Do All Votes Matter?

Do All Votes Matter?

I came across the below image recently when at an office where most were congratulating themselves that Biden "won": Mostly my reaction was to roll my eyes and keep going, until the thought crossed my mind much later. Sure, the dialectic - and an accurate - response is “ballots aren’t votes” - that just because I or anyone else fills in five thousand ballots means that they are legitimate and should be counted. Incidentally, this also addresses the following: This of course conflates two dif…

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Going Analog.

Going Analog.

OK, not quite. Nevertheless, a process I started last year is accelerating, and while "going analog" isn't accurate, it captures the feel better, and is more accurate by far than "retro" or "simplifying." It started with a watch. I know, I know, the phone has become a de facto pocket watch, and for most guys, a watch is just a fashion piece. Nevertheless, around this time last year, I realized I was still looking at my wrist for the time after more than a decade without one, and spent a few d…

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Reflections on Childhood

One of the things we do far too little of these days is let kids be kids. Yes, I know. We also simultaneously don't teach kids responsibility. They're not all that far apart though. In a very real sense, the former directly leads to the latter. Look at a playground these days. They've gotten a little more interesting of late, but singsets, tall slides, and "monkey bars" as well as large climbing frames and domes people my age knew well in elementary and middle school are just gone, along wit…

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Efficiency and Money Are Not the Only Measures

Efficiency and Money Are Not the Only Measures

Tucker Carlson, debating Ben Shapiro, made the libertarian end of the sphere lose their shit [https://youtu.be/z3E1I4lu6u0]. > So would you, Tucker Carlson, be in favor of restrictions on the ability of trucking companies to use this sort of technology specifically to, you know, sort of artificially maintain the number of jobs that are available in the trucking energy? Are you joking? In a second. In a second! In other words, if I were president and ran the DOT, Department of Transportation,…

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No Future Orientation

No Future Orientation

Over at the Economist they ask the question of "What explains America's mysterious baby bust?" [http://archive.is/kzqwF]. Immediately under the headline they note "Hispanic Americans are having fewer babies, as are city-dwellers". You don't say? For example, they observe: > The fertility rate has fallen more sharply in large cities than in smaller cities or rural areas (see chart 2). Then immediately try to explain it as follows: > Rents and prices have soared, making it harder to afford a…

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