Worth Reading February 23, 2023
Since we have missed a few issues, the editors have collected more worth reading suggestions than usual. We are also trying the experiment of embedding the article, with illustration, when that is permitted. Let us know your opinion of this change.
Social Issues
Matt Daley has written several columns about inaccuracies in reporting on “mass shootings” and resulting mistakes in policies proposed to deal with them. This article in National Review takes the discussion further.
Another example of misleading reporting arises when there is an unjustified police shooting or beating. Some things have to be said about the events in Memphis, but few are willing to say them and take the risk of being called “racist.” This commentator takes the risk.
Glenn Loury is a distinguished African-American economist about the age of the editors. We have been remiss in not including his writings before. This podcast by Loury, which will require a modest payment for a subscription to access, features an outspoken black Christian whose views need to be more widely heard.
Ukraine and China
Matt Daley recommends this assessment from the Institute for the Study of War on the situation in Ukraine. It is quite long, but will be of interest to anyone wanting a detailed understanding of the current battle lines.
John Briggs comments that there have been good pieces on the balloon crisis, and this article from Foreign Policy is one of them that most readers have not seen.
Matt Daley recommends an analysis that was published before the balloon incident, and that when the panic subsides will remain relevant.
MPD observes that Turkey pays an important role in the on-going Ukraine crisis. It has kept open economic and diplomatic channels to Russia, while sending drones to Kyiv for use against Russia’s invading forces. It was instrumental in negotiating the agreement that freed Ukrainian food shipments last year. Timothy Ash provides an overview of many of the key issues that will shape the upcoming Turkish elections and speculates on how the election outcome will affect future economic and foreign policy options.
An article in Salon, found by MPD, gives insight into the radical left’s beliefs about the war in Ukraine, to wit that the war is a result of American imperialistic ambitions and that the “United States will do ‘whatever it takes’ to maintain its iron-grip on power” in Central Asia.
Politics
Lauren Boebert may not be everyone’s favorite Republican, but WDM thinks she has a good point in recommending that Republicans end their posture of moral superiority to ballot harvesting and get started doing it themselves. Seeing how ballot harvesting gave the Democrats so many wins in November, from Talbot County to Senate races, and the impossibility of changing the rules to ban it, we have no choice but to get down in the dirt ourselves.
