Clearing Clutter
During a drive through my old neighborhood in Brooklyn this morning, I passed a building with a "sold" sign plastered over the "for sale" banner that had been affixed to its front. The building used house a steakhouse restaurant, one that I had frequented on occasion...
More Hierarchical Clarity
A recent editorial at Investors Business Daily discusses the Left's abandonment of respect for science with regard to GMO foods and crops. This is nothing new, but even in "old news," we sometimes find new information. Of particular interest is the mention of a study...
Rights and Boundaries
Democratic Senator Lindsey Graham recently opined, during a press conference urging further restrictions on gun rights, that: every right Ñ whether speech or buying a weapon or any other constitutional right Ñ has boundaries on it Graham's assertion was made in...
We Don’t Need No Stinking Borders
Secretary of State John Kerry recently gave a commencement speech to Northeastern University graduates, wherein, amongst a whole lot of Trump bashing, he noted: You're about to graduate into a complex and borderless world. Predictably, the conservative blogosphere has...
Too Much Information
Information, -- for lack of a better word -- is good. In case it's not obvious, either ipso facto or from the hyperlink, I'm channeling Gordon Gekko's speech on greed from the movie Wall Street. Information is right. Information works. Information clarifies, cuts...
Gun Policy Prescriptions
A recent conversation I had about guns and gun policy crossed the increasingly common argument that pro-gun people are simply saying that gun crime and mass shootings are a price they're willing to pay in order to keep their guns. I'd call this a straw man, but straw...
Judging Others’ Choices
An article over at The Federalist posited an interesting question about what society accepts and what it does not. Why Is Transgender An Identity But Anorexia A Disorder, is about where we draw the line between individual choice and mental illness, but it raises a...
Feeding Narratives
Yesterday's Benghazi report (well, reports - there's a Republican version and a Democratic version) coupled with a conversation I had with a neighbor brought to light an interesting paradox about our modern, information-rich society. Despite having unprecedented...
Democrats and Democracy
Stress tends to bring people's true colors out, a truism observed by the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. Great...
Contempt and Contemptibility
I'm a libertarian. This means that, unless I deliberately seek one out, I run very little risk of finding myself in a libertarian echo chamber. I live in a reliably blue state/county/metropolitan area/city. This means that, unless I deliberately seek to avoid one, I...
Shock and Condescension
A few years ago, I attended a small party, a birthday celebration for a friend of a friend. The celebrant's husband worked for the United Nations, as did some of the other party goers (all Europeans). They were nice enough people, but my lingering memory of that night...
Keep Your Politicians Closest
Thoughts on the Brexit This morning's news that the Great Britain's voters chose to leave the European Union, a decision that caught the money people of the world by surprise, sent markets tumbling, shocked politicians and prognosticators, and will have rippling...
A Broken System
Among the rulings handed down today by the Supreme Court is a one-sentence affirmation of a lower court ruling that blocked the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA) plan. I won't go into the details of the plan here, other...
Hierarchical Clarity
It was rather predictable that the Orlando shooting would devolve into an effort to further strip citizens of their rights. The Left wants gun rights infringed in various fashions, the Right wants more power granted to law enforcement, both sides want to curtail 4th...
Quivering Chihuahuas
Ever cross paths with a woman carrying around a small dog as a fashion accessory? Oftentimes, those little creatures can be seen quivering in fear from the overload of oversized surroundings, loud noises, hustle and bustle. I imagine that some students at the...
Very Smart and Very Wrong
There's a long-standing tradition in politics of deeming the guy at the top "stupid" if you don't like his politics. George W. Bush is arguably the most famous of our recent presidents to suffer such slings and arrows, but if you Google "(fillintheblank) is stupid...
You Must Choose
The Orlando shooting's deflection and devolvement into yet another gun rights debate has, predictably, brought bobbing to the surface the same old arguments and tropes in favor of infringing on citizens' rights, including simultaneous arguments that the Second...
We Don’t Trust You… Trust Us!
Every time something really bad happens, people cry for safety, and the government answers by taking rights away from good people. -- Penn Jillette The President, the main stream press, liberals, and anti-gun folks (but, I repeat myself) have turned the Orlando...
*Something* Must Be Done!
Our human nature prompts us to react when confronted with a stressful action or situation. The fight-or-flight reaction is physiological, and thus we naturally seek some sort of measurable response when we witness a bad act or bad situation. So it goes with atrocities...
Orwell, Occam’s Razor and Orlando
A man, born and raised in the Islamic faith, whose father was a vocal critic of America, a vocal supporter of the Taliban, whose faith not only calls homosexuality a sin but calls for its punishment, called 911 to pledge allegiance to ISIS, then walked into a gay bar...
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