The Lighthouse®
Paper strip testing kits could make it safer for more employees to return to the workplace, for diners to eat in restaurants, and for college students to go back to campus. Although they lack the sensitivity of the standard PCR swab tests currently in use, paper strip tests would promote the key goal of public health: lowering the risk of transmission.
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By Williamson M. Evers (8/18/20)
To make rapid progress on the issues of civil rights, police reform, race relations, and the welfare state, Americans must acquire—and act on—a deeper shared understanding of the wisdom and findings of scholars in the fields of history, economics, law, and political philosophy. A new and comprehensive annotated reading list on these topics draws on America’s heritage of individual rights, equality under the law, free markets, and freedom of opportunity.
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By Lawrence J. McQuillan and Douglas E. Koehler (The Orange County Register, 8/3/20)
California voters this November will decide whether or not to assess commercial and industrial property differently than residential property for the purpose of increasing property tax revenues. The so-called split-roll measure—Proposition 15—would benefit police interests, cause property owners and businesses to pass on higher costs to consumers, and unfairly funnel billions of dollars into underfunded, poorly structured public-employee pensions.
READ MORE »
By K. Lloyd Billingsley (American Thinker, 8/15/20)
Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) has been quicker to defend China’s status as a U.S. trade partner than to criticize Beijing for human rights abuses. Her diplomatic evasions continue as Chinese mask-maker BYD pursues a defamation lawsuit against VICE Media Group for a story claiming the company has “ties to the Chinese military and Communist Party, and possible links to forced labor.”
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By Richard K. Vedder (Forbes, 8/3/20)
College bureaucrats make more decisions than the faculty, but most school administrators are not academics, and many don’t cherish academic values such as a quest for knowledge, discovery of new truths, and a passion for civil discussion and debate. Nor are the highest paid college administrators suffering layoffs in anywhere near the same rate or degree as faculty, secretarial, janitorial, and related personnel.
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The Lighthouse® is the weekly email newsletter of the Independent Institute.
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Volume 22, Issue 33: August 26, 2020
By John C. Goodman (Forbes, 8/10/20)
Paper strip testing kits could make it safer for more employees to return to the workplace, for diners to eat in restaurants, and for college students to go back to campus. Although they lack the sensitivity of the standard PCR swab tests currently in use, paper strip tests would promote the key goal of public health: lowering the risk of transmission.
READ MORE »
By Williamson M. Evers (8/18/20)
To make rapid progress on the issues of civil rights, police reform, race relations, and the welfare state, Americans must acquire—and act on—a deeper shared understanding of the wisdom and findings of scholars in the fields of history, economics, law, and political philosophy. A new and comprehensive annotated reading list on these topics draws on America’s heritage of individual rights, equality under the law, free markets, and freedom of opportunity.
READ MORE »- Readings on Anti-Semitism
- Readings on Police Reform
- Readings on Poverty and the Welfare State
- Readings on Race and Civil Rights
By Lawrence J. McQuillan and Douglas E. Koehler (The Orange County Register, 8/3/20)
California voters this November will decide whether or not to assess commercial and industrial property differently than residential property for the purpose of increasing property tax revenues. The so-called split-roll measure—Proposition 15—would benefit police interests, cause property owners and businesses to pass on higher costs to consumers, and unfairly funnel billions of dollars into underfunded, poorly structured public-employee pensions.
READ MORE »
California Dreaming
Lessons on How to Resolve America’s Public Pension Crisis
Lessons on How to Resolve America’s Public Pension Crisis
By Lawrence J. McQuillan
By K. Lloyd Billingsley (American Thinker, 8/15/20)
Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) has been quicker to defend China’s status as a U.S. trade partner than to criticize Beijing for human rights abuses. Her diplomatic evasions continue as Chinese mask-maker BYD pursues a defamation lawsuit against VICE Media Group for a story claiming the company has “ties to the Chinese military and Communist Party, and possible links to forced labor.”
READ MORE »
By Richard K. Vedder (Forbes, 8/3/20)
College bureaucrats make more decisions than the faculty, but most school administrators are not academics, and many don’t cherish academic values such as a quest for knowledge, discovery of new truths, and a passion for civil discussion and debate. Nor are the highest paid college administrators suffering layoffs in anywhere near the same rate or degree as faculty, secretarial, janitorial, and related personnel.
READ MORE »
The Beacon: New Blog Posts
- California Bullet Train Bridge a “Horrible Sequence of Mistakes”, by Craig Eyermann
- California’s Delta Water Tunnel Is a $15.9 Billion Money Pit, by K. Lloyd Billingsley
- Antiwar Message of The Dawn Patrol Still Resonates 82 Years Later, by Samuel R. Staley
- California “Energy Czar” Failed to Prevent New Round of Power Blackouts, by K. Lloyd Billingsley
- Cancel Culture as Collectivist Fragility, by Alvaro Vargas Llosa
- Play Ball!, by Randall G. Holcombe
Catalyst: New Articles
- Immigration, Migration, and the Naiveté of Nativism, by Lawrence J. McQuillan
- Will Small Businesses Stay Closed Post-Pandemic?, by Luka Ladan
- Not All Environmental Activism Is the Same, by Scott Beyer
- COVID-19 Is Disrupting the Future of Higher Education, by Ben Wilterdink
