In the United States (and beyond), freedom is often treated as a foundational good. The Declaration of Independence puts it right there with life and happiness in the form of liberty. New Hampshire’s state motto is “Live Free or Die.” We are known as, “The land of the free.” And it is one of the…
Socialism is all the rage on the left side of the political spectrum. With Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez’s recent primary win and Bernie Sanders’ surprising primary challenge in 2016, the socialists are now the coolest cats at the party. The traditional Democrats get vilified and branded with the neoliberal slur. It’s all very smug. But I don’t…
I saw a meme today. It was four identical pictures of a fighter jet that had just blown up a building. The only difference between the four was that the first was labelled Clinton, the second Bush, the third Obama and the fourth Trump. I had a brief thought along the lines of, “That’s just…
I ran across an article called “The Peculiar Math that Could Underlie the Laws of Nature“. It’s an interesting article. It goes way beyond any math I ever took, but it’s still interesting. What really struck me was the title. The idea that math underlies the laws of nature. That seems to be a common…
Baseball is my favorite sport. I could watch a baseball game any time and be relatively happy. It doesn’t even have to be my team, as long as it’s baseball. It puzzles me that the people who are supposed to be promoting the game don’t seem to agree with me. The commissioner of Major League…
I ran across something online recently that said that “Cult of Personality” was released thirty years ago this month. That means I became a fan of Living Colour thirty years ago this month. I can actually remember listening to the song on the radio during the summer of 1988. I was thirteen years old and…
We haven’t spent a lot of time on this blog talking about Trump. I can’t speak for Jamil, but in my case, there are plenty of reasons why I don’t write much about him. The primary reason is that I find Trump detestable and repulsive. I’d rather write about things I like than things I…
Lyrics don’t normally matter to me. I barely even notice them. But one set of lyrics I find myself thinking about quite a bit is “If I Fell” by The Beatles: If I fell in love with you Would you promise to be true And help me understand ‘Cause I’ve been in love before And…
Tennis is one of my favorite sports. It is also as international as a sport can get. Unfortunately, that means that most of the big tournaments are not played on the east coast of the United States, so it is hard for me to watch. I can usually watch part of the weekend matches, but…
