Procrustean Ideology

On this day:
141 BC
Liu Che, posthumously known as Emperor Wu of Han, assumes the throne over the Han Dynasty of China.
1566
David Rizzio, private secretary to Mary, Queen of Scots, is murdered in the Palace of Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh, Scotland.
1765
After a campaign by the writer Voltaire, judges in Paris posthumously exonerate Jean Calas of murdering his son. Calas had been tortured and executed in 1762 on the charge, though his son may have actually committed suicide.
1796
Napoléon Bonaparte marries his first wife, Joséphine de Beauharnais.
1862
American Civil War: The USS Monitor and the CSS fight to a draw in the Battle of Hampton Roads, the first battle between two ironclad warships.
1916
Pancho Villa leads nearly 500 Mexican raiders in an attack against Columbus, New Mexico.
1945
The Bombing of Tokyo by the United States Army Air Forces began, one of the most destructive bombing raids in history.
1961
Sputnik 9 successfully launches, carrying a human dummy nicknamed Ivan Ivanovich, and demonstrating that the Soviet Union was ready to begin human spaceflight.
1977
The Hanafi Muslim Siege: In a thirty-nine-hour standoff, armed Hanafi Muslims seize three Washington, D.C., buildings, killing two and taking 149 hostage.
2011
Space Shuttle Discovery makes its final landing after 39 flights.

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We suffer from the growth that comes from suffering.--thomas and wang

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AI update. Entrepreneurs are recreating dead and absent relatives for wedding videos and other occasions. Very popular in India

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The US is the only major destination in the world to see a decline in international travellers in 2025. So far, 2026 is getting worse.

Foreign airlines are cutting the number of US-bound flights. Disney warns of “international visitation headwinds.”

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Pancho Villa was an occasional revolutionary and politician who played himself in a Hollywood movie. He was assassinated by, presumably, his political opponents and is alleged to have said to his bodyguard as he died, "Don't let it end like this. Tell them I said something."

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Procrustean Ideology

A new entrant on the Red Carpet of Big, Poorly-thought-out Ideas: The Center for American Progress, a prominent left-leaning think tank that often cultivates policy ideas the Democratic Party later adopts, proposed a two-year freeze on the prices of 24 food items, such as strawberries and ground beef.

Grocers would voluntarily agree to cap food prices in exchange for lower credit card transaction fees, according to the proposal, which was written by a group led by Jared Bernstein. Mr. Bernstein might have a peripheral thought process, but astonishingly, he is not a peripheral guy.  He chaired the White House Council of Economic Advisers during Joe Biden’s presidency.

This notion would, in effect, force credit card companies to absorb the cost of subsidizing food purchases. A draft of the proposal stated that the Federal Reserve could require credit card companies to do so through its regulatory oversight, though that provision was apparently removed after questions from The Washington Post.

It is not clear how else the government might persuade credit card companies to foot the bill, nor how many grocers would agree. Nor is it clear how the unwavering economic law that price controls create shortages would be expressed, as a shortage of food or of credit.

One wonders how someone who thinks like this could become in any way influential. But calling yourself a "think tank" shields you from a lot of sensible scrutiny.