […]

We are, I hope, at the beginning stages of a thorough and conscious debate about the nature of government intelligence gathering. There is, and there has always been, a tradeoff between our freedoms and the amount of security we demand. Rarely has the discussion been this open, and as events unfold, it is difficult to […]

John Dingell (D-Mich) has become the longest-serving member of Congress. The U.S. Rep. has held his position for 57 years, five months, and 26 days, breaking the record held by Robert Byrd (D-WVa). To put it in historic perspective, Dingell cast a vote for the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Even more interestingly, Dingell took the […]

James Moody and Peter Mucha published a fascinating article recently on the polarization of the United States Senate. Given their findings (published in Network Science, 1:1, 119-121), senators are farther apart, and are more partisan than at any point since the early 1900s. To put it differently, there are more straight, party line votes than at […]

No one does ritualistic self-immolation like the Republican Party. Still stinging from the 2012 setback, the Grand Old Party remains on the political couch, yearning for therapy and analysis. On Monday, the College Republican National Committee (CRNC) issued a lengthy report on the party and the youth vote. Politico‘s Katie Glueck published a nice summary […]

Many things make a film ‘good’ or ‘bad.’ We consider the acting, writing, visual imagery, plot, setting, tone, or myriad other factors. Sometimes it is a matter of execution. Sometimes it is the mere idea that never bears fruit. In every mediocre, or worse, Hollywood production, there is often a good film clawing to get […]

Normally we focus on political economy issues on a broader scale, but today I’d like to take you down the path of a local example, as a microcosm of the problems of regulation.  Recently we upgraded the paint in our building, as well as a number of other “clean up” type functions to remove eyesores.  […]

I hope everyone has been watching the unfolding scandal at the IRS (that’s the Internal Revenue Service for the present).  As I see it, this seems like the perfect convergence of several disturbing trends in recent decades. First, we see the increasing use by congress of “big” and “broad” statutes whose language is left (deliberately?) […]