Just how much should we spend to defend ourselves from terrorist attacks? There is a general agreement about risk, then, in the established regulatory practices of several developed countries: risks are deemed unacceptable if the annual fatality risk is higher … Continue reading →

Bruce Bartlett (advisor on tax issues to Reagan) on liberals. Back when I used to listen to Rush Limbaugh there was one thing in particular he used to say that I agreed with. Over and over he said that liberals … Continue reading →

I experience stabbing pains of guilt when I read about the Iraq Inquiry in Britain. That horrible story no longer moves me to anger; I just shake my head and keep walking. I am sincerely grateful, therefore, to Daniel Larison … Continue reading →

Next time someone tells you that the republicans are the party of fiscal responsibility and/or growth, show them this (from the economist) and have them annotate the decades with a red or blue marker.

You probably know that the US spends more of its GDP on health care than any other OECD nation (for better outcomes). Yet every major country spends very significantly less of its national output on health than we do. As … Continue reading →

Daniel Larison on anti-jihadism. For most of the last decade, our preference in and out of government has been to deny that U.S. and allied policies had anything to do with jihadist attacks and their ability to recruit and win … Continue reading →

Daniel Larison is rapidly becoming my favourite conservative and today he takes on a former favourite, Davids Brooks. Brooks’ column today is about The White Messiah This is the oft-repeated story about a manly young adventurer who goes into the … Continue reading →

Nicholas Kristoff felt obliged to apologize for comparing The Best Health Care System in the World to Slovenia’s. In several columns, I’ve noted indignantly that we have worse health statistics than Slovenia. For example, I noted that an American child … Continue reading →

Why I enjoy reading Conor Friedersdorf: That’s why I am sympathetic to the “conservative dissidents,” despite my many policy differences with them. Unlike the base, I don’t think politicians who are squishy on substance did in Republicans. I think what … Continue reading →

What should a government do if science shows that its policies are misguided? Why, fire the scientists of course! Professor Nutt was the British government’s chief advisor on the harm caused by illegal drugs and he wrote a paper showing … Continue reading →