We’re early in this new political era, with a long time ahead of us, and there’s a need to get a sense of one’s bearings. (The sound way to approach the new politics that has overcome America through the three-thousand-year traditional of liberty to be found in many places, the Online Library of Liberty being…
Freedom of Speech
Alt-Right, America, Authoritarianism, Federal Government, Freedom of Speech, Law, Liberty, Trump
The Work of the Next Several Years
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Charles Blow writes of the work ahead for those many citizens who now find themselves compelled to defend their rights: I fully understand that elevated outrage is hard to maintain. It’s exhausting. But the alternative is surrender to national nihilism and the welcoming of woe. The next four years could be epochal years in the history…
Freedom of Speech, Trump
Trappings of the Authoritarian
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Authoritarian policies matter more than authoritarian trappings, but Trump has a taste for both: Donald Trump won’t content himself with the standard-issue presidency — he’s going to have his customized. Daily intelligence briefings are out, along with the norms that prohibit the appearance of corruption. “Victory rallies” are in — as is the private security…
Freedom of Speech, Politics, Trump
Of Course Most #NeverTrumpers Will Capitulate
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Thousands who (admirably) devoted themselves to the #NeverTrump movement have already (sadly) begun to second-guess their opposition now that Trump’s heading to federal power. Ben Terris nicely describes the impulse – the natural reaction to yield to power – in Welcome to NeverTrump Grief, Stage 3: GOP skeptics bargain with Trump — and themselves. One…
Freedom of Speech, UW System
The Right Decision: Wisconsin Regents Support Free Speech
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
MADISON, Wis. — The University of Wisconsin has become the latest university system to officially affirm the right to free speech and academic freedom for all students amid concerns that academia is trying to protect students from being offended by classroom lectures and discussions. The system’s Board of Regents voted 16 to 2 on Friday…
Art, Freedom of Speech
The Anti-Renoir Movement
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
So one reads in the Boston Globe (hat tip to Althouse for the link) that there’s an anti-Renoir movement: The rally, which mostly bewildered passersby, was organized by Max Geller, creator of the Instagram account Renoir Sucks at Painting, who wants the MFA to take its Renoirs off the walls and replace them with something…
Freedom of Speech, Libertarians, Liberty, New Media, Politics
Message Independence
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Look at Whitewater, and one sees scores of groups with press releases, community announcements, or political viewpoints to publicize. Even much smaller communities have similar conditions: a dozen people are likely to have more than a dozen views. Each day, and especially in an election year, it helps to have the independence to offer views…
Corporate Welfare, Economy, Freedom of Speech, Local Government, New Media
Rock Netroots
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Federal Government, Freedom of Speech, Liberty, Local Government, New Media, Open Government, Politics, State Government, Writing
Steps for Blogging on a Policy or Proposal
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
For bloggers who cover politics, policy-making, etc., just as would have been true of essayists and pamphleteers in an earlier time, it helps to have a method to one’s writing. In the paragraphs below, I’ll list steps one should take when approaching a topic. The steps are in a rough order, but in any method,…
City, Freedom of Speech, Liberty, New Media
An Anecdote About an Appeal to (but not of) Authority
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Years ago, around when I first started writing, someone told me about a conversation that person heard about blogging. I’ll share it with you, and explain why it was, initially, hard for me to understand. The person telling me about the conversation was reputed to be especially clever, and that reputation actually made it harder…
City, Freedom of Speech
What the ‘End of the Beginning’ Means
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
I wrote in October, about drug policy, and quoted Churchill’s famous observation about the state of the Allied war effort after the British victory at the Second Battle of El Alamein (“Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning….”)…
Freedom of Speech
A Different Kind of (Restaurant) Review
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Earlier this month, an employee of a Florida Golden Corral named Brandon Huber posted a video in which he contends that his restaurant was improperly storing food. (The restaurant owner, Eric Holm, has disputed many of the contentions against his establishment, and derided Huber’s motivation as a mercenary one.) Huber’s video (one of several he…
Freedom of Speech, Local Government, New Media, Press
Local News
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
There’s a paywall up at Janesville’s GazetteXtra.com, with some content available for free, but much more local news now behind a paywall. I’ve no idea whether their effort will be a success, and the best one can say is that it will be tough going. Everyone at the paper surely sees that. In the end,…
Freedom of Speech, Tyranny
‘A Long Ride Toward a New China’
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Looking for inspiration? Chinese blogger Zhang Shihe, writing under the pseudonym ‘Tiger Temple,’ defies an oppressive state to report on the hardships and corruption of rural life in China. It’s an understatement to say that he goes to extraordinary lengths – quite literally – to tell others’ stories and reveal injustices done to them. There…