MicroGroks
I recently read an article about Democratic Party strategists discussing the importance of avoiding the words ‘socialism’ and ‘socialist’ in future campaigns, because they don’t sit well with large numbers of voters. To be clear, they weren’t talking about giving up socialist policies. Just about calling them something else. Lying about them, if you will. …
Want to Unify America? Stop Talking About Democracy. Read More »
There is an old Chinese saying that if you chase two rabbits, both will escape. Before making decisions about what to spend, and how to get the money, and from whom, we have to decide what we’re trying to do: Educate children? Provide daycare and other social services to parents? Create job security for teachers? …
School funding: What problem are we trying to solve? Read More »
In 1984, Steve Martin and Lily Tomlin starred in All of Me, a physical comedy in which one body had to be shared by two very different personalities, with very different goals. As you might expect, there was a whole lot of lurching going on. It was very funny to watch Steve Martin moving around …
For the longest time, there seemed to be consensus in Hollywood that if some object conveyed too much power on its bearer, the only acceptable solution was to destroy it. So Harry Potter had to destroy the Sorcerer’s Stone. Lara Croft had to destroy the Triangle of Light. Frodo had to destroy the One Ring. …
While he was Vice President, Joe Biden committed an impeachable offense, then confessed to it on video in front of an audience. So why aren’t impeachment hearings being held yet? What are we waiting for, Christmas? How do we know it was impeachable? Because he actually did the thing that President Trump was accused of …
Let’s say your marginal tax rate is 25 percent. That means, out of the next dollar that you earn, you have to fork over a quarter to the federal government, and you get to keep the rest. (That’s one way to look at it. A more accurate way to view things is that out of …
Here’s how a budget works. You have some income to work with (a salary, for example, or a pension, or the interest from some investments), and you figure out how you’re going to live within that income. This is true whether you’re talking about a household or a business. With a budget, income limits expenditures. …
I just watched the fascinating documentary Out of Shadows, and learned for the first time that Disney owns both ABC and Fox. I was surprised, and dismayed… and confused. If you look at the movies that Disney produces for children, there’s a strong theme that runs through many of them. Most of the ones I’m …
Is there anything more hysterical than impeaching a president who has a week left in office? If there is, I’m having trouble thinking of it just now. It’s hysterical in both common senses of that word: the original meaning of ‘marked by uncontrollable extreme emotion’ (or simply ‘out of control’), and the more modern meaning …
The phrase Ontogeny Recapitulates Phylogeny isn’t strictly true, but it packs a lot of insight into a small number of words. It’s also fun to say. Basically, it asserts that the stages an animal embryo undergoes during development are a chronological replay of past evolutionary forms for that species. For example, if there are fish …
