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The SPR has been politically exploited for decades, and electoral and budget politics are the chief reasons it is in its current state. Refilling is partly a function of oil prices, and from time to time is limited by reluctance to purchase at contemporary prices. There is no particular reason...

Detecting vote fraud depends on standards and enforcement. Where standards are high and enforcement routine, the measure of vote fraud should be expected to be low. Where standards are less stringent and enforcement efforts range from little to none, the measure should also be expected to be...

"Britain is ejecting hereditary nobles from Parliament after 700 years" That's still a pretty long term limit.

Polls are an opportunity to gripe. As I wrote, Americans gripe.

There is always a very small highly politically active bunch of people on campus, pursuing causes of the day. The same names keep cropping up in the campus newspaper (if there is one), and, amusingly enough, crop up from time to time in public life as the years pass, usually attached to...

The mistake is that intake is not calculated to balance across all professions and occupations such that the added work force contains a proportion of each necessary to contribute what it will need. (By "need", I mean that it doesn't have to contain proportions of would-be baristas and such.)

No, but as with so many topics, it's fun to what-if/king-for-a-day.

Americans gripe a lot, but have demonstrated high tolerance for wars and the costs and casualties attendant thereto. Their forces go out a lot; it's hard not to notice. I don't expect governments to entirely ignore surging oil prices; I don't expect Americans to pack it in if gas prices...

Which means what? There was a lot going on at that time, not the least of which was the recent Iranian revolution. Slightly earlier than that was the 1973 embargo. Did Carter beat Ford because of oil prices, or other events?

Your fundamental assumption isn't particularly strong. Americans have paid high gasoline prices in the past without revolting. Monthly averages back to 1978. Second chart is CPI-adjusted. Current price average is around $3.50. China is likely more at risk for some kind of social upheaval...

What I'm on about is that there could be an appetite for nationalization, depending on circumstances. The circumstances don't have to be severe for lesser things like a National Energy Policy or a crown-owned corporation (Petro-Canada) to arise. So it's better to not be so dismissive just...

The public appetite for extreme measures usually correlates well with extreme circumstances, and the latter are not really in effect at scale anywhere in Europe except Ukraine. The public knee still jerks extremely flexibly, as evidenced by how easily safety-over-liberty and intrusive...

Constitutional monarchy might work reasonably well in some countries, but in Canada it has deteriorated into a legislature which does the bidding of the PMO and is no longer fit for purpose. If Canada were to redesign the structure of its government, separate executive (non-figurehead) and...

He isn't being smart-assed; he's just displaying ignorance. When it takes fewer people to do X amount of work, some of the former employed are available for other work. Most of the people who generations ago were working hard in agriculture would today be working hard at entirely different...

Kicking the can down the road for the inevitable fights over whose faces go on the coins?

How do you get that? "Average prices of 1 litre of fuel in Europe as of 2. March 2026" is what the chart claims.

Prices are from the euro values in the "Gasoline 95" column at the link.

This is a useful experiment in oil and product prices. One of the goals of environmental advocates ("climate change" alarmists) - at least in early days - was to push price-at-the-pump up to EU levels to discourage fossil fuel consumption. What are some prices in other developed countries that...

Ah, the irony of PEP.

Validation refers to process; confirmation to people using it?