Here are some highlights from my weekly readings.
Ilya Somin: „Canadian immigration authorities block granting citizenship to Russian immigrant after he was found guilty of the 'crime' of speaking out against Russia's war in Ukraine“ Reason, Volokh's ConspiracyJanuary 5, 2024.
Excerpt from article Somin quote:
Kartasheva, 30, learned through her family that she had been indicted by Russian authorities in late 2022 for a wartime crime of disseminating „deliberately false information“ about the Russian military. Her charges related to two blog posts she wrote while living in Canada.
Kartasheva notified Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada about the charges last May and uploaded translated court documents. A few days later, the ministry gave her an invitation to her citizenship ceremony.
On June 7, 2023, she logged into the ceremony with her husband. A preliminary interview before being allowed into the ceremony room asked whether anyone had ever been criminally charged as part of a standard list of questions.
When she explained what had happened, officials dragged her out of the ceremony, but her husband went ahead with the process and was granted citizenship…
The ministry wrote to her last month saying her conviction in Russia was consistent with Canada's Criminal Code offenses related to false information.
For anyone thinking of going down Canada's path of criminalizing „false information,“ be warned.
Mitch Danielsi surrender.A major economic and social crisis seems inevitable,” washington postJanuary 2, 2024.
Most important excerpt:
Then there is the small matter of our unconscionable and irrepayable national debt, which remains committed.Led by Erskine Bowles last serious effort before suppressing it his committee report It was torpedoed by President Barack Obama in 2010.bowls called what is to come„The most predictable economic crisis in history“–and the word is aptly used–„in history.“ That used to be trillions of dollars in debt.
I attended a Better Angels event in Monterey yesterday, and when it was my turn to talk about the election, I was perfectly happy that the most likely candidates, Trump and Biden, would push us further into the budget cliff. said. Touch „Social Security“ or „Medicare.“
By the way, I learned about this article when I turned on CNN early on a Saturday morning, which I don't usually do, and saw Smerconish interviewing Daniels and others. It was refreshing. Smerconish actually asked boring questions and let the guests talk. Revolutionary!
John MearsheimerGenocide in Gaza,” john's substackJanuary 4, 2024.
excerpt:
I am writing this letter to flag a truly important document that should be widely distributed and carefully read by anyone interested in the ongoing war in Gaza.
Specifically, I am referring to an 84-page „application“ filed by South Africa with the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on December 29, 2023, which states that Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. He is accused of going. The group claims that Israel's actions since the war began on October 7, 2023 „are aimed at destroying significant parts of the Palestinian state, race and ethnicity in the Gaza Strip.“ are doing. (1) The charges clearly meet the definition of genocide in the Geneva Conventions, to which Israel is a signatory.
This application does an excellent job of explaining what Israel is doing in Gaza. It is comprehensive, well-written, well-argued, and thoroughly documented. The application has three main components.
Rose D. Friedman, “Poverty: Definition and PerspectiveAmerican Enterprise Institute, 1965.
excerpt:
This nutritional adequacy standard is the implicit basis for the $3,000 per household monetary income figure that has received so much attention since its publication in the 1964 report of the President's Council of Economic Advisers. . The council presents this $3,000 figure as the dividing line between poor and non-poor, and uses it to count and account for the poor. It concludes that 20 percent of households in this country are poor.
The Council implicitly uses the nutrient adequacy standard, but it is using it incorrectly. Using exactly the same data and the same concept of nutritional adequacy, applying this criterion correctly would yield a relevant income figure of approximately $2,200 for a non-agricultural family of four, rather than a figure of $3,000. Additionally, the council uses the same $3,000 income as the dividing line for all families, regardless of size. The overall result is that the council vastly exaggerates the extent of poverty based on its own criteria and provides a misleading description of who is poor.
I was inspired to read Rose's research after seeing Jennifer Burns refer to it very critically in her book. Milton Friedman: the last conservative. (I have written a long review of this book.) I ultimately thought Burns' harsh treatment of Rose was unfair.
The photo above is of Rose Friedman.