People simply cannot get enough Ted Cruz these days. The Senator, one of two representing the state of Texas, perennial hotbed of Presidential candidates successful and otherwise, recently became the first official candidate to take the office of the Presidency…
Category: Politics (n.): a strife of interests masquerading
Choices: Too Many, Not Enough
“It’s a typical situation in these typical times too many choices… Oh, everybody’s happy everybody’s free we’ll keep the big door open everyone’ll come around. Why are you different? Why are you that way? If you don’t get in line,…
Overpopulation and the Growth Obsession
Did you ever wonder why property values always (2008 aside) go up? It just feels like one of those economic truths we imbibe at a young age, probably before we even take an Economics class, for those of us who…
Moment of Reflection
Last night, I had a disquieting and somewhat absurd realization that most people think it’s fine for some people to be rich and other people to be poor. I was struck anew by how difficult I actually find that to…
Fire in a Crowded Theater
This, I predict, will be an unpopular post. Few events in recent memory have brought such universal calls of immediate condemnation as Wednesday’s massacre of cartoonists and staff from the Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris. As a pacifist, I join…
Symmetrical Surveillance: Serial, the Panopticon, and Why Murder Rates Really Have Crashed
Two things seem to be really trendy these days, if you don’t count bashing Muslims (I’ll talk about that one and why it’s so wrong in a different post). Serial the podcast (which I discussed at length in November) and…
Password Protection and Self-Defeating Security
This country has a bit of a problem with a false sense of security. So-called revelations have been abounding this week over the extent and nature of some specific acts of torture enacted by the CIA during the Bush administration…
My Public Ballot, 2014 Louisiana Run-Off Edition
This is probably the most inconsequential election I’ve ever taken part in, especially given that my primary act was to abstain from the headline race because (a) it literally forced me to vote for a Democrat or a Republican and…
Cop Immunity
When I was in high school, I devised a thought experiment that I discussed extensively with my friends. It was called “Cop Immunity”. My question was whether someone would take the deal of having total immunity to all interactions of…
Why No One is Voting
Turns out my Facebook feed is the exception. No one is voting in the United States. According to the New York Times, the elections earlier this month set a 72-year low for voter turnout, with 36.3% voting. (For context, Catalonia’s…