Last Sunday, as I was out running, a biker cruised by me, rode down the hill, and stopped at the red light at the intersection. (The intersection is a busy, main thoroughfare crossed with a local neighborhood road going the other. Visibility is about 200 yards, each way, on the main road.) As soon as he got there, I accurately predicted the rest of this story. He sat there at the light, waiting for the light to turn green. He sat there, and he sat there. Minutes went by. It was just after 6am, so the light needs to…
Remembering 9/11
One reason we remember 9/11 is because it’s the most significant, and closest thing we have to an act of war in most of our lifetimes. There’s no purpose to arguing whether or not Pearl Harbor was more important or significant than 9/11. One got us into a world war, and the other let us know we were years behind in a war being fought against us. I think the significance of 9/11 is that never, before then, have we, the United States, truly understood the lengths at which some people on the other side of the world will…
Guess what? We’re all busy
If you’re in a workplace, especially one in which things move fast and people are overwhelmed, please don’t spend any time telling people “I’m too busy,” or using it as an excuse to not do something. Everyone is busy. It’s kind of like saying, “I can’t right now, I’m breathing.” Yes, we’re all breathing. Stating the obvious doesn’t really advance the conversation. My anecdata suggests that the people who speak those words are the people to whom they don’t apply…
AOC doesn’t trust her friends – should you trust yours?
On September 4th, Alexandrea Ocasio-Cortez wrote this series of tweets. Much has been written about Ocasio-Cortez being a fool. I don’t know her, so I’m not in a position to say. But it’s evidence like this that supports the notion. It’s not about whether or not she’s right or wrong. I’m more interested in what she’s really saying. If you’re a friend of hers, what she’s really saying is that she doesn’t trust you. In fact, she can’t trust you. No matter what her experience has been with you so far. Taken a step further, you obviously can’t trust…
Losing control by trying to be in control – the driving edition
Have you ever tried to pass someone and had them speed up so you can’t? These people are sinister (and Socialist) because what they’re really seeking is control over you. (And others, presumably) Not content to simply drive the way they prefer, they’re also trying to make sure everyone else drives the way they want them to. And isn’t this really the source of most of our problems – not just on the road, but everywhere. If people would just do things the way they like, and get out of the way of others doing the same, all would…
Unfortunate timing… almost
I walked into a restroom for obvious reasons. As I was standing there at the stall answering nature’s call, I made one of my own. As I was standing there, I could barely hear the indicator that I was making a FaceTime call. Somehow, I initiated this call with a business vendor I sometimes use. Never one to use, or even hold, my phone while in a restroom (the subject of a different post), I had to dig in my pocket, pull out the phone, and correctly hang up the call. It didn’t occur to me for a few…
When it comes to racism, lazy thinking prevails
Yesterday, I wrote about racism being behind the propensity of white to be targeted and jailed for white collar crimes. As expected, the point seemed to be lost on many, from the emails I received. It wasn’t about white collar crime. It was about how easy it is to say that racism against whites is to blame. The real point was to mirror the claim that racism is to blame for the proportion of incarcerated blacks. If you read my post on white collar crime and thought it was illogical, wrong, or even ridiculous, doesn’t the same apply to…
Our justice system is racist… against whites
After a somewhat lazy search for statistics on white collar crime, I finally came up with a few, which are, unfortunately, not very recent. From the January 2006 edition of The Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, it was reported that the odds of a convicted white collar criminals being white are 4.51 to 1. In the Oxford Handbook of White-Collar Crime (also 2006), Paul Klenowski and Kimberly Dodson suggest that the great majority of offenders in jail for high-level corporate violations are indeed white. Assuming this is a) true, and b) continuing to trend this…
Keeping people captive must be exhausting
People who kidnap others… prison guards… soldiers who guard prisoners of war… They must be exhausted. I can’t imagine a job much more stressful than being responsible for making sure a prisoner or captive remains captive. The person you’re guarding is most likely constantly plotting and scheming ways to get out of captivity. Most of those methods probably involve making a move while you, the guard, is gone. But I’m sure some of them involve attacking you when you least expect it. And it’s 24 hours a day. It’s constant. You never know when they may make a move….
A humanist? Or a speciesist?
Never in my life have I ever found an animal cute. When people gush about how cute a puppy is, or when they melt at the site of a rabbit, I just never see what they’re seeing. It’s not repulsive, either. In my mind, it’s just what they’re supposed to look like. I’ve never understood pet ownership. Why would you have something in your house that may (or inevitably will) pee or poop on your carpet. Once that’s in there, it’s not going away. Sure, you can clean it so you can’t see it. And you may get the…