My latest Looniepolitics column says the surprising defeat of Montreal mayor Denis Coderre should have us paying more attention to Canada's cities.
"you cannot build prescriptions on mere knowledge of positive facts, however systematized and comprehensive. You need a goal as well... it is all very well to know how the world works... But unless you have some test whereby you can distinguish good from bad, desirable consequences from undesirable, you are without an essential constituent of a theory of policy. You are like the captain of a ship equipped with charts and compasses and all the means of propulsion and steering, but without an assigned destination. A theory of economic policy, in the sense of a body of precepts for action, must take its ultimate criterion from outside economics."
Lionel Robbins The Theory of Economic Policy in English Classical Political Economy pp. 176-77.
In my latest article for Looniepolitics I critique a Justin Trudeau press release seeking to appropriate an anniversary in someone else's religion.
In my latest National Post column I ask why Arizona Republican senator Jeff Flake is ducking out of the fight with Donald Trump he insists is necessary.
In my latest National Post column I ask why, when budget projections are so reliably wrong, including this year's way-off deficit predictions and apparently next year's too, we nod solemnly at each year's pseudo-sophisticated decimal points and econometric analyses.
"It’s kind of like an elephant in a bathtub: If you don’t see it at first glance, chances are you never will."
Sen. Fred Thompson quoted by Jay Nordlinger in National Review May 17, 1999 [as it happens I don't agree with the point Thompson was making but it's a great metaphor]
In my latest National Post column I urge politicians to imagine a list of really bad headlines about themselves and then be careful never to do anything that would cause one of those headlines to appear if it got found out.
In my latest National Post column I argue that there's no progress on the East Coast aboriginal fishery, and the rule of law is breaking down, because too many politicians and judges genuinely believe they can give stuff away to some people while keeping it for others.