Favorable review of Nicole Gelinas, Movement: New York’s Long War to Take Back Its Streets from the Car. With this key sentence from the conclusion: "As she chronicles time and again, the supposed experts can get things terribly, terribly wrong."
Michel Houellebecq, Junot Diaz, and 98 others.
". . . Dr. Marty Makary examines how some of the medical establishment’s biggest health recommendations in recent decades have been unfounded and even dangerous."
Steven Hayward very favorably reviews--"a triumph of the biographical art"--Milton Friedman: The Last Conservative.
Brief reviews of three excellent introductory economics books. I'd add
A review of a new book by Justice Gorsuch. A highlight from the review:
His book cites guesstimates that U.S. statutory law runs to 60,000 pages, with another 188,000 pages of regulations, which delineate 300,000 criminal sanctions . . .
How did it come to this? “That is the question of the book, and I don’t have a complete answer for you,” Justice Gorsuch says. But it involves a shift “both up and across in our separation of powers.” By “up” he means a movement of responsibilities from states and localities to Washington. By “across” he means a flow of authority from Congress to the D.C. agency apparatus.
Which plays to two of my favorite political points: we need less federal government (and more federalism) and less bureaucracy at all levels.
Very much related, with more details on the rabbit story: "Justice Gorsuch on the Administrative State". (Yes, I know one story does not an argument make. But, c'mon, it's one heck of a story.)
"These three strands of the libertarian synthesis—the moral argument, the knowledge problem and the public choice problem—can be summarized simply: You have no right to run my life; you don’t know how; and if you try, you’ll mess it up."
Positive review of Money and the Rule of Law (edited by Pete Boettke, et al.) by Nathanael Snow, a former student of mine.
Nice piece by sociologist Fabio Rojas. This is worth remembering (and teaching to younger generations):
By 2024, there have been many writers and researchers who have documented the many limitations of communes, kibbutzim, and worker co-ops. The message is fairly consistent. These organizations suffer from all sorts of problems, ranging from factionalism to poor morale to suboptimal decision-making. Perhaps the best that can be said of such communities is that they might succeed when they are kept small and participants are selected based on a strong commitment to egalitarian principles. Otherwise, failure is the usual outcome.
Excerpt from The Science of Weird Shit by Chris French & Richard Wiseman:
We can learn so much about the human mind by investigating what lies behind experiences that appear to be paranormal. Factors like attention, perception and memory can all play a part.
What I've also found is that you can almost always uncover a logical explanation for things that appear to be paranormal.