There is nothing more pointless in this world than televised coverage of the State of the Union address. Nothing surprising will happen. Nothing interesting will be said. No one will learn anything. It’s kind of like Oscar night for politicians, but it doesn’t even have silly little statues and most of the people involved aren’t…
This might sound a bit silly with the standard discourse being about DC statehood, but haven’t we gotten past the reason for needing DC in the first place? In 2022, why do our government officials need to gather in a certain location? Wouldn’t it be better if they actually lived among their constituents? If they…
It’s rare, very rare, that I read something and simply agree with it. Even if I agree with the main idea, I find issues with the details. Sometimes it’s an exceptional case. Sometimes it’s a metaphor stretched too far. That’s part of what I enjoy about reading. It challenges me. It forces me to see…
I find myself frustrated lately. I am vaccinated and I continue to wear a mask when I go out in public. I do so for several reasons. One is that my daughter is one of many unvaccinated people (she’s too young), and I would hate to spread COVID to someone who could be seriously hurt…
I don’t think Neera Tanden should run the Office of Budget and Management because she suggested that we should have Libya pay us back for attacking them, in order to convince Americans to continue to “engage” with the world in the future: It’s completely bonkers that Tanden put the ability to drop bombs on people…
Whenever I seriously discuss anarchy with others, I usually get one of two responses. The first is some form of, “People need to be led.” The second is, “Without authority, there’ll be chaos.” I can’t discredit either one of those concerns because they might be true. But our leaders aren’t trustworthy, and that’s a huge…
Everyone with siblings is probably familiar with the phrase, “It’s not a competition.” I have two brothers. We thought everything was a competition. My parents often had to remind us that dishes is not a competition. For years I’ve been saying that politics is not a competition. Politics lacks two necessary components of competitions. First,…
Jamil posed a question on my last post, “How do you hold someone accountable who made bad law despite good intentions?” It struck me not only as a good question, but an important question. Currently, we simply don’t hold our elected officials accountable for the quality or the quantity of the laws (or policies or…
The past four years have been pretty bad from almost any way you look at them. The world is less stable and secure than it has been since the eighties, at least. Racism and sexism and xenophobia and religious intolerance are all worse than they were four years ago. America is running concentration camps and…
Obviously, the immediate concern regarding the coronavirus is preventing deaths right now. As I wrote in another piece though, it concerns me that the general approach to the coronavirus has been essentially week-to-week. Warnings about the virus came as early as last November, so there are few excuses for why we were so unprepared. Better…
