There were protests held in cities across the US yesterday in response to Trump’s and Elon’s actions during the first few weeks of Trump’s second term. I watched video clips of protestors in Raleigh, where I now live and in Pittsburgh, my former hometown. Although I think protests are largely ineffective, I can still see…
Unmasked
In the book “How I Found Freedom In An Unfree World“, the author, Harry Browne, writes that you should present your true self in all social situations in order to meet others who share your interests and values. He says that doing this will also repel people who don’t share common interests with you. Browne…
What If You Just Gave Them The Money?
A few years ago I read that Pennsylvania (where I lived for my first 35 years) spent ~ $60K per year for each person in prison. For comparison, I just looked up the current stats and read that my current home state of NC spends ~ $63K per inmate. Then yesterday, I read that the…
Sad Dreams
Yesterday I ate some foods outside of my regular diet – almonds, cheese and salsa. They were delicious – but totally not worth it. Within hours I had a headache, felt bloated and had a case of awful garlic/onion breath. That night, I tossed and turned in bed with nightmares while my body dealt with…
F**k The Poor
After observing the executive orders, hiring freezes, budget freezes and shutdowns from President Trump and Elon Musk over the past two weeks, one thing has become crystal clear to me. Neither one give two shits about poor people or about working class people. You don’t put large numbers of people’s jobs in limbo with no…
Here Comes The Pain
Trump’s new tariffs on China, Mexico and Canada go into effect today. He’s also promised there will be more new tariffs on European and Asian countries. When questioned repeatedly, he finally acknowledged that, “We may have in the short term, a little pain, and people understand that…” Several different analyses estimate these tariffs would cost…
The Woman and The Baby
This week, we finally came out of the frigid polar vortex that had plagued us for more than week. Our afternoon temperatures hit the 40s then the 50s and finally even reached the 60s yesterday. With the clear blue skies and warm sunshine, it was fantastic. As I was walking my dogs through the neighborhood…
What Am I Gonna Do About It?
Many times, I’ll sit down at my laptop and write a post full of fury and frustration. My readers, fortunately, are spared from ever seeing these posts because I don’t publish them. After I’ve written a rant, I’ll usually save it as a draft and reread it the next day. 95% of the time, my…
Free College
While I used to like the idea of free college, the more I think about it, the less I agree with it. First, nothing is free. If the US was to provide free college tuition, then we would be paying for this with taxes. Second, I’ve come to realize that college, for many students, is…
Predicting The Future
I have been reading “Thinking, Fast and Slow” by Daniel Kahneman. In it, he presents numerous studies, theories and examples of how people make decisions, predictions and analyses based on irrational reasoning. He writes about biases, sunk cost fallacies, poor risk assessment, probability miscalculations and other factors that weigh into people’s predictions for the future….