There was a time when choosing a political party was not terribly difficult. You either picked the party of your parents or the one that best represented a particular issue important to you – both in the same party if you were lucky. When you became disillusioned enough, you could declare yourself an Independent and reek as much havoc as possible on election politics. There’s growing and alarming evidence that an elitist ruling class has infiltrated both parties, making the … Continue reading “Republican, Democrat, Beggar Man, Thief”
Don’t Quit on What’s Right
If you are fully convinced you are in the right, then don’t quit on it when it gets hard. If you know you are in the right morally, don’t quit when everyone else decided to do what’s wrong. If you know it’s the ethically right thing to do, then don’t quit when no one else is doing it. Basically, don’t quit. The medieval period lasted about a thousand years. During most of that time, slavery was absent from Europe. The … Continue reading “Don’t Quit on What’s Right”
Information: Being Our Own Fact Checkers
Although I am a conservative, I’ve never been enamored with Reagan. I will concede that he was a much better president than I gave him credit for back in the day but a saint, he wasn’t. Still, one thing I always knew he had right was ‘trust, but verify’. Now, Reagan used that slogan in the Cold War talking about nuclear disarmament treaties with the Soviet Union but it’s really a very common sense approach to all information. We don’t … Continue reading “Information: Being Our Own Fact Checkers”
Corporations Can’t Vote
Back long ago while the Earth was still cooling and I was in college, political science journals were full of studies – some of them even good studies – that all said the same thing: beyond a certain point money had no effect on election outcome. The effect is strongest when the electorate is least well informed. Money works extremely well in local elections because so few people have any idea what’s going on in their local governments. If they … Continue reading “Corporations Can’t Vote”
Cosby Conviction Overturned
Disclaimer: not an attorney, and don’t play one on TV. Not familiar with Pennsylvania law. Can read a decision and have done so (link below). I am biased to heck and gone over this case. It was painful to read the decision because Mr. Cosby made admissions in the civil suit that do disturb me – not as a woman, but as the little girl who so looked up to the man who, utterly unbeknownst to him, helped her through … Continue reading “Cosby Conviction Overturned”
Fallacy for One; Truth for All
If you look up ‘slippery slope’ in any philosophy or logic textbook it will tell you that the slippery slope is a logical fallacy. All of the ones worth reading will and most of the bad ones will, too – because the Slippery Slope is in fact a logical fallacy. Trouble is, it’s also literally a political reality. How can it be both? Let’s look at why Slippery slope is a fallacy. Bob is a Reasonable Man. (TM) Bob does reasonable things … Continue reading “Fallacy for One; Truth for All”
Women’s Sports – Another Reason to Defund Universities
I’m old enough to remember why we have women’s sports programs in colleges – because of the inherently unfair practice of giving men scholarships to play a game. Frankly, the better solution would have been to end athletic scholarships at all – the NFL can just start a minor league if it needs a player farm. But schools make money on men’s sports so they had to offer the same scholarships to women. That’s the short version – the long … Continue reading “Women’s Sports – Another Reason to Defund Universities”
What’s Wrong With Polls
In two words, sample size. Well, see y’all tomorrow… Okay, so there’s a bit more to it. The use of what I call micropolls is now the norm. Current US population is a bit over 327,000,000 – three hundred and twenty-seven million human beings. In order to find out what they are thinking about a given topic, modern pollsters survey 1004 people. It can vary a bit but most will be just slightly over 1000. If you try that with … Continue reading “What’s Wrong With Polls”
The Marbury Mistake
Marbury v Madison. Every school child knows this decision. They have no clue what case law is or why it matters – unless it’s some weird version they got from a half read Wiki article – but they know Marbury v. Madison. Well, they know the name and the effect – don’t expect that they know what the case was about. Which is true for us older folks as well. If you didn’t study it in college, you were never … Continue reading “The Marbury Mistake”
Buy a Tee Shirt
In a month I will be asking for you to buy from me – but I wanted to write this now while I don’t even have a store. Speech takes so many forms – and the humble tee shirt is one of them. We often think of political speech as being confrontational or formal, as in writing a congressman. But political speech is no different from any other speech – the whole point is to get the idea across. To … Continue reading “Buy a Tee Shirt”