The National Temper Tantrum

Following Trump winning the election, Twitter, Facebook, and the blogosphere exploded with adults becoming children and throwing a nationwide temper tantrum. And true to expectations, few seem to be learning anything thing from what happened. Adults threatened to unfriend Facebook friends because they hold a different viewpoint.1 A rare few …

The Straw Man Fallacy

The straw man fallacy is simple: instead of arguing against someone’s (or for your own1) established opinion, you argue a weakened form of it. This makes it easier to ignore the difficult parts of the argument while convincing yourself (and others) that you are correct. While it is intellectual dishonesty …

Are We Smarter Than Our Predecessors?

James Kalb — Against Inclusiveness Governments Living in America means that many believe unequivocally that the U.S. Constitutional democracy is the greatest form of government that has ever been. Except that it has been amended on 18 separate occasions. The most recent? 1992. Guess what? People from other countries like their …

A Problem of Culture

A recent study on police use of force by Harvard economist Roland Fryer found no evidence of racism in police shootings. This was lauded by those who wish to deny the existence of an anti-black bias. But lethal use-of-force incidents make up a tiny fraction of police interactions. The study found widespread systemic racism in …

What Evil Conspiracy?

In the last 60 years the Supreme Court of the United States has had exhibited two trends: the number of both unanimous decisions and 5-4 split decisions has grown to historical highs. All the stuff in between is in decline. It is in those split decisions where the problem lies. …

Sarah’s Journey: A Tribute

This post is a tribute to Sarah Barr, who at the age of 19, lost her seven year battle with Ewing’s sarcoma, a childhood cancer. She now resides in the hands of God. In 2013, Sarah Barr made an oil painting based on one of my monarch butterfly photos. As the …