Friday, October 18th, 2013
All around the world, food availability, income, and life span are up, while disease, child mortality, and violence are down. Though the world is still far from perfect, nearly everything is more affordable, not always in dollar terms, but always in the amount of human effort required to possess them. Now wait just a gosh-darn
Tuesday, October 15th, 2013
The curious affair of Fred Mudgeon began in 2015 when he, age 67 and largely blind, walked onto the field of the Washington Miquetoasts, the capital’s football team, and announced that he wanted to try out for...
Friday, October 11th, 2013
When someone says, “that’s cool,” it is a signal that all thinking has ceased. Therefore ‘cool’ has become a national addiction, for getting things done, that really don’t need doing. Take NASA for instance. It wasn’t so...
Monday, September 30th, 2013
“Breaking rocks in the hot sun. I fought the law and the law won.” That’s how the song goes. And many men find themselves working for nothing, by ignoring the law. But most had no idea “what”...
Wednesday, September 25th, 2013
Long before the word was invented, the world has been “multicultural.” And what’s more, it’s been multicultural in a real and meaningful way. Different peoples going about their lives in different ways. Each culture emphasizing a unique...
Thursday, September 19th, 2013
In my work, I sometimes rub elbows with the rich and powerful. Not long ago, I was doing some work for a multinational corporation based in Mexico and discovered something that perplexed me. The founder of this...
Wednesday, September 18th, 2013
Khun Anuphan, a 76-year-old Muslim fisherman from Rawai, sold a piece of ancestral land to developers for ten million dollars. He and his son, who brokered the deal, took the papers to his wife, Noina, for her...
Friday, August 30th, 2013
She was in her late twenties, with flowing brown hair and clear pale skin. I met her on my morning commute. The 880 from Oakland to San Jose is one of the worst commutes in the Bay...
Friday, August 23rd, 2013
“As a first step, I would see to it that things are called by their right names.” That was what Confucius said would be his first act if he were to govern a just society. He further...
Tuesday, August 20th, 2013
The Dickens of Detroit passed away yesterday. Perhaps the greatest writer of dialogue, even if you had never read one of his books, chances are high that you’d seen a movie created from one of them. They...
Monday, August 19th, 2013
I didn’t plan to get in a fight. I didn’t go looking for trouble either, but somehow trouble seems to find me. Well, that’s not exactly true, maybe I was looking for it just a little bit....
Friday, August 16th, 2013
When George Ayittey saw rock star Bono in the audience at a conference, he made a special effort to rip into the foreign aid establishment. Bono later told Ayittey that he liked his speech but did not...
Tuesday, July 30th, 2013
When I was a kid, my friends and I built a tree fort in the woods out behind the last suburb of town. On the front door we hung a sign that said, “No girls allowed.” Why...
Monday, July 29th, 2013
Apparently kids were pretty smart back in the day. At least at this Kentucky school, they were expected to know a bit more than ‘reading, writing, and rithmetic.’ Not only that, but I have it on good...
Sunday, September 29th, 2013
The Diner from Hell
Majority rule isn’t all its cracked up to be. And why should the will of the many impact the will of the few, if the few cause no harm to the many? Is it freedom of choice...