I’ve been saying for a long time now that the economy has never been good in my lifetime. I make that as an honest and serious statement. It’s not hyperbole. The economy has not been good for at least 45 years. But, the official outlets (the government, news agencies, professional economists) have said differently. They…
I just got a new book called Automation and Utopia: Human Flourishing in a World Without Work by John Danaher. I haven’t read it yet, but I’m looking forward to it. From what I can tell, he tries to present the argument that automation should be seen as a good thing. A world where people…
Trump and Biden faced off in the first presidential debate of the 2020 election on Tuesday night. I didn’t watch. The last time I watched a presidential debate was probably 1992, and that was only because a teacher told me to. It’s not like these are two fresh faces. I wasn’t going to learn anything…
This should have a much longer title. It should really be “If I Were President With At Least A Two-thirds Majority In Both Houses Of Congress, Sympathetic Courts, And At Least Two-thirds Of The Governorships And State Legislatures.” In other words, it’s a wish list. If I had the power to arranging things the way…
Imagine a masochistic misanthrope. This person hates other people. It causes them great pain to be in company, to be pleasant, to be friendly. All of the social virtues hurt them. But, they get off on that pain. They crave it. They constantly desire it. So, they seek it out. They spend as much time…
When Antonin Scalia died in 2016, Mitch McConnell and the Republicans refused to let the sitting president, Barak Obama, fill the empty seat on the Supreme Court. They said that it was an election year and the seat should be filled by the new president. Everyone knows that. It was an unbelievably scummy thing to…
Jamil posed a question on my last post, “How do you hold someone accountable who made bad law despite good intentions?” It struck me not only as a good question, but an important question. Currently, we simply don’t hold our elected officials accountable for the quality or the quantity of the laws (or policies or…
History is an odd subject in the way it combines objective and subjective views. It is full of objective facts. There can be no reasonable argument about whether certain events happened. On September 11, 2001, the United States was attacked by al Qaeda. Thousands of people died. America responded with things like the PATRIOT ACT…
Every year, I write a little something on my daughter’s first day of school. It’s nothing big, just some thoughts and feelings to mark the occasion. This year, my daughter is starting Fourth Grade and I’m more confused than ever before. School was supposed to start last week, but COVID pushed it back. I have…
This sign recently appeared in one of my neighbor’s yards: I don’t know these neighbors. And, seeing as they’re Trump supporters, I have no interest in getting to know them. Normally, I wouldn’t notice a campaign sign at all. I don’t generally take political advice from cardboard signs. It’s not clever or humorous or insightful….
