You really can’t understand the world we live in until you do. Authoritarianism. Authoritarianism is something authoritarian followers and authoritarian leaders cook up between themselves. It happens when the followers submit too much to the leaders, trust them too much,…
They’re Comin’ Right For Us: Fixing Self-Defense
Self Defense and Stand Your Ground laws are almost fine: the concept is legit, but the implementation leaves them open to some serious abuse. Even South Park noticed this years ago. To get straight to the point: Most Self Defense…
Pollution: You’re Soaking In It
Humans have a nasty habit of really messing up wherever they live. Especially businesses, and especially unregulated businesses. Economics has this concept they call externalities. These are the effects of a process that don’t have to be paid for by…
Inalienable: A Democracy Cannot Take Away A Citizen’s Right To Vote
This one seems to be inexplicably controversial. But seriously, follks. The right of all citizens to vote is what makes a democracy a democracy. Or a republic, for all you pedants in the back. It’s so much a part of…
DOJ Ball: This Has Already Gone Too Far
The Department of Justice has gone more than a bit freaky lately; see Wonkette’s PULL THE F*CKING FIRE ALARM and Bill Barr Breaks The Justice Department for some frankly revolting details. Regulatory Capture. That’s the concept in government that describes…
Tax This: All Taxes Should Be Progressive
Oooh; it’s that word. In this case, it has a specific meaning though. Progressive taxes are important. Progressive taxes are ones where the percentage you pay goes up the more resources you have to pay it with. In the United…
Saying It Isn’t So: There Are No “Other Ways Of Knowing”
Contrary to what seems to be a common belief these days, we do actually have an entire discipline for evaluating “ways of knowing”. It’s called “epistemology”. And it distinguishes between “belief” and “knowledge”. “Knowledge” is “justified true belief”. Meaning a…
Voice Assistants: Big Sister Is Watching You
Well, mostly just listening at this point. But don’t get cocky. I’m no fan of the Internet of Things, or “cloud” services (as should be obvious from Escrow: Keep The “Cloud” Honest). But voice assistant devices bring them to a…
Public Infrastructure: Should be Owned By The Public
That may seem obvious; it’s in the words, after all. But it’s really not that way at all. A helluva a lot of the “public” infrastructure of the United States is actually private property. For example, I live in Northern…
Impeachment: Not An Effective Solution
Well, that ended pretty much exactly the way everyone except Senator Romney expected it to. And he was only half surprised. I actually have several other things I want to write about. Right now, I even have 7 posts already…