Essential

Must-reads from the Bubbler

The answer to everything: state rights

There’s been years of reporting on how divided our country has become, and it’s so unnecessary. We’re always going to have disagreements, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But the source of our current divide is that people have lost the ability to disagree. We don’t know how to have debates, if not arguments, but realize that, in the end, we’re all on the same side. We need a solution, and I’m confident I have one. This will remove all of the bitterness and resentment between liberals and conservatives. The answer to all that ails our society is right…

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The secret history of conservatives and race relations

Perhaps the greatest ongoing miss by the Republican Party’s marketing department – the worst marketing department in the history of marketing departments, is on race. It’s not a stretch to say nearly no one knows the conservative history as it relates to racism. As we head into the 2020 election, now would be the perfect time for President Trump to address race in this country. By sharing the Republican history on race, he could single-handedly change the Democrat narrative that all conservatives are racist. Did you know Martin Luther King was a registered Republican? Were you aware that Lincoln,…

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Move the capital to Omaha, NE

Do you think that if we moved the capital of this country from Washington, D.C. to Omaha, Nebraska, that we’d see a change in the kind of people who wanted to be there? Do you think we’d still attract people who wanted to stay in power… stay in Omaha, for 40 years? Do you think everyone would be drawn to Gillette to be a lobbyist? Do you think so many in the lawyer community would be drawn to Gillette? There may be a solution here somewhere…

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Hiring Day still serving to hold back blacks

I’ve been following politics closely since 1985. That’s 35 years of New Years Days. In all those years, I’d never heard of “Hiring Day” until this year. But I’m not surprised at the effort to make it a story in this political environment. “Hiring Day,” in the days before the Civil War, was the day that slave contracts expired and/or were renewed. (Think of it like the start of free agency in the NFL, NBA, or MLB.) On this day, slaves would either be traded to another owner or renewed with their current owner. Aside from the already horrific…

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The wisdom of Joe Strummer

I’ve long made the case that it’s lazy thinking to dismiss information because of the source. “Where did you hear that? Fox News?” “Is that what MSNBC told you?” It goes on… The fact is, discounting a source, or assuming they’re lying is lazy thinking and stunting your own ability to learn, develop, and possibly change. The way people dismiss news sources, you’d think if Fox News reported our Supreme Court has nine judges, some would accuse them of lying just because it’s Fox News. (Our Supreme Court does have nine judges, for the record…) Fast forward to Joe…

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Diversity, but from who’s perspective?

One of the popular trends in management these days is giving the entire staff a personality test so we can understand what kind of people they are. Then managers are to learn how to speak to each individual in a way that resonates best with their varying personality types. One manager learning countless different ways to say the same thing to X number of employees. At the same time, companies are racing to see who can create the largest “diversity and inclusion” department in the their industry, so they can publicize their “commitment to diversity” and attract the employees…

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Is the U.S. worth fighting for?

There’s an idea growing in the United States that our founding was illegitimate. The idea goes that we were established by evil white men who selfishly built this country for their own gain, on the backs of slaves imported from Africa. And because of that slavery, everything that has been built, and the traditions that have evolved are born of sin and need to be eradicated. Basically, whether they know they are saying this or not, their idea is we need to wipe the slate clean and start over. And doing that will make us pure because they believe,…

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Lazy vs helpless

Conservatives are often accused of being heartless and cruel to the suffering. According to most research, self-described conservatives donate more time and money to charity than do self-described liberals – they just don’t spend any time talking about it. Conservatism is about empowering the individual because all people are capable of reaching their potential and accomplishing great things. “Great things” doesn’t mean that everyone is capable of curing cancer or single-handedly advancing the productivity of society. “Great things” means doing something great at any level. Sometimes greatness is opening a restaurant by preparing food in a way that no…

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Virtue of self-sufficiency

As the saying goes, give a man a fish and he can eat for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he will eat for a lifetime. The point is not a new one: teach someone to do for themselves, and with hard work and perseverance, they can make something of themselves. Hard work doesn’t always produce riches. Life is not fair, and you can be the most moral and well-intentioned, hardest worker in the country and you might still make minimum wage. But I don’t think you work hard just so you can be rich. To me,…

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Selfishness

People are selfish. But, being selfish, and aware of one’s own selfishness, is the key to a thriving society. When on an airplane, they tell you that if the oxygen masks come down, always put your own on before you help the person next to you. This is a great metaphor for life. Before we can be at all helpful or useful to others, we have to have our own house in order. People need to be grounded, satisfied with who they are and what they’re doing with their life before they can start helping others. People love to…

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