PhD Economics, University of South Carolina, 1989. Research: economics of terrorism, ecommerce, real estate, and education. Libertarian nutcase. Christ's Church

Now that iPads have zero buttons, my stroke victim wife can only intermittently navigate hers. And the Kindle app is even worse. So I bought her a Kindle--but gone are the page forward, page back, etc buttons. All screen, but with many things hidden under three tiny dots or under a tiny gear or some such--was no better.
Replacing tactile physical buttons with laggy touchscreens just so you have to navigate three sub-menus while driving 75 mph on a dark highway to adjust the defroster is the single worst safety downgrade in modern automotive history.
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JohnVonEcon, Bastiat's First Apostle retweeted
New from @NewYorkFed: Trump's 2025-26 tariffs contributed 2.9 percentage points to US goods price inflation, via higher prices for imports AND domestic goods. Without the tariffs, "goods prices would have fallen slightly." 😯
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JohnVonEcon, Bastiat's First Apostle retweeted
Ezra Taft Benson: "Man is at his best when complimented by the influence of a good woman." azquotes.com/quote/1444952
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JohnVonEcon, Bastiat's First Apostle retweeted
The share of children who died before they were 5 years old in 1950 and 75 years later. Africa: 33% ↘ 6% Asia: 25% ↘ 2.5% Oceania: 9.3% ↘ 2% Latin America: 21% ↘ 1.5% Northern America: 3.8% ↘ 0.6% Europe: 10.5% ↘ 0.4% Globally: 23% ↘ 3.5%
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Tucker before: "The point of mass immigration is to destroy your culture. It’s an act of war against you. Respond accordingly." Tucker now: Is Great Britain any better off for winning WWII? Who cares if Great Britain would be speaking German?
Tucker saying he wishes Hitler had won World War II was absolutely on my 2026 bingo card
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I, who have never built or improved anything in my worthless life, should control the future of technology.
It is not complicated. Artificial intelligence must be used to benefit all of humanity, not make a handful of multi-billionaires even richer.
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Mamdani: It is the government's job to deliver whatever you need to live a dignified life. Frederic Bastiat: The government is that great fiction by which everyone seeks to live at the expense of everyone else.
THEO VON: “Will you define socialism for us?” MAMDANI: “Socialism, to me, means that you will have WHATEVER YOU NEED to live a dignified life, and that it is the GOVERNMENT’S JOB to deliver on that.” I’ve heard a line like that before. It came from a famous book, and it was describing the highest stage of communism.
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For a fit, non-elite runner, 90 miles is a good distance if you run "all night and day." But, looking at this guy, I'd estimate he ran about 34 feet.
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Someone asked if I were not a member of my church, which would I join. I'd need to a church that shows how a good god creates a world with such evil, in a way that doesn't take philosophical double talk to attempt to convince me. I'd need a church that did not require belief in an intellectual construct of God that was literally fought over for centuries, but, instead, emphasized following Christ by believing his words and emulating his behavior. I'd need a church that showed me why life in this imperfect world is necessary. But there is not another such church.
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They injected her. She snored. She didn't die. Tennessee law provides for a second injection if the first does not work. More snoring. Tennessee law does not say what to do if both injections fail. I especially like how she was 18 in this video, but they dressed her up all frilly with the bow and little-girl hairstyle so she would look 12. I'm sure she was wearing different clothing when she beat and slashed her victim to death for 30 minutes with a box cutter.
This is Christa Pike at 18 years old when she was sentenced to death. She begged for a hug from her mother before she died. She is now 50 and will be executed tonight for the heinous murder she committed with a boyfriend 32 years ago. Christa’s mother drank heavily and used drugs while she was pregnant with Christa resulting in brain damage which caused Christa’s bipolar disorder. Christa was born premature while her mother was drunk and spent weeks in an incubator. Her mother went back to work as a nurse. When Christa was 14 months old, she suffered a seizure. Her mother refused to leave the bar to take her to the hospital. After Christa was born, her mother left Christa and her brother without food, crawling in dog feces, while she drank with her boyfriends. She sent her children away to their grandmother when one of her many husbands didn’t want them around. Her grandmother allowed her boyfriend to orally sexually assault Christa before the child could talk until she began school. He locked her in a dark chicken coop with spiders crawling on her. When Christa’s school became concerned, her mother failed to follow up or prevent further abuse. Christa’s father stole her dog to give to one of his girlfriends when Christa was 6. Her mother allowed her boyfriends to beat Christa and twist her nipples. One beat Christa with a belt and sexually assaulted her. He forced her to watch pornography and look at graphic images. When Christa brought some of the images to school, they called her mother. She did nothing. When the boyfriend was arrested, her mother tried to deny it. When Christa was raped at 11 by a man in the neighborhood, her mother denied it until she developed an infection and the man was arrested. When Christa tried to commit suicide after that, a psychiatrist told her mother Christa was severely depressed and needed help. Her mother denied Christa further help and her bipolar disorder was not treated. Her mother told Christa to have her 20-something year old carnival boyfriend live with them when Christa was 14. She smoked pot with Christa and her boyfriend to bond. When Christa became pregnant by one of her mother’s lovers at 16, her mother convinced her to get an abortion telling her a healthy baby could not be born from rape. When Christa was raped at 17, one year to the day before she committed murder with her boyfriend, Christa’s mother didn’t care. But Christa was happy to see her mother in court during her trial and all she wanted was a hug. When Christa tried to introduce mitigating factors post-conviction, her mother said her daughter told lies and was a problem child since she was 8. Even then, her mother didn’t care about her child who only wanted a hug. Yes, Christa committed an extremely heinous murder at 18 and she will be put to death. But I just wanted to share a little bit of her story with you — especially for all of you rejoicing at her execution. #christapike
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JohnVonEcon, Bastiat's First Apostle retweeted
Power selects for a specific personality type, and it is not yours. F.A. Hayek spelled this out in 1944. In a centrally planned system, the people who rise are not the most competent or the most honest. They are the most willing to exercise force against strangers, the most comfortable with contradiction, and the most skilled at coalition-building through favors rather than merit. Government filters for the bad ones from the start. The mechanism is straightforward. Political power means controlling resources you did not earn. Capturing that control requires outcompeting rivals who have no ethical constraints. A principled candidate refuses to promise contradictory things to different voter blocs. An unprincipled one does it without blinking. The unprincipled one wins. Repeat this selection pressure across hundreds of electoral cycles and you get the U.S. Congress in 2026: a body where the average member has held office for over a decade, raised millions from interested parties, and delivered almost nothing measurable to the people who voted for them. Bureaucracy compounds the problem. Once entrenched, state agencies attract people who want authority without accountability. You cannot fire most of them. The FDA, the TSA, the Federal Reserve all function this way, staffed by individuals whose career advancement depends on expanding the agency's reach, never on serving you efficiently.
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The National Multiple Sclerosis Society, among others, suggests limiting emotional support animals [carried on planes] to dogs, cats and rabbits, while other organizations, including the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, would like to add birds to that list (but not chickens, ducks or turkeys). Some advocacy groups say passengers shouldn’t be required to carry a letter from a mental health professional confirming the need for an animal because it would be stigmatizing. So let’s see if we have this straight: Carrying a letter is stigmatizing. Carrying a duck isn’t stigmatizing. --James Taranto, 2016. @jamestaranto
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My clove flavored toothpaste isn't going to be here for 3 weeks! I might have to brush my teeth like you peasants with minty toothpaste.
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JohnVonEcon, Bastiat's First Apostle retweeted
🚨BREAKING: A British man stated on social media that he does not want to see Palestinian flags displayed all across the UK. Police officers came to his house at 4am and arrested him. Am I crazy, or has the UK officially fallen?
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JohnVonEcon, Bastiat's First Apostle retweeted
Scotland? That was probably her talent competition.
Who is going to fix her?
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How dare you allow people to speak freely on your platform! They might be wrong!
First clip for Jeremy Strong as Mark Zuckerberg in ‘THE SOCIAL RECKONING’. In theaters on October 9.
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JohnVonEcon, Bastiat's First Apostle retweeted
In 1944, the Soviet regime launched Operation Lentil, forcibly deporting nearly 500,000 Chechens and Ingush from their Caucasian homeland to Central Asia in less than a week. Over 100,000 died from harsh conditions, starvation, and illness during transit and exile.
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JohnVonEcon, Bastiat's First Apostle retweeted
When the flag in the middle is secretly plotting with the flag on the right to throw the flag on the left off the balcony...
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