An Origin Story of Religious Populists
If evangelical political thought wasn’t formed within the broad swath of the conservative press, where was it formed?
Category: ICYMI
The Need Is For Light
How often do we get the chance to link our discomfort with an apocalyptic orange sky to a decades-old sci-fi novel?
Against Primary Schooling: Anecdotes, Questions, and Commentary
To dismantle the primary school system is not desirable, but it is necessary. What we have now is a triumph of the middle of the 20th Century…
Information, But Dumber, Louder, and Wetter
Apparently it is some sort of time-honored ritual to make your meteorologist sacrifice themselves to the optics gods…but enough is enough.
Perverse Incentives
The key to successful government policy is through perverse incentive mitigation, usually through the Law of Unintended Consequences.
The Reckoning and a Reckless Thought Experiment
I’m supposed to want justice, but I’m not sure what justice will mean for me. I have been wronged…But I have also wronged others.
In Theory
We don’t live in a perfect world. This love of theory is why economics on an academic level is virtually useless.
Peak Performance
When all the world’s a stage democracy is vulnerable. As the GOP moved from formative to performative the common good gave way to personality.
The New Regularly Scheduled Flight 93 Election
The fact “Flight 93 election” has been resurrected for this election, and will be for each successive election, gives lie to the premise
Class and Race: Two Sides, Same Coin
Race, and to a larger extent, identity and class tend to intertwine and leaders have long used racism to get people to forget about class.
Out of Horror, Change
The beauty of change is first a horror, the writhing, serpentine figure of death setting fire and killing by almost any means a mind can imagine.
The Gang Problem
Even though this answer is rather simple, the people in charge who could make a difference refuse to make the changes necessary and haven’t for decades.
Hit the Road, Joad
There are no jobs, certainly enough jobs that exist in the kind of numbers that it would take to employ a mass exodus of Joads like me.
The Conservative Movement Shouldn’t Embrace Unions
Encouraging the flourishing of the individual is the best way to encourage honest, fulfilling work. That doesn’t mean supporting labor.
Election 2020 Chapter 5: Towards The Homestretch…
I suspect the movement we’ll see from here will be minimal, meaning Biden will have many paths to 270 versus Trump’s little room for error.
F’n Rubes Who Shovel S***, or Virtuous Manhood
The Tommy Shelbys and Nucky Thompsons of the world are parasites on the real men who make the world go round.
On Serbia, Kosovo, and Kicking the Can Down the Road
The two-page deal seems more like a list of good intentions, ambiguous promises, and an unspoken hope the hard decision can be delayed.
West Virginia, Mountain Mama
So much is happening right now that it’s hard to pay attention to any one particular thing, particularly my implausible escapades.
If You Wanna Make an Omelet, You Have to Break Some Faberge Eggs
Civilization is a Faberge egg. It is not just LIKE a Faberge egg, it IS a Faberge egg. Civilization is delicate, intricate, exquisite, and rare.
Dancing with the Asterisms
Asterisms, personified as so many lords and queens, rule us, but they do not govern with a static scepter. The scepter is a prop, a baton, in truth, as they dance.
