LinkFest 2016-02-12

Sewell Wright: Evolving Mendel

A retrospective of one of the seminal papers that helped to unite Mendel and Darwin. In the early twentieth century, some of Darwin's disciples, including accomplished scientists like Karl Pearson, opposed Mendelian theory. Darwin had advocated a continuous blending theory of inheritance, whereas Mendel had a discrete theory. It took the mathematical genius of Wright to help blend these ideas together.

"The Executive Unbound: After the Madisonian Republic," by Eric A. Posner and Adrian Vermeule

We should expect to see the power of the Executive wax over the twenty-first century.

Sanders And Trump Are The Same Totalitarian Candidate

I think totalitarian is not the right word. Sanders and Trump are both pragmatic populists with a lean towards executive action. Neither one can usefully be described as totalitarian in any useful sense. Each one is riding a wave of popular support because they are seen as the great man who will fix everything. Authoritarian might be a better word.

Key Catholic Trends in Mexico

I am encouraged to see that the number of priests in Mexico is growing. This parallels the trend in the United States. I don't know about the rest of Latin America, but this is definitely a change for the better.