The Freedom Problem

September 4, 2011
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The trouble with free thinking and (worse) free action, is that we are like atomic particles attracted by things we don’t always understand. The end state is presumably happiness, contentment, or satisfaction (the positive) and avoidance of suffering, trouble, and dissatisfaction (the negative). For the mentally healthy, both are impossible to avoid. The problem with [...]

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1 week = 2 disasters

August 29, 2011
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Within the span of a week, my family had “The Kit” broke out — ready to bug out at a moment’s notice! These were exciting times as we weathered a somewhat harmless earthquake followed by a somewhat dramatic Hurricane Irene. As the east coast begins the week with recovery, we should respect the temporary nature [...]

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Economic Myths: We Separate Fact From Fiction

August 20, 2011
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by Michael Grabell ProPublica, Aug. 18, 2011, 3:44 p.m. With the recent Iowa straw poll [1] and President Obama’s bus tour [2], Americans are hearing a cacophony of arguments about the wobbly economy. The federal stimulus package passed in 2009 was either a deficit-busting failure full of wasteful projects or an unparalleled rescue that would [...]

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Bozos on the Bus (video): Kathy McMahon talks about annoying post petroleum people

August 15, 2011

Kathy McMahon from Peak Oil Blues has been publishing human reactions to the peak oil concept for several years.  I’ve always found her work provocative and important. From Treehugger: McMahon is clearly not of the techno-optimist school of thought. She has, in fact, coined a term she describes as “Panglossian Disorder” for those who dismiss [...]

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Prison Nation

August 13, 2011
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The United States is in a lockdown crisis. Atop of the list of states with a prison problem, California recently was forced by the US Supreme Court to either fix the unconstitutional overcrowding problem or let 33,000 prisoners free. Former police officer turned criminal justice professor, Peter Moskos has written a compelling case In Defense [...]

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