With the passage of Proposition 67, California became the first state to ban single-use plastic grocery bags. It also requires most stores to charge shoppers 10 cents for either reusable plastic bags or paper bags. The idea is to manipulate people into using cloth totes to carry home their groceries. Hooray for the environment? Maybe.
August 13, 2016 will be the thirty-fifth anniversary of the largest tax cut in American history: The Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 (ERTA), sometimes referred to as the Kemp-Roth Act. This law is generally credited with beginning the economic boom which carried through the 1990’s.
I was scared. I had never encountered a time traveler before. He was scared, too. He held out the document to me. It was torn and burned at the edges, I took it. A flash of light and he disappeared. The contents of the document he gave me follows:
Many political events, TV channels, and magazines claim to be non-partisan and “fair”, but few achieve it or even mean it. Politicon, billing itself as the unconventional political convention, actually means it and achieves it. Their effort results a stimulating and entertaining event for political junkies. The second iteration of Politicon took place June 25-26 in Pasadena, California.
A recent edition of my local newspaper reports that the California Governor Brown had over 800 bills land on his desk, then goes on to detail how many bills and resolutions each of our local representatives managed to get enacted. “How many bills did you pass?” is the wrong question.
During election campaigns, candidates will often use phrases or arguments that are vague or undefined, but are designed to stir up emotions. Since, I would like to humbly suggest, we should use reason and not emotion in making these decisions, I’m going to offer some explanations the candidates have probably just been too busy to get to.
Elections have consequences. No matter where you are on the political spectrum, there are five debate tricks you need to know so, in the words of The Who, “We don’t get fooled again.” Being able to spot someone you oppose using one of these tricks will make you feel good. Spotting someone you like using them may give you second thoughts. There are more than five tricks, of course, but the following are the most common and most damaging to rational discussion.
I don’t make New Year’s Resolutions, but I do take advantage of this calendar transition to review mission statements, goals, and projects. As part of this annual refocusing I came across an exercise for determining your values and prioritizing them. As I proceeded through the exercise, it occurred to me that I might be doing nothing more than recreating Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Then I had an insight. His hierarchy doesn’t work for libertarians or other rational creatures.
Among the forums and blogs of the Internet, one often hears accusations that the proponent of an opposing view is motivated by monetary or power-related self interest or that he is just simply stupid. These kinds of accusations, although at times based in fact, are not helpful to the dialogue …
Liberals claim that drug addiction is a disease and requires medical treatment, but it is no more a disease than hitting yourself in the head with a hammer. — Leo of Mars
400 dairies, 100,000 cows, 106,300 chickens and 3,439 people
The pressure on this Earthling is just too much. Faced with imminent economic disaster, potential food and power shortages, and massive unemployment, he had to make a decision. Cut federal spending or save the northern Nevada Cowboy Poetry Festival. Good job, Harry. I hope you can figure out something that …
Flemming Rose – “If a believer demands that I, as a nonbeliever, observe his taboos in the public domain, he is not asking for my respect, but for my submission.”