Category Archives: social sciences

The Fiction of Control

There is a sense in which no man can be ruled who does not permit it. People in the aggregate prefer the results of letting governments take charge of things, and a host of cultural and contextual factors affect that, … Continue reading

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Generous Considerations

Who wants to be regarded unfeeling and selfish? I won’t say it’s all a band-wagon effect, but there is a ton of stuff about aiding the Haitians on blogs and news sites. I will say far, far too many of … Continue reading

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We Are Not In This Together

The first and most important signal of impending oppression is alienation from the enforcers. To the degree you find yourself in a community where the police tend to view citizens as the enemy, you are in a police state. It … Continue reading

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Actionable Evil

You’ve seen the horror films, or read the horror stories, wherein someone finds a way to measure criminal intent directly. It is as if there is some activity in the human mind which can be read from the outside, correlated … Continue reading

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Sporting the Truth

Why do men love “fantasy leagues” so much? Because it allows them to assert their own human logic over something too variable to explain. We have come to the point we can reduce a player’s entire performance to statistics, as … Continue reading

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Security Theater: Stop Making Sense!

Bruce Schneier is so dangerous! He points out how the emperor is naked: Beyond Security Theater. If you find reading my blog worth your time, you’ll find this one essay even more so.

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DMV: Why It’s Broken

We all know what is meant by the nasty bureaucracy of any state’s Department of Motor Vehicles. It’s a byword, and we can make jokes about it. My old friend Jim Bennett of George Mason University traveled in the Soviet … Continue reading

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False Divide: Right versus Left

From ancient times, we understand humanity lived first under tribal social and political structures. The first kings were actually warlords, men who gained authority because they were effective in leading during emergencies which threatened the community. Eventually the respect and … Continue reading

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Fort Hood Massacre: Buried in Deception

With a little experience, you can tell when conflicting reports are natural to the process, and when they are proof of deception. You don’t even have to guess at what the officials are trying to hide. Something in the mass … Continue reading

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Ron Paul Proves It’s Pointless

Hats off to Ron Paul. From within the system he has striven to make things go right. He preaches the Constitution, does everything he can to get folks to abide by it, works to restrain or remove anything in government … Continue reading

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