I just returned from a vacation to Florida, driving both ways. As we drove through cities, particularly Washington and New York, I reflected on the presence of expanded lanes and dedicated commuter lanes. Knowing what we know now, these solutions to commuter traffic are inferior to developing better public transportation. I would suggest further that [...]
Continue reading about Commuter Lanes and Public Transportation
A teachable moment recently occurred on The Middle Class Forum. I received a comment faulting how I related entitlements to stockholders. I approved and replied to that comment, but I’m going to cut and paste that reply here for three reasons: 1) my original reply was “off the cuff” and there was sloppiness in my [...]
I organized my book Systems out of Balance to reflect the layers of problems we face. On the surface are economic problems, but underneath that surface are political problems, and underneath that are cultural problems. Just so, this series on restoring balance follows a similar sequence. Economic solutions are the most easily envisioned, but out [...]
Continue reading about Restoring Cultural Balance – Independence over Indulgence
The length of this letter calls for another two-pager. You will note from the date that it is during the 1960 election year. It was seldom hard to figure out where Pop stood on things.
Norfolk, Conn.
July 23, 1960
Mr. Harold Lufkin, V.P.
Newton Mfg. Co.,
Newton, Iowa.
Dear Mr. Lufkin:
Am sending your clipping back and thanks a lot for [...]
Continue reading about Pop’s Letters – July 23, 1960 – Part One
Last week I began with a deconstruction of Mark Levin’s Liberty and Tyranny, going over the three basic types of information (dogma, omission, distortion) found in the first chapter. To recap, Levin takes a dogmatic approach to knowledge and politics, which historically retards progress and prevents learning from experience. A center point of Chapter One [...]
Continue reading about Liberty and Tyranny – Initial Misinformation Purpose
This is the concluding entry for this week’s series on natural rights and cultural entitlements. The natural rights were free will, free thought and, for lack of a better concept in today’s greed-based economy, merited consequences. Privacy was introduced as a cultural entitlement that many might think is a natural right, based on mistaken assumptions [...]
The times I have come closest to death have been in the wilderness. One time involved a bear; one time involved a cliff; and one time involved a freezing hail and lightning storm. Regardless of those mishaps, when I am done with the parenting phase of my journey I will again subject myself to the [...]
The previous three entries on The Middle Class Forum described free will, free thought and merited consequences as our natural rights. Our guaranteed liberties do not stem from our natural rights so much as from cultural entitlements. The big three cultural entitlements that we frame as liberties are privacy, property and security. Out [...]
Imagine that you are offered a choice for home entertainment that is to last you the rest of your life. One choice is a television with only one station available, a news station run by a corporate giant, but includes three different video game consoles with twenty games from different companies to choose from. The [...]
Question: When is a liberty no longer a liberty?
Answer: When it turns into a special interest.
During this past week I attended the NEARC conference in Hyannis, Massachusetts. I am GIS specialist, a computer cartographer, and this conference featured different applications of the GIS software we use. A veritable smorgasbord of applications are presented and we [...]
