Month: January 2022

One of the more curious rationalizations for the January 6 coup attempt draws on Thomas Jefferson’s claim that “I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical.” Daniel McCarthy’s article in the Spectator is probably the closest you’ll find to an intellectual rationalization for the coup attempt, but it relies on inaccuracies: Read more →

See updates through July 15, 2023, at end of post.

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Fig. 1. Photograph by author, November 25, 2020.

I wind up in Wilkinsburg a fair amount, in significant part because poor people in Pittsburgh rely heavily on Uber and Lyft to get around. That probably biases my view of the borough. My last ride of the day yesterday, however, was from one of the more gentrified areas, a white couple going to a bar on the Edgewood side of Regent Square along South Braddock Avenue. Read more →

It’s been a while since I’ve written on Russian aggression against Ukraine, My opinion now is as it was then: Ukraine is a sovereign country, entitled to its own foreign policy, and Russia has absolutely no right to dictate how Ukraine will govern itself or choose its alliances. Of course, that didn’t stop Vladimir Putin, whose Russia annexed Crimea and invaded and continues to occupy a piece of southeastern Ukraine.^[1] I remain disgusted with those whose sole criterion for supporting a country lies in its antagonism to the United States.^[2] Read more →

1. ^[1]David Benfell, “‘Sovereignty’ in Crimea,” Not Housebroken, March 17, 2014, https://disunitedstates.org/2014/03/17/sovereignty-in-crimea/; David Benfell, “In the land of the false analogy,” Not Housebroken, August 28, 2014, https://disunitedstates.org/2014/03/19/in-the-land-of-the-false-analogy/; David Benfell, “It’s back: The Cold War,” Not Housebroken, August 28, 2014, https://disunitedstates.org/2014/04/20/its-back-the-cold-war/↩
2. ^[2]David Benfell, “Democracy Now!’s not-so-good interview with Stephen Cohen on the Ukraine,” Not Housebroken, August 28, 2014, https://disunitedstates.org/2014/02/20/democracy-nows-not-so-good-interview-with-stephen-cohen-on-the-ukraine/↩