An American Story

We now know that neither market nor political institutions match up to the performance of their conceptually idealized models, a simple truth of course, but one that social scientists and philosophers have so often failed to recognize.--Buchanan

Chris is much better. 
We went to Park Pub for burgers and met The Librarian.
Liz is sleeping better.
Interesting draft.

The bodies of 15 people, including six children, were discovered at the site of a fierce overnight gun battle on the east coast of Sri Lanka, a military spokesman said on Saturday, six days after suicide bombers killed more than 250 people.

So the party of innovation which so resents the history of America and its domination by old white men has put forward its front-runner, Joe Biden. In second place, Bernie Sanders.

Justice Democrats, a PAC that supported candidates like Ocasio-Cortez in 2018, declared on Thursday morning it would support whoever becomes the Democratic nominee — but claimed candidates such as Biden had divided America and led to the election of Donald Trump. “The old guard of the Democratic Party failed to stop Trump, and they can’t be counted on to lead the fight against his divide-and-conquer politics today. The party needs new leadership with a bold vision capable of energizing voters in the Democratic base who stayed home in 2016,” the statement read.

A curious line by Rosenstein: "The previous (Obama) administration chose not to publicize the full story about Russian computer hackers and social media trolls, and how they relate to a broader strategy to undermine America," Rosenstein said in a speech to the Armenian Bar Association. Yes,  the Armenian Bar Association.

"Hundreds of Muslim refugees in western Sri Lanka have taken refuge in mosques and a police station after facing intimidation following the deadly Easter bombings, activists said Thursday." Huh? They are afraid?

Economist and scholar Julian Simon argued, in the face of the dire predictions of population growth in the 1970s, that people would innovate "their way out of resource shortages." He actually made a bet with Erlich over it. Marian Tupy from the Cato Institute and Gale Pooley from Brigham Young University-Hawaii have launched The Simon Abundance Index, which offers a new and better way to measure resource availability "using the latest price data for 50 foundational commodities."  They had a nice little, optimistic summary:
 "The world is a closed system in the way that a piano is a closed system. The instrument has only 88 notes, but those notes can be played in a nearly infinite variety of ways. The same applies to our planet. The Earth's atoms may be fixed, but the possible combinations of those atoms are infinite. What matters, then, is not the physical limits of our planet, but human freedom to experiment and reimagine the use of resources that we have."

Happy birthday, us. On this day in 4977 B.C., the universe was created, according to German mathematician and astronomer Johannes Kepler, considered a founder of modern science. Kepler is best known for his theories explaining the motion of planets. And in 1865, the worst maritime disaster in American history occurred when the steamboat Sultana, carrying 2,100 passengers, exploded and sank in the Mississippi River, killing all but 400 of those aboard. And Magellan was killed in 1521.

                                    An American Story

An elderly black lady in a patched coat stands in front of the cashier, offering a ten dollar bill. "A pack of Marlboros," she says. The clerk demands an ID; she searches her purse and can't find it. The clerk will not give her the cigarettes without documented proof of age.  A millennial in line takes her ten, gives his own ID and buys the Marlboros. He returns the cigarettes and change, she gives him one dollar as a tip, thanks him and leaves.

Freedom to buy cancer causing chemicals, a government ID requirement to make a purchase, a clerk who officiously demands proof of age from an obviously elderly woman, a young man enabling a woman to harm herself and then accepting a tip from someone who could not afford it, a law blatantly sidestepped.

The mind reels.