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This essay on Ajit Pai’s legacy as Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission is likely the last thing written by my late friend Jerry Ellig, who died suddenly on January 20th at the far too young age of 58.

And here’s Nick Gillespie’s recent conversation with Ajit Pai.

Pierre Lemieux draws economic lessons from Bernie Sanders’s mittens.

Richard Ebeling recalls Lithuanians’ 1991 fight for freedom.

Matthew Lau identifies a virus far more dangerous than SARS-Cov-2. Here’s his opening paragraph:

One of the most alarming things about the pandemic is how sheepish almost all of us have been in surrendering our freedoms to government. The initial lockdowns last spring were met with little protest. Even today, nearly a year later, after the benefits of lockdowns have proven questionable and the costs exorbitant, even in jurisdictions where the terms of the lockdowns are arbitrary and senseless, and despite the fact that many prohibited activities can be done responsibly with minimal public health risk, there is not much pushback against governments’ widespread restrictions of economic and civil freedoms. (If “arbitrary and senseless” seems too strong, just how should we characterize Ontario’s policy that small retailers are not allowed to sell “non-essential” goods in-store but crowded big box stores can?)

The latest Reason Roundtable podcast includes a discussion of the prospects for more school choice in light of the Covid-revealed disinterest of “teachers” unions to have their members actually do what their members are paid to do.

Sebastian Rushworth has some interesting data on SARS-CoV-2 antibodies. (HT Michael McAuley) A slice:

At the end of the second week of January, 10, 323 people had died of/with covid in Sweden. In fact, the real number is probably much lower. A recent study carried out here in Stockholm found that only 17% of those who supposedly died of covid in care homes actually had covid as the primary cause of death.

Heavily tyrannized California vs. lightly tyrannized Florida: “Despite these different approaches, both states ended up with the same outcome.”

Phil Magness:

The #ZeroCovid crowd is the anti-vaxx movement of the lockdown debate. They’re advocating a position with no basis in scientific reality, but also one that would cause severe and deadly harms if our government pursued it in earnest.

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