Spout

This site is full of ideas. Some of them might make you cringe. They may not align with your worldview, perspectives, or experiences. That’s a great thing.

Actions have consequences

In the past two weeks, there have been at least two instances of cars caught in the middle of Black Lives Matter protesters that have decided to hit the gas and get out of there. One of them was a police officer… The other was a regular citizen making the decision that if was going to be him or them, he was choosing him. (The absolute best thing about this video happens at 1:37: “You can’t just honk and run people over… OH!”)j Here’s another view of it… What strikes me about both of these is not the stupidity…

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Paying reparations

Can you imagine if everyone who suffered an injustice were paid reparations? How would we determine whether or not it was an injustice? And if we all agree it was an injustice (I mean, injustice happens all the time, but it’s still interpreted very differently from person to person), was it severe enough to warrant reparations? What is the statute of limitations on reparations? I think we can all agree that slavery constitutes a grave injustice (that has been happening to people of all races and religions since the dawn of recorded human history). There’s slavery happening to this…

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Choose your own election

Since I’ve been paying attention to American politics, I’ve always been fascinated by politicians who are seemingly universally disliked but still seem to win election after election after election. As a representative republic, it’s by design that we all vote for the person we want to represent our state or district. It’s one of the foundations of our Constitution and a great way to make sure we all have some sort of say. But imagine if we changed the rules. What if we made it so everyone was allowed to vote for one Senator and one Congressperson, but you…

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Packing the court

One of the threats (or promises) Democrats have been making for the last few years is that if they ever get control of the Senate again, they’re going to pack the Supreme Court by adding seats and the judges to fill them. The Constitution doesn’t say much about the Supreme Court. Essentially, the Senate is able to determine the size of the court. If they want to add or take away seats, it would be fairly easy for them to do. Given their behavior in the last year, in particular, it’s not hard to imagine that the Democrats would…

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Death by Zoom

As I was making it through what is now the normal day’s worth of Zoom calls, I couldn’t help wondering, “Has anyone on any of their work Zoom calls we’re all enduring witnessed a coworker die from something like a stroke or heart attack?” I figure, with the millions of people on Zoom each and every day speaking to their coworkers, someone has to have died during a call. Given the law of averages, it has to have happened. I mentioned this to someone (on a Zoom call, of course), and they forwarded this story to me about someone…

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RBG: The case against early voting

Now do you understand why early voting is a mistake? There are many reasons why early voting is a bad idea, and any one of them alone makes the case strongly enough to end the experiment. Here’s a few… Most obviously, you never know what will happen between the day you vote early and election day. Who saw the death of Ruth Bader Ginsberg coming? (Although, anyone paying attention to 2020 should have been able to guess that anything that can happen, will happen.) RBG’s death opens the door to a Supreme Court pick for President Trump and the…

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More exposure, more immunity

Basic science and years of experience tells us that the more exposure we have to germs, bacteria, and viruses, the more immunity we build. That’s why we let our kids play in sandboxes, pick up things off the floor and put them in their mouth, and play with other sick kids. It’s the single greatest argument we have for kids returning to school. By staying at home, the entire nation is weakening their immune system. By not exposing ourselves to the latest viruses and illnesses, we are only hurting our ability to overcome them. I think this may work…

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Vote to join the US

I was just reading about Hawaii and their vote to become the 50th state in the United States. How many countries around the world, if they were to take a vote, would vote to become one of our states? If you asked that a year ago, I suspect the answer would be quite a few. Sure, national pride and culture may make many vote against it, but I suspect we’d still get quite a few takers. But even now, with all of our discord and division, I wonder how many countries would love to hitch their proverbial wagon to…

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I get to write to you

It sure seems like we’re all taking a lot for granted these days. There are so many people who think they’re owed so much. I wonder how much better each and every protester could make their own lives if they took the time they spent getting up, going to the protest, and doing things to disrupt the lives of others, and spent it networking on LinkedIn or applying for a job or another degree. Perhaps if each protester started volunteering with local charities, or even starting their own, what kind of a difference they really could make. If the…

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Colin Kaepernick: the man who destroyed professional sports

I think it’s very possible that ultimately, Colin Kaepernick’s legacy may be as the man who destroyed professional sports. In 2016, when Kaepernick first kneeled for the national anthem, politics was officially introduced into American professional sports. Sure, there’ve been plenty of intersections between sports and politics in more “unofficial” ways. Many players left sports to join the military in times of war. Obviously, the racial integration of the leagues was a huge milestone. Many players have written things on their shoes or personal playing equipment. Most of the sports have embraced breast cancer awareness. The military often has…

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