A few years ago, I was looking to hire a copywriter. My budget was around $65-$70K. A few weeks into the process, I found an excellent copywriter who had a lot of great experience and had proven her ability to write truly concise and impactful copy. I had a good feeling about her, and sure enough, she went on to quickly become one of my most effective writers. When it came time to start talking to her about logistics like benefits and salary, I asked her how much she was looking to make. She sheepishly said, “$35,000? Is that…
Driver IQ test
If you are, or have ever been, unfortunate enough to drive in Seattle, you’ve been privy to what amounts to a driver IQ test. If you want to know who the smart citizens are and who the dim ones are, you need only to camp out at an intersection with two lanes on each road and a stop light. All of the people lined up behind one another, one after the other, are the low IQ drivers. The one person in the other lane is the smart driver. The one driver in the line of 10 cars, next to…
LGBTQ Day of Silence
Today is the LGBTQ Day of Silence. That means for just one day this year, the LGBTQ movement is going to shut the hell up and allow us all a day of peace where we can all go about our business without having to be angry about one group’s grievances. We can all treat each other with the normal respect we do, without having to worry about someone being offended, misinterpreting something they hear, or enduring some perceived slight from an unknowing fellow citizen. It’s the one day a year where nothing remotely, tangentially related to the LGBTQ movement…
Socialism vs capitalism
Socialism lends itself to the worst temptations of man by encouraging gain at other people’s expense. Capitalism understands that men are not angels and builds in safeguards and peer pressure to prevent them from ruling over others. They’re complicated philosophies… but not that complicated.
Who would you like to meet in Heaven?
Papa von Higgenbotham and I were recently talking about death, and I asked him who would he look forward to meeting in Heaven? I was curious if he would talk about departed family members or perhaps more historical figures. It was neither. Instead, he answered: “You know, Ruben… there are billions of dead who have died and gone to Heaven. What are the chances that I would even run into anyone I know, much less someone famous?” This is a perspective I’ve never heard. Who thinks of Heaven as a busy city with hustle and bustle, where the only…
The fundamentals of passing
I spent nearly 40 hours of the past week driving the highways of the United States. Unfortunately, there was one consistent element to the entire drive that we need to address as a nation if we’re to have any future: People need to learn to pass. Being a fairly aggressive driver, I was traveling at higher speeds than most everyone on the highway. This meant I was passing people quite frequently. While people did a solid job of driving in the right lane unless they were passing (except for in California, Oregon, and Washington, where they have all sorts…
Leftist word association
When you say the following words to a leftist, I imagine there responses would look something like this: Whites = racist Blacks = helpless Illegal immigrants = Democrat voters Women = victims Police = killers Hispanics = unskilled labor Middle America = uneducated hicks Tech professionals = important Republicans = white supremacists Democrats = useful idiots Celebrities = important Wealthy people = educated The pattern here is that leftists don’t see individuals. They see groups. However you want to group people, leftists see everyone in that group as the same. Blacks all think alike. Police all want to kill…
Big pan flute
Big pan flute is taking over our cities. It was easier to see prior to the lockdowns, but it was difficult to visit a farmer’s market or tourist attraction in any big city across America without running into a Native American pan flute group playing El Condor Pasa, by Simon and Garfunkel. For years, I would witness these groups, all playing the same song, and wonder if it was, in fact, just the same group of five guys touring the country, playing only that song. I’m afraid I have no evidence to suggest otherwise.
Obama’s place in history
People give U.S. President’s way too much credit. No one President can single-handedly fix or wreck the economy. They can’t individually solve a problem. They can rarely enact a policy all on their own. They can share a plan or express a solution, but the United States government was designed to build multiple dependencies so that there has to be agreement or compromise to get anything done. This is supposed to prevent a dictatorship. The greatest individual power a President has is to set the cultural tone. They have the power to direct and influence if people are paying…
London Breed’s qualifications
I recently visited the disaster that is San Francisco. I went for a walk around the city and noticed that random streets were closed from vehicle access. It’s called the “Slow Streets Program,” and the purpose is to create more space for socially distanced walking and biking. I asked my friend if London Breed is qualified to be Mayor. “Of course,” he said. “She’s black, and she’s a woman.” Let that list of qualifications sink in a minute. Sure, anyone could, in good faith, list her resume of experience. But how many times do we hear politicians and activists…