Insight

“The truth which makes men free is for the most part the truth which men prefer not to hear.” —Herbert Agar (1897-1980)

For the Record

“Deaths from cold, even if many people don’t realize it, are far more numerous than deaths from heat. … There is a reason why far more people prefer to live in warmer places than colder ones. Doubtless climate change will affect these patterns to some extent. As the planet warms, heat deaths are likely to increase. But that cloud has a significant silver lining: Deaths from cold — a much greater threat to human life — will decrease. There is a temptation in many quarters these days to treat climate change as a morality tale of good against evil. But the evidence doesn’t fit such a simplistic pattern. If global warming continues as expected, weather during the summer months will become hotter and more humid, while winter weather will gradually grow less frigid and dry. On balance, and even considering other effects of climate change, that suggests fatalities from temperature extremes will fall.” —Jeff Jacoby

“Domestic out-migration — the number of U.S. residents leaving the state minus those entering — in 2020-22 was 3.3% of the 2020 population in New York state and 2.2% in Illinois and California. These are staggering numbers, far higher than any other state. … What else is striking? Looking at the [census] map, you see domestic out-migration from all five states touching the Pacific Ocean, which was once the scenic promised land for many people. … In a generally prosperous and tolerant society … it takes a lot to get people to move. What the census numbers show is that COVID lockdowns, piled atop high taxes and restrictive housing regulations, got several million people on the move in the 27 months from April 2020 to July 2022. Those who moved are likely to be better off, but the self-damage inflicted on the places they left will be hard, in some respects impossible, to repair.” —Michael Barone

Observations

“It’s no accident that the two most dangerous powers in the world, China and Russia, are aggrieved empires seeking to right what they consider the wrongs that resulted in their humiliation and diminishment in the 19th and 20th centuries. … Xi views Taiwan much the same way as Putin views Ukraine — it rightfully belongs to China, and re-taking it will help salve the geo-political and psychological wounds of imperial China’s spectacular descent into disaster and powerlessness. … The war in Ukraine shows that when an autocrat ruling a once-great empire speaks in such terms, it is time to arm the targeted state to the teeth and dispense with all illusions.” —Rich Lowry

“As communist China struggles to contain a massive COVID outbreak, it is once again seeding the world with sick ‘tourists.’ Half of the passengers on two recent flights from China to Milan, Italy, tested positive for COVID. As a result of this shocking news, the Biden Administration announced Wednesday that it will require Chinese tourists to test for COVID two days before their flights to the United States. But this new testing requirement won’t take effect until January 5th! When Donald Trump announced travel restrictions on passengers from China at the beginning of the pandemic, Biden denounced it as ‘hysterical xenophobia and fear-mongering.’ Biden’s hypocrisy is bad enough. But his week-long delay in implementing the new testing policy is malfeasance.” —Gary Bauer

Leftist-Think

“I do not think that the people of the state of Maryland want the Republican Party to spend their time, or want Congress spending their time, talking about the drawdown in Afghanistan.” —Maryland Governor-elect Wes Moore