Pun Salad

Cato's latest Human Freedom Index rates Taiwan in fourteenth place. Ahead of (ahem) the US (#15). That's pretty good, but Mr Ramirez thinks it's on the menu, and the WSJ editorialists seem to think the island's fate is iffy (WSJ gifted link)

It would be a shame to see the US get higher in the Human Freedom Index via the destruction of one of the freer countries above it.

And for your further amusement (or disgust):

• Also, we could make liquor purchases mandatory. The Josiah Bartlett Center describes How NH can stop subsidizing out-of-state drivers.

  The New Hampshire Turnpike System facilitates tourism and commuting in the Granite State. The three toll roads slash travel times in key corridors, which improves quality of life and helps the state’s economy grow.

  Turnpike users pay a small fee for the convenience of using these roads vs. more congested and slower local roads, essentially trading cash for time.

  Time, however, gets its revenge. Over the years, inflation eats away at the value of the toll. New Hampshire’s tolls, low by regional standards, haven’t been increased since 2007.

  That sounds unrealistic on its face. The JBC notes that other states in the area (NY and MA) manage to ding out-of-state drivers using their tollways significantly higher rates than in-state drivers.

• 

  I never went full hippie in the 1970s. But I did own a copy of Steward Brand's Whole Earth Catalog and subscribed to his Coevolution Quarterly magazine. Occasionally offending my conservatarian sensibilities, but (nevertheless) full of interesting stuff.

  Stewart Brand is 87 years old (as I type), and recently gave a great interview to Nick Gillespie.

  Reason: Your new book argues that maintenance is the hidden foundation of everything. What do we miss when we focus on innovation, creative destruction, and disruption and forget about checking that everything is tied down the right way on a daily basis?

  Brand: I don't think they're opposed. A lot of innovation comes out of maintenance. People who figure out how to improve a thing are often the ones who are stuck with keeping it going and realizing how difficult that is. "Gee, we could make it easier this way or that way. Or what if we just throw this stupid thing away and get something better?" Which is all part of the process of keeping something going.

  We often think of maintenance in terms of preventive maintenance. Repair is such a big hassle when something breaks. It's a trauma to you and to the system that the thing is part of. We spend some of our time doing the very unrewarding thing of changing the oil and brushing your teeth so that your teeth don't fall out and your car doesn't blow up. But really maintenance is the whole complete process of keeping the thing going. For example, right now, I'm writing on the history of agriculture, because if you're an animal, you've got to keep it fed. We are animals and we have to keep ourselves fed. The process of doing that has been one innovation after another.

  Amazon link for Brand's latest book at your right. I'll probably get it at the library, because I'm cheap.

• That would be a shame. David Harsanyi is (probably) correct, though: The Left's Attack on Courts Is Meant To Destroy the Constitution.

  The story plays out the same way virtually every time.

  Democrats, egged on by the increasingly powerful progressive base, push some obviously unconstitutional scheme that they contend is needed to preserve "democracy."

  The courts inevitably knock down the ploy.

  Frustrated, Democrats ratchet up the anger, promising to "reform" the judiciary that stands in their way.

  Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) recently argued on the House floor that the next Democratic White House "does not need a court reform commission like some college seminar. We need action. We need term limits for Justices. We need to expand this morally bankrupt Court from 9 to 13."

  Do we? Great, let's do it today.

  David makes the interesting point that today, the GOP controls the House, Senate, and White House, so…

  But Khanna sees this as a game he can (eventually) win.

• This is why we can't have nice things. That kill bad guys. Finally, a TechDirt article that doesn't make me roll my eyes. It's from Glyn Moody, who explains Why The US Can’t Adopt Ukraine’s Innovative Approach To Unmanned Warfare Systems.

  It is widely accepted that drones have changed the conduct of modern war dramatically. The war in Ukraine, in particular, is driving the rapid evolution of drone technology. Evidence of how far things have come was provided recently by the following claim from Ukraine, reported here on The Next Web (TNW):

  In April, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that his forces had, for the first time in the history of warfare, seized an enemy position using only unmanned systems. No infantry. No human soldiers entering the contested ground. Drones and ground robots identified the target, suppressed defensive fire, and captured the position without a single Ukrainian casualty. The claim has not been independently verified in detail, and Ukraine’s military has declined to provide specifics.

  Well, it goes on from there. But why can't Uncle Stupid do that?

  legal, contractual, and technical restrictions often prevent units from modifying or repairing their own equipment. In the United States, for example, defense contractors frequently retain control over maintenance data, software, and diagnostics, limiting what military personnel can do independently. The debate around the “right to repair” reflects this tension. While intended to protect intellectual property and safety standards, such restrictions can slow adaptation cycles and reduce operational flexibility—precisely the opposite of what high-intensity, technology-driven warfare now demands.

  Ah. Well, I hope Taiwan is paying attention.

Recently on the book blog:

Gearing up for Amaerica's 250th birthday, I guess, I've been reading a decent number of books about the Founders, the Constitution, the Revolution, etc. I'm also kind of a fan of Jonathan Turley, whose conservative/libertarian take on current events at his website closely matches my own. And I read and enjoyed his previous book, The Indispensible Right last year. So…

This one is a veritable pinball machine of topics. I find it difficult to summarize, but a major theme is "democratic despotism", the tendency of factions who knit together enough people-power to rule over, oppress, and even kill their opponents. Turley takes a close look at Thomas Paine, whose Common Sense pamphlet was one of the major drivers of the American Revolution. Great! But Paine's overall political philosophy rightfully worried founders like Madison, who (correctly) speculated about how it would quickly lead to violent mobocracy. It's pretty clear that America dodged a bullet despotism-wise, although it was a close shave. (One of Turley's anecdotes involves Declaration-signer/Constitution-writer James Wilson, whose patriotic bona fides were beyond question, but nevertheless nearly became a victim of a Philadelphia drunken mob in 1779.)

And Paine eventually absconded to France, where (despite not knowing French) he became a moving force behind their revolution. And, well, we all know what happened. In the words of Jacques Mallet du Pan: "Like Saturn, the Revolution devours its children." (That quote is the book's epigraph.) Turley does a fine job of describing why the result was known as the Terror. (And might make the reader look askance at Jacobin magazine, influential on America's left wing.) Paine escaped with his life, but it was a (another) close shave. Returning to America, he never regained the respectability or influence he had in 1776, and died largely unmourned.

But there's a lot of other stuff going on in the book, too: a look back at the origins of democracy in ancient Greece (it didn't work well). And a look at the current state of affairs in America, where the enthusiasm for "democracy" seems to to invariably nudge people toward oppression of opponents and violence.

Turley views our AI/robotic future with some trepidation, worrying that we're headed quickly toward an era of mass unemployment. Could be! But America has had massive economic sector-shifts in the past, accompanied by similar predictions of doom, but that's been handled pretty well, albeit not painlessly. But (of course) this time could be different; see what you think.

This book made the WSJ's best mysteries of 2025 list. Not my cup of cocoa, unfortunately. I speculate (mean-spiritedly) that its inclusion was a sort of diversity initiative: "We gotta include something from the "cozy" subgenre!" So my mediocre Goodreads rating is just my personal reaction: you might find it swell!

It is set in post-WWII Britain. The protagonist, Nora Breen, is an ex-nun who is trying to determine the fate of another nun gone astray from her convent, Frieda. Frieda's letters to Nora back at the nunnery suddenly stopped without notice. So Nora decides to check into Frieda's last known location, Gulls Nest, a semi-seedy lodge full of offbeat characters, either suspects or potential victims. Nora begins her surreptitious investigation, takes up a cigarette habit, builds an uneasy relationship with the local police detective, befriends a local seagull, … and pretty soon the body count starts to increase.

Maybe I should rethink my habit of simply picking up those WSJ best-of books at the local library? Naw, I might miss something good that's outside my comfort zone.