‘Strangers in the Land’ Review: For Chinese-Americans, a Hard Road to a New Home

In the mid-19th century, Chinese immigrants built much of the developing American West. The community was often met with hostility and violence.

By Andrew R. Graybill. He is a professor of history at Southern Methodist University. He reviewed Michael Luo’s book Strangers in the Land: Exclusion, Belonging, and the Epic Story of the Chinese in America. Excerpts:

"Labor organizers were thus among the most virulent anti-Chinese agitators. Denis Kearney, the Irish-born leader of the Workingmen’s Party of California, declared in 1877 that “we intend to try and vote the Chinamen out, to frighten him out, and if this won’t do, to kill him out.”" 

"the most notorious episode came at a coal camp in Rock Springs, Wyo., in 1885, when white laborers, incensed by the presence of strike-breaking Chinese miners, slaughtered some 28 Chinese and razed their encampment. After weighing the evidence against the alleged perpetrators, a grand jury declined to indict them. News of the pogrom inspired mass expulsions of Chinese from the Pacific Northwest shortly thereafter, with the mayor of Tacoma urging a “speedy and final solution” to the so-called Chinese question."

"Much of this story—and especially the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which for the first time restricted immigration on the basis of race—will be familiar to scholars and general audiences alike."

Medicaid Is Overdue for a Big Beautiful Overhaul

The program’s funding mechanism lends itself to bloat and inefficiency. The Senate can set this right

By John F. Cogan. Excerpts:

"Medicaid . . . now accounts for more than half of the 150 million Americans covered by government health insurance."

"The program’s funding mechanism—the federal government matches state payments—has made Medicaid ripe for expansion. In high-income states like California and New York, the federal government paid 50% or more of the state’s Medicaid costs. In lower-income states such as Mississippi, the federal government picked up more than 80% of the tab."

"Since neither the federal government nor state legislatures pay the program’s full cost, each has an extra incentive to liberalize Medicaid."

"Federally mandated eligibility was gradually extended beyond welfare recipients, and many states readily took up options for additional liberalization. Between 1989 and 2013, the year before the Affordable Care Act—ObamaCare—took effect, nonelderly Medicaid enrollment more than tripled to 69 million"

"In the 1990s, Republicans faced withering attacks from Democrats and the press over their welfare-reform plans. Congressional Democrats denounced Republicans, likening them to Hitler and Attila the Hun. Rep. Sam Gibbons (D., Fla.) charged that the Republican welfare plan’s time limits and work requirements would deprive “a million poor children of basic necessities.”"

"Republicans remained steadfast and, with President Bill Clinton’s eventual support, enacted what is arguably the most successful reform of any entitlement program in U.S. history."

"Even with its Medicaid changes, federal spending on the program will be 33% higher next year, after adjusting for inflation, than it was in 2019." 

JD Vance Defies the Market’s Gravity

Whether economics is a ‘science’ or not, its laws apply to everybody

By Matthew Hennessey. Excerpts:

"if economics is science, then it’s real and we’re bound by it. If it isn’t science, anything goes. We’re free to build a brave new world."

"Everything about them suggests a desire to ignore economic history."

"Tarring economics as “not a science” gives them political room to run."

"It’s [science] never settled. That doesn’t mean we don’t understand certain laws of the physical world like gravitation and conservation of mass and energy, or how atoms combine to form molecules. We do."

"That was my point about supply and demand. Two hundred and fifty years after Adam Smith, we understand how these laws of economics work. They aren’t imaginary or a human invention. They don’t change."

The Physics Behind the Spanish Blackout

Madrid knew solar and wind power were unreliable but pressed ahead anyway

By Bjorn Lomborg. Excerpts:

"The nature of solar and wind generation makes grids that rely on them more prone to collapse—an issue that’s particularly expensive to ameliorate."

"The International Energy Agency’s latest cost data continue to underscore this: Consumers and businesses in countries with almost no solar and wind on average paid 11 U.S. cents for a kilowatt hour of electricity in 2023, but costs rise by more than 4 cents for every 10% increase in the portion of a nation’s power generation that’s covered by solar and wind. Green countries such as Germany pay 34 cents, more than 2.5 times the average U.S. rate and nearly four times China’s."

"solar and wind require a duplicate backup energy system, often fossil-fuel driven, for when the sun doesn’t shine or the wind doesn’t blow."

"Grids need to stay on a very stable frequency—generally 50 Hertz in Europe—or else you get blackouts. Fossil-fuel, hydro and nuclear generation . . . resists changes in speed and hence frequency, so that when sudden demand swings would otherwise drop or hike grid frequency, the turbines work as immense buffers. But wind and solar don’t power such heavy turbines to generate energy. It’s possible to make up for this with cutting-edge technology such as advanced inverters or synthetic inertia. But many solar and wind farms haven’t undergone these expensive upgrades."

" The share of solar and wind as a source of Spain’s electricity production went from less than 23% in 2015 to more than 43% last year."

"When it collapsed, the Iberian grid was powered by 74% renewable energy, with 55% coming from solar. It went down under the bright noon sun."

"The parent company of Spain’s grid operator admitted [these things] in February" 

[to fix the problem] "for Europe as a whole this would cost trillions of dollars in infrastructure updates."

Facing a Cancer Diagnosis? Exercise and Diet Could Make a Difference

Going back to basics might help some patients live longer or respond to therapy, data shows

By Brianna Abbott of The WSJ. Excerpts:

"A structured exercise program with a trainer helped colorectal cancer patients lower their risks of death and cancer recurrence after treatment"

"Patients in the program had a 37% lower risk of death after eight years, compared with patients who only received educational information on exercise."

[Peter Campbell, a cancer epidemiologist said] "“If this were a therapeutic, people would leave the building to go order this drug for their patients on Monday morning.”"

"eating a diet heavier in foods that research shows can increase inflammation was linked to worse survival overall in colorectal cancer patients compared with those who consumed less-inflammatory foods. Other researchers are presenting data on how higher-fiber diets could improve melanoma patients’ response to immune-boosting drugs."

"growing evidence is finding that they [more movement and a healthy diet] could also boost some cancer patients’ lifespans or responses to therapy." 

"eating an inflammation-linked diet heavier in processed meats, refined grains and sugary beverages was linked to worse survival from any cause, compared with a diet higher in leafy greens and drinks including coffee or tea."

"Patients who underwent the structured program had a 28% lower risk of their cancer coming back or developing a new cancer, the trial found. At eight years, 90% of the patients in the exercise program were alive, compared with 83% of the other patients. The program prevented one death for every 14 people who joined it"

"Some 77% of patients on the high-fiber diet responded to their immune-boosting treatment, compared with 29% in the control group."

Related posts:

For a long and healthy life, diet and regular exercise are a better bet than trendy supplements and expensive longevity clinics (2025)

How Your Midlife Eating Habits Can Help You Live Longer and Healthier: A plant-rich diet with some fish and dairy might make the biggest difference, new research suggests (2025)

Self-Control as a Performance-Enhancing Drug: Like cognitive ability, self-control predicts health, wealth, and all things good (2024)

Does Exercise Improve Survival After a Cancer Diagnosis? An Encouraging New Study (2024)

Life expectancy can increase by up to 10 years following sustained shifts towards healthier diets in the United Kingdom (2023)

Even Short Runs Have Major Health Benefits (2023)

What if the Most Powerful Way to Live Longer Is Just Exercise? (2023) 

Exercise Helps Blunt the Effects of Covid-19, Study Suggests (2023)

Carry Your Groceries, Take the Stairs: Short, Intense Movement Can Improve Your Health (plus non drug ways to fight diabetes and Covid) (2022)

Almost half of cancer deaths globally are attributable to preventable risk factors, new study suggests (2022)

New research leads to doubt over the extent or even existence of the ego‐depletion effect (the theory of the exhaustible willpower muscle) (2019)

How lifestyle changes can reduce the risk of dementia (2019)

Good health begins with individual decisions (2018)

Nearly half of U.S. cancer deaths blamed on unhealthy behavior (2017)

Regular Exercise: Antidote for Deadly Diseases? (2016)

Is Willpower An Untapped Resource? (2011)

No, AI Robots Won’t Take All Our Jobs

Instead, they will boost productivity, lower prices and spur the evolution of the labor market

By Robert D. Atkinson. He is president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation. Excerpts:

"In 2013 Carl Benedikt Frey and Michael A. Osborne of Oxford University produced a research paper estimating that 47% of U.S. employment was at risk of being eliminated by new technologies."

"humans have experienced technological disruptions before, and we adapted to meet them."

"In the first half of the 20th century, tens of thousands of men and boys across America worked as pinsetters in bowling alleys."

"In the 1920s and ’30s, elevator companies began installing “robot elevators” with automatic controls, and eventually elevator operators all but disappeared."

"the decline of agricultural field workers due to motorized tractors to the rise and fall of “motion picture projectionists,” who operated projectors in movie theaters. Entire categories of jobs were wiped out, yet automation has never created a mass lumpenproletariat."

"AI doomsayers frequently succumb to what economists call the “lump of labor” fallacy: the idea that there is a limited amount of work to be done, and if a job is eliminated, it’s gone for good."

"the saving from increased productivity is recycled back into the economy in the form of higher wages, higher profits and reduced prices. This creates new demand that in turn creates new jobs."

"According to Goldman Sachs Research economists, broad adoption of AI could boost the country’s productivity growth by 1.5 percentage points per year."

"about 20 million U.S. workers are fired or laid off every year. In other words, the supposed AI job apocalypse, if it occurred, would be the equivalent of only about six weeks of normal labor-market churn."

The Soul-Sapping Grind of Doing Business in Bureaucratic Germany

Entrepreneurs warn that the country’s thicket of red tape has grown so dense it could choke a planned $1.1 trillion stimulus package

By Bertrand Benoit of The WSJ. Excerpts:

"Germany’s economy has barely grown for the past five years. The new government wants to change that by spending one trillion euros on defense and infrastructure in the next decade. But economists warn the stimulus could be wasted without a crucial step that costs nothing: Rid the economy of the red tape that is smothering growth and discouraging investment.

“We urgently need to decide where obstructive, paralyzing rules should be abolished and which need amending,” said Veronika Grimm, one of five economists who advise the government on economic policy. The group flagged bureaucracy as a key hindrance to growth in their yearly report in May."

"A well-run state can make life predictable and provide services to companies. Yet too much state can gum up the system. Excessive bureaucracy exists everywhere, but Europe is particularly affected because governments there tend to follow the precautionary principle."

[It says] "the state should seek to prevent risks before they arise. Initially limited to environmental legislation, the principle is now increasingly applied to other areas"

"the burden has increased over time—despite parliament passing several anti-bureaucracy laws. Employees in Germany spent 1.02 billion work hours fulfilling state-mandated bureaucratic tasks last year"

"Bureaucracy . . . costs German businesses €146 billion a year"

"the volume of economic, financial and tax legislation had roughly doubled in Germany since 2009"

"Only 10% [of German executives] said Germany was welcoming for business"

Related posts:

EU Aims to Cut Red Tape, Boost Funding to Lure Tech Startups: Officials want to simplify labor and tax laws so startups can launch rapidly in Europe (2025)

The Tech Industry Is Huge—and Europe’s Share of It Is Very Small: A risk-averse business culture and complex regulations have stifled innovation on the continent, weighing on its future  (2025)