Gongol.com Archives: December 2018

Brian Gongol


December 12, 2018

Threats and Hazards Standing by the wrong team

Reuters reports that the President is "standing by Saudi Arabia's crown prince", even though the evidence is overwhelming that he ordered the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, the journalist killed in Turkey. Values-free transactionalism is no way to run a foreign policy: We're not selling a used car on Craigslist. If our values don't matter for something, then we're just selling our alliance to the highest bidder.

Threats and Hazards A prediction we should hope is wrong

Conor Sen opines: "This is the last presidential election where the early media attention is going to be focused on statewide officeholders." For the good of Federalism, we had better hope this is not the case. The strength of the United States is directly tied to the strength of the individual states. That's why Federalism works, why the Senate should stay exactly the way it is, and why the Electoral College isn't the abomination that the "national popular vote" movement wants to pretend it to be. If everything becomes a national issue, then there won't be enough room for the states to experiment and differentiate. That's hazardous to the long-term nature of self-government. We need elected officials to prove themselves on the state level before going for national leadership.

Iowa Iowa State Patrol targets tailgaters on I-35

High-speed tailgating is a really stupid risk to take

News What will a deep dive into Trump Organization finances reveal?

What you own is often much less important than who you owe.

Humor and Good News Santa-style arms races

The "Elf on a Shelf" thing is really just a bit out of hand in some quarters


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