Some brilliant writing from Victor Davis Hanson (scroll down to "Ode to an Orchard").

Dan Edelen on Ragnarok, Recession, and Real ID:

The early Church prepared for problems. In fact, they listened to their prophets and sprang into action. But where are our prophets? And in lieu of prophets, why can’t we seem to heed our own common sense? Yet I can’t think of one major Church leader in this country talking about economic issues and how the Church must face them.

Just in from MercatorNet: two Australian intellectuals are proposing a "carbon tax" for newborns! Where will the madness end?

At the heart of this disdain for new human life is a lack of faith in our capacity to solve our problems.

Or an unwillingness to acknowledge the one who can.

Ron Paul clarifies the difference between an isolationist and non-interventionist foreign policy:

It is not we non-interventionists who are isolationsists. The real isolationists are those who impose sanctions and embargoes on countries and peoples across the globe because they disagree with the internal and foreign policies of their leaders. The real isolationists are those who choose to use force overseas to promote democracy, rather than seek change through diplomacy, engagement, and by setting a positive example.

I do not believe that ideas have an expiration date, or that their value can be gauged by their novelty. The test for new and old is that of wisdom and experience, or as the editors wrote "historical reality," which argues passionately now against the course of anti-Constitutional interventionism.

Interviewing Thomas Woods at LVMI. (Wikipedia bio)

Here's an intriguing - if somewhat abrasive - piece from LVMI about David Gelernter's book, Americanism: The Fourth Great Western Religion.

Gelernter would profit from reflecting about a remark often attributed to Voltaire: if you want to found a new religion, you should arrange to be crucified and rise from the dead on the third day.

A bleak picture indeed: Trevin Wax looks at Social Security and abortion.

A new book is asking a not-so-new question: is democracy nothing more than a not-too-smart formalization of mob rule? Here's more analysis from WORLD and The New Yorker.

Caplan is the sort of economist (are there other sorts? there must be) who engages with the views of non-economists in the way a bulldozer would engage with a picket fence if a bulldozer could express glee.

The argument of his book is that economists and political scientists have misunderstood the problem. They think that most voters are ignorant about political issues; Caplan thinks that most voters are wrong about the issues, which is a different matter...

Observing the success of flat tax in Estonia. (HT: WORLD Views)

LVMI takes on Social Security.

I'd agree that Lewis and Tolkien wove free-market themes into their books. But this strikes me as a gigantic trivialization.

Victor Davis Hanson is unimpressed with the great European experiment.

Free markets mean open borders. Absolutely.

(HT: Instapundit)

Only in America could you put together a roundup on fluorescent bulbs:

• Instapundit wants to change a billion.
• LVMI thinks they're ugly.
• Some technical details from a Tennessee blog.

Pretty boring, I agree.

Disastrous disaster relief:

Federal disaster relief denies people the opportunity to live cheaply in exchange for living dangerously. That opportunity is particularly valuable to the poor.

To put this another way, federal disaster relief essentially forces people — most of them poor people --- to buy insurance they'd rather not have. The premiums are hidden in their housing prices, but they are none the less real...

Poor people, more than most, value cheap housing. A policy of disaster relief makes cheap housing hard to find. Therefore a policy of disaster relief is likely to impose a particular burden on the poor. If you want to help poor people, eliminating federal disaster relief is a good place to start.

(Instapundit)

Exposing North Korea's hushed and ignored policies of mass starvation. (PJM)

In 1999, while children were starving, Mr. Kim's government treated itself to 40 MiG-21 warplanes purchased from Kazakhstan.

Wikipedia has some skeletal information. Reading between the lines, it looks like the floods simultaneously accentuated and provided cover for gross Government mismanagement.

LVMI warns against subsidized health-care:

I am convinced that deregulation of healthcare would only improve the system. Break the healthcare guilds that exist all the way from medical education through licensing, reduce government interventions, and watch the healthcare system improve at Intel speed. Please do not advocate for a government-run healthcare system, or even its predecessor, universal coverage. Think Walter Reed or the Soviets before going that route.

Ron Paul on foreign policy. Yes, I want the book.

It is time for Americans to rethink the interventionist foreign policy that is accepted without question in Washington. It is time to understand the obvious harm that results from our being dragged time and time again into intractable and endless Middle East conflicts, whether in Iraq, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, or Palestine. It is definitely time to ask ourselves whether further American lives and tax dollars should be lost trying to remake the Middle East in our image.

Instapundit on taxpayer-funded vacations for congressmen:

Actually, I'd rather we did this about 51 weeks out of the year. It's bound to work out cheaper in the end. . . .

Low on charisma and high on common sense, Republican candidate Ron Paul looks to be about our best shot at getting a wise man in the White house in 2008. Paul seems by far the most libertarian and Constitutionally honest of the serious candidates, and should be supported by all who object to the idea of running a Government like a kindergarten.

LVMI has a tribute to Ron that outlines his positions and political record and includes a long list of outstanding quotes from Paul himself.

In a free society, government is restrained--and therefore political power is less important. I believe the proper role for government in America is to provide national defense, a court system for civil disputes, a criminal justice system for acts of force and fraud, and little else.

Michael Thomas is also following the Ron Paul campaign closely.