The legislatures of this country frankly suck, and this is no secret. For example, polls regularly find more than 75% of their respondents think Congress is not responsive to their voters in any meaningful way. This is kinda by design.…
You Need To Read This: How To Avoid Swallowing War Propaganda
You very much need to read this, from Current Affairs. He’s right, and brave to say this. Saying that someone was “responsible for the deaths of U.S. service members” does not, in and of itself, tell us anything about whether…
Get It Right: “Extreme” Does Not Mean “Wrong”
The word “extreme” seems to have dropped quite a ways since the ’90’s, when that was exactly what every advertisement was selling. Maybe it’s the Boomers? But I doubt that Boomer reaction to Mentos-fueled Gen Xers has much to do…
Gun Control: More Than Just Hittin’ What Yer Aimin’ At
So, there’s a certain breed of … let’s say “gun enthusiast” … who often sports the slogan “Gun Control is Hitting What You Aim At”. Many of them like it ’cause “it totally 0wnz the l1bs”. These people are wrong.…
It’s Complicated: Not Everything Bad Is Racist
Folks who are really bothered by a particular issue, and focus on it to the exclusion of everything else, are really hard to talk to. Try talking to a Marxist about anything without them attributing it to economic class. OK,…
Setec Astronomy: Government By The [Redacted]
Can we (should we) trust anyone in the government with the ability to keep secrets from the citizens? No. Just, no. Restricting ourselves just to the current administration, for a moment, we know that they have classified records of embarassing…
News Flash: How Best To Read This Site
In fact, this is pretty much the best way to get all your online reading. RSS is your friend. For a description of what it actually is, and its history and suchlike, see Wikipedia. The important thing for now is…
Moar War: Well, That Was Timely
So, my last post (Just Sayin: How A Democracy Would Go To War) turned out to be waaaaay more timely than I’d planned. That’s probably not a good thing. I’m not trying to be timely. I decided to start writing…
Just Sayin: How A Democracy Would Go To War
War is bad, mmmkay? But sometimes, it’s necessary. The thing is, we really, really, don’t agree on when. Hell, at this point there’s an active component of the American public who think we shouldn’t have gone to war against the…
I’m Not OK With This: Depending On Norms Is Dangerous
Norms can be nice; a lot of people like it when they can depend on other folks to just behave the same way they would. But they really don’t work in governments. Firstly, of course, a government that runs on…