Essential

Must-reads from the Bubbler

When your voting base is the uninformed

It’s hard to quantify these things, but it would seem the “get out the vote” effort is greater this election than any other I’ve lived through. Now, is it a fair assumption that most get out the vote efforts are driven by left-leaning activists? And, is it also fair to say that their target audience are those who are otherwise not inclined to vote because they’re not following the election, they don’t really pay attention to the news, or they simply don’t care? If there’s truth to the first two questions, then isn’t it fair to say that left-leaning…

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1+1=74

I was skipping through the news and saw a clip of Joe Biden on BBC America telling a rally that we must not let the Republican Party divide us. I couldn’t help but think: “Which party continually talks only in terms of blacks, transgenders, women, gays, Hispanics, white males, etc?” Democrat politicians and activists consistently “celebrate diversity” and frame every political topic according to what slice of America is getting hurt by it and who’s benefitting. You will seldom hear a Democrat refer to all Americans. Sometimes I’m stunned by the brazen projection that goes on.

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Do we still believe in winning?

I was having lunch with a friend last week when we started talking about Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” campaign. Trump’s campaign is centered on casting events as competition that America is either going to win or lose. Economically, America is either going to beat China or lose to China. In the “war on terror,” we are either going to beat Islamofascists or lose to them. And so on… In our conversation, I asked my friend the question, “Do you think Americans still believe in winning?” What I meant was, are we still a nation of competitors who…

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Driving while texting: Bad. With a live animal in your lap? Good.

While everyone’s concerned about people texting or talking on a cell phone while driving, I’ve never once heard anyone mention the safety issues around driving with a live animal on your lap. I’m not disputing the dangers of texting while driving. Things can happen quickly, and if you’re looking at your phone at the wrong second, it can change your life forever. But in Seattle, where people have more dogs than children, seeing drivers with pets in their lap is not an unusual site. (And if I had to guess, I’d say many of these people are the same…

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Poor people smile

Money can’t buy happiness. You hear that a lot growing up. And then, as you get older, you often learn it the hard way. Sometimes by getting a high paying job and being miserable. Other times, because you’re happy as you can be making a below average salary. When people talk about minimum wage increases, economic policy, and the middle-to-lower class workforce, they often end up describing the poorer people they’re trying to help as miserable, uneducated, and unfulfilled. But I think people lose site of what it’s really all about. Sure, in many ways, life is easier with…

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Spatial relations

Part of being respectful of others is respecting their space. Most people do this, but I sometimes wonder if it’s regional. I’ve lived in many place in the US, and in places like the Midwest, people seem pretty aware of their surroundings. During my last visit to Up North, every time I walked, ran, or biked on the main roads, every car that passed moved over into the other lane to give me some space. It was similar living in other parts of the Midwest. Contrast that to my last time in the Pacific Northwest, where cars militantly drove…

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Selective science

The man-made global warming/climate change/ozone hole alarmists are quite adamant about claiming those who don’t agree with them are science deniers. You see, there is no debate. The consensus is that the future is certain (as it so often is), and that we are destroying the planet. The science, they say, is settled. And if you don’t believe it, you are a science denier. Funny thing, though, that these are the same people, so guided by science, who don’t believe that a person born a male is necessarily a male, and a person born a female is female. Who…

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Racismists run rampant

We’re all racist. You’re racist. I’m racist. Everyone is racist. Liberals know they’re racists, so that puts them at least kind of on the side of the victims of racism (or at least forgiveable). Conservatives are super obvious blatant racists. Everyone knows that. But what if it’s not racism? What if it’s racism fatigue? What if the people we consider racists are really racismists? Racismists are those who reflexively are just sick of accusations of racism that have no legitimate or coherent reason or evidence. They’re sick of all bad things that happen to any black people being blamed…

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Imagine

Can you imagine 535 new congressmen in the nation’s capital? (Yes, I realize we only vote for one-third of the Senate at a time.) Instead of slowly bringing in new people who can be taught by the old how to grease each other’s palm and scratch each other’s back to entrench themselves in the system, you’d have 535 people who wouldn’t even know where their offices are. There’d be no existing relationships with lobbyists. No one would be well-versed in parliamentary rule. They’d probably have to rewrite the rules of the House and Senate. They’d look at the way…

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Capitalists vs industrialists (or conservatives vs liberals)

I recently read an old Seth Godin post in which he made a distinction between capitalists and industrialists. Among other things, he said “Industrialists are not capitalists. Capitalists take risks. They see an opportunity, an unmet need, and then they bring resources to bear to solve the problem and make a profit. Industrialists seek stability instead. Industrialists work to take working systems and polish them, insulate them from risk, maximize productivity and extract the maximum amount of profit.” He went on to say “Industrialists don’t mind government regulations if they write them, don’t particularly like competition or creativity or…

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