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The Long View

The Long View 2008-03-17: St. Patrick's Day

Topical commentary on the events of the day from John J. Reilly. Saint Patrick's Day Financial Chaos, Now and Then: Regarding Now, I don't think I would add much to these comments by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard of the Telegraph UK: Albert Edwards, global strategist at Societe Generale,

The Long View 2008-03-13: Mamet & Hobbes; Decanting the Future; Basic Plots; Burleigh's Trilogy; Enceladus or Bust

John J. Reilly wrote some fascinating science fiction about gas giant moons, but it is rather unlikely that we would find life there, as there is very little energy available, even if there is liquid water and suitable chemicals. I like that story more for the Toynbee-style macrohistory. Mamet &

The Long View 2008-03-10: Tax Farming & Health Insurance; Obamalypse; Islam an Empty Vessel?

John J. Reilly was a long-time advocate of a single-payer healthcare system in the United States. His view was predicated upon healthcare being a public good, not a public right, and frankly acknowledging that it is a system of transfer payments from the young and healthy to the unwell. However,

The Long View 2008-03-07: Nuclear Apocalypse; Threatening Choirs; The Documentary of Doom; New Jersey; Motorcycling

John’s comment here is apt: The Nuclear Apocalyptic Novel is culturally important in a way that Hitler Wins Alternative History never will be. The Cold War made an impression on the psyche of the West. An absolutely enormous amount of popular art is an attempt to think through the

The Long View 2008-03-04: Jesuit Subversion; Cold Snap; Daylight Saving; Northern Mystery

John J. Reilly was always a fan of Fortean phenomena. The Salish Sea human feet certain fall in that bucket. Jesuit Subversion; Cold Snap; Daylight Saving; Northern Mystery We have already noted the Turkish project to subject the hadith to the "higher criticism," thereby, it is alleged, sparking

The Long View 2008-02-29: Inflation; Capital Gains Zombies; Bill Buckley; Iraq & Public Opinion

As we move from the era of Imperial Populism into the Comedy of Errors, ponder the lasting influence of a coalition now seventy years old has on the American Right: The components were more than usually incompatible. The foreign policy hawks really needed the patriotic solidarity that the New Deal

John J. Reilly on Joe Haldeman's Forever Peace

John J. Reilly’s review of Joe Haldeman’s Forever Peace [Amazon link] contains a remarkable digression on the economics of abundance. John wrote it twenty two years ago, and if anything it only gets better with age. Read it for yourself. Then there is the economics of abundance. In