Rob Abiera 🇹🇼 🇮🇱 🇺🇦 🦒

My Easter sermon: What is redemption? It’s not just a religious idea. It’s about addressing guilt and recovering or rebuilding your self-esteem. It requires that you deal with guilt  -  whether earned or unearned  -  by identifying its cause and working to correct it. This is how you reestablish your sense of worthiness, which is fundamental to your sense of your own value. Yes, there are some mistakes that can’t be corrected, but doing what you can  -  and coming to terms with what you can’t  - is the only way to restore any lost connection to your capacity to value, including your capacity to experience your value. It requires that you use your mind  -  which is why it’s not just a religious idea.

Congratulations, Apple! apple.com/50-years-of-th…

For the record it’s as asinine when Republicans do it as when Democrats do it (and more hypocritical). Again, let’s stipulate that corporations (and mom and pop businesses) are always trying to set prices to maximize long-term profits. If they can raise a price without killing demand they will. If it’s easier to raise prices at some times than others, that’s usually the government’s fault. Yelling at corporations (or mom and pop) for acting optimally is just stupid. But at least it’s bi-partisan stupid. We need more bi-partisan stupid so we can all come together more.

The Nationalist Right Isn’t Taking Orbán’s Loss Well, and I'm here for it. For my entire adult life I have opposed big, intrusive, corrupt left wing illiberalism, and I oppose right wing illiberalism for the same reasons. thebulwark.com/p/nationalist-…

@PhilWMagness Looks like Politico did Magyar a favor, given reports of Orban cronies shredding documents.

A good summary of the Orban goulash train to postliberal groups, including known dollar amts where publicly available. MCC and HIIA both recieved millions in tax funding, as did the foundation that subsidizes CPAC Hungary. politico.eu/newsletter/pol…

Goodbye and good riddance to intellectual welfare!

Even the New York Times has noticed the postliberal network supported by Orban using Hungary state funds. The end of that support may be one of the best things that could possibly happen for Humanity right now.

As families get richer and the population grows, housing prices are rising quickly in desirable locales. The natural market response would be to increase supply, but unfortunately, artificial policy barriers are preventing that from happening. humanprogress.org/the-end-of-the…

Various aspects of economic freedom—including trade openness—are associated with less corruption. Freer trade makes reputation king, mitigating corrupt incentives and embedding honest norms throughout society. humanprogress.org/why-free-econo…

@sapinker Full interview: humanprogress.org/meaning-and-mo… Read the highlights: humanprogress.org/meaning-and-mo…

The global suicide rate has fallen by nearly 40% since the 1990s. @sapinker explains: "a lot of that is due to urbanization." "When a woman is put into an arranged marriage, leaves her village, ... is dominated by her mother-in-law, has no friends, no way of escaping, that leads to a lot of suicides."

Many worry that markets corrode social trust and weaken community bonds. The evidence suggests the opposite: trade depends on trust, and commercial societies encourage people to extend that trust beyond family and friends to strangers and colleagues. humanprogress.org/in-trade-we-tr…

There is a sentiment on the right that the United States is, in the words of President Trump, “a failed nation.” In fact, our standard of living is the envy of the world, which is the most parsimonious explanation for the millions trying to get here. humanprogress.org/modern-freedom…

@PhilWMagness Ouch! One more crack in the right.

Correct. Thomas's comments are a repudiation of Patrick Deneen's 1619-esque take on the American founding.

After thousands of years, Original Sin should have no more credibility than allegations that immigration increases crime.

Trump no longer wants to "KILL FISA." In fact, he doesn't even want to see any basic reforms that might better protect Americans from unlawful surveillance. reason.com/2026/04/15/tru…

An elected politician, standing outside of a law-abiding person's home, demonising them because they are successful. So creepy and weird.

The intellectual and moral rot of Yale University on full display. Just imagine KKK leader, David Duke, receiving adulation and applause like this at Yale. Does anyone doubt this would be frontpage on the NY Times and covered endlessly on CNN, as it should be given what it signals about how Yale is producing moral monsters in the next generation of social and political elites. Yale itself would immediately issue condemnations, impose mandatory "sensitivity training" on all of these students, and other punishments for which the elite universities have rightly become infamous. None of this happens when a pro-Hamas, anti-American, violence-promoting bigot and virulent collectivist Hasan Piker receives appluause and adulation at Yale. It's a non-event for the elites in our social, educational, and political institutions. It's a non-event because these elites agree with Piker, and this is the most chilling thing about what this signals about our elites and the future of our country. If you ever wondered what you would have done in 1932 Berlin, you're doing it now.

New from my colleague Robertas Bakula in @ocropinion