NGS

"Nihil humanum a me alienum puto." Nothing human--politics, economics, philosophy, religion, literature, culture, etc--is alien to me.

[Daniel Hannan @DanielJHannan]

Trump has burned through decades of accumulated goodwill from US allies. I know his behaviour wounds many patriotic Americans. Still, the fact is that he keeps getting away with it. I am beginning to think that the damage might be irreparable.

[NGS @NoGutScraper]

@ETrager18 May her memory be for a blessing.

[NBER @nberpubs]

California's Billionaire Tax Act would collect roughly $30 billion. Accounting for lost income taxes from departures, the mean Net Present Value is negative $39 billion, from Benjamin Jaros and Joshua Rauh https://t.co/hoS1OYeXvK

[Doug Powers @ThePowersThatBe]

For a guy who hates America so much he sure doesn’t want to leave.

[Saritha Komatireddy @sarithaforny]

Slash a woman on the face in the subway, get released without bail.

Arrested. See the judge. Released.

This is Letitia James’s lawless New York.

Time for a new AG.

https://t.co/y22MVnG8FU

[John Carreyrou @JohnCarreyrou]

My interpretation of “I trust you” is “I hope you didn’t betray me. I trusted you to rehabilitate my image.” https://t.co/3RDuWkfOKa

[Cristian Campos @crpandemonium]

La ministra de Vivienda holandesa dice que las viviendas públicas pagadas por los holandeses deben ser para los inmigrantes porque los jóvenes holandeses tienen la opción de quedarse a vivir con sus padres.

[Populaire du Centre @lepopulaire_fr]

De nouvelles images montrant l'ampleur des dégâts après l'incendie de la mairie de Limoges nous sont parvenues ce lundi.

[Howard Lovy @Howard_Lovy]

I'm a Michigan voter, a Jew, and a lifelong Democrat who will not be voting for Abdul El-Sayed. He supports the most repressive, fascist, genocidal regimes in the Middle East because they oppose Israel, which contains half the world's Jews.

Telling me to vote for him "for the greater good" would be akin to telling a Black voter to support a member of the Klan.

El-Sayed may speak the language of progressives, but he has only one agenda, and it isn't free stuff for everybody ... or whatever.

History lesson: The Islamist/socialist partnership in the Iranian Revolution ended with the socialists executed along with the Jews.

[EWTN News @EWTNews]

The number of Catholic priests worldwide has risen again after five years of no growth, according to statistics published by the Vatican agency Fides ahead of the 100th World Mission Sunday, which will be celebrated Sunday, Oct. 18.

According to the Fides report, the total number of priests rose from 406,996 to 407,421, representing an increase of 425 compared with the previous year. The Vatican agency noted that the data comes from the Statistical Yearbook of the Church and is current as of Dec. 31, 2024.

Africa recorded the largest increase with 1,676 more priests, followed by Asia with 1,065. The Americas also reversed the previous yearʼs downward trend, adding 199 priests.

In contrast, Europe lost 2,483 priests over the course of the year, while Oceania recorded a decrease of 32.

The overall increase is attributed to the growth in the number of diocesan priests, which reached 279,238, an increase of 496 compared with the previous count. Meanwhile, the number of religious order priests fell by 71, standing at 128,183.

Despite the increase in the number of priests, the number of Catholics per priest also rose, reaching 3,491 — an increase of 38 compared with the previous year. The average number of inhabitants per priest also climbed, reaching 16,104.

Fides statistics further indicated that the global Catholic population reached 1,422,144,000 as of June 30, 2024, an increase of 16.69 million over the previous year. Based on these figures, Catholics represent 17.8% of the worldʼs population.

Africa saw the largest growth in the number of Catholics, with an increase of 7.58 million, followed by the Americas, with a rise of nearly 7 million. Asia added 968,000, Europe 911,000, and Oceania 239,000.

While the number of priests is rising, the number of seminarians is decreasing. The number of major seminarians stood at 103,604 worldwide, a decrease of 2,891 from the previous year.

Africa was the only continent to record growth, with 786 additional seminarians, whereas Asia saw a decline of 2,733, Europe 701, the Americas 227, and Oceania 16.

The number of minor seminarians also decreased, falling to 94,041, which is 980 fewer than in the previous count. Africa reversed the previous yearʼs trend, adding 132, while Oceania recorded an increase of 20. In contrast, Europe lost 872, Asia 182, and the Americas 78.

More: https://t.co/dO1xwVEvUk

[Éros Brousson @erosbrousson]

DOUCE FRANCE… CHER PAYS DE MON ENFANCE… 🇫🇷🥐

https://t.co/8AAhAHmGqq 🙏🏽

[Tomas Pueyo @tomaspueyo]

French students complain that France doesn't spend enough on education. Well, it does: $13,787 per pupil per year, 1.4% more than the OECD average, and more than countries like 🇰🇷🇩🇪🇦🇺🇨🇭🇪🇸🇨🇦🇮🇹

But 32% of that money doesn't go to education, but to pensions!

[Paul Sessler @PaulSessler3]

@LeslieMarshall French students looking for Library Cards.

[weird medieval guys NEW BOOK OUT NOVEMBER 5!!! @WeirdMedieval]

the sketchbook of villard de honnecourt, a 13th century french artist who would sometimes give up on drawing faces

[Jesús Fernández-Villaverde @JesusFerna7026]

This year I am spending more time than usual in my Global Economic History course on the economic history of socialism and fascism. There are two reasons.

First, my students know little about either system. They were born nearly two decades after the Berlin Wall fell, and for them socialism and fascism are names in a textbook, not memories of their parents or grandparents.

Second, we are once again debating where our economic systems should go. Some of the proposals on the table have been tried before. Knowing how those earlier attempts turned out will not settle the debate. But knowing the historical record is a better starting point than not knowing it.

Here are the slides on the economic history of socialism:

https://t.co/7XEkhufH5z

They cover the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. China gets its own deck. The figure I include, from the slide deck, is the average annual growth of different countries in Europe after World War II

The slides on the economic history of fascism will follow soon.

[Economic Man @EconomicManBlog]

If Daniel Kahneman (of "Thinking, Fast and Slow" fame) had been a goalie for the Alberta Flame.

@ATabarrok
@scottlincicome

[For Our Futures @foronionfutures]

HAPPENING NOW in downtown Chicago, outside the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, the historic center of onion futures trading

[Orson Scott Card @orsonscottcard]

The stories in ENDER’S TRIBE were published in various magazines or anthologies in the past but are now hard to find. Everything else I’ve written in the “Enderverse” is already in book form, so it was time for these to be collected into one too (thanks to Blackstone Publishing @BlackstoneAudio).
The original Ender’s Game short story has been reprinted most, but it seemed right to include it here as well.

[NGS @NoGutScraper]

https://t.co/YdiffKhSvz

[Alex גדעון בן װעלװל @JewishWonk]

Eisenkot, the Israeli candidate with the best shot of unseating Netanyahu, publicly condemns the recent violence of extremist settlers.

A lot of confident western leftists assured me there's no difference between the candidates on this issue.