Ian Underwood, Author at Granite Grok - Page 35 of 52

Ian Underwood

Ian Underwood is the author of the Bare Minimum Books series (BareMinimumBooks.com).  He has been a planetary scientist and artificial intelligence researcher for NASA, the director of the renowned Ask Dr. Math service, co-founder of Bardo Farm and Shaolin Rifleworks, and a popular speaker at liberty-related events. He lives in Croydon, New Hampshire.

Clothes make the law

About a year ago, I suggested that elected officials should dress down (chambray shirts or polo shirts; jeans or khakis) instead of dressing up (suits and ties).  Dressing up misrepresents the nature of their jobs, allowing them to obscure what they’re doing — which is acting like our bosses instead of like our employees.  Now I’m …

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What makes something ‘constitutional’?

Here’s a little thought experiment.  Let’s say the New Hampshire constitution says something.  Call it x.  But the legislature passes a statute saying the opposite of that, ~x. The governor signs it.  And when challenged in court, the Supreme Court approves it.  Two questions:

Karen vs. Karen

Imagine that two people are doing something that is voluntary, consensual, and peaceful.  Now imagine that a third person — let’s call her Karen — objects to what they’re doing, not because it directly affects her, but because she disapproves.

Punishing the innocent

One of our oldest and most cherished principles is that punishing innocent people is to be avoided at all costs.  (Blackstone said that ‘it is better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer’.  Benjamin Franklin raised that from ten to a hundred.)  And yet, in the last few months, punishing the innocent …

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Defund policing, not the police

Suddenly there is growing support for the idea that Americans ought to reclaim responsibility for protecting themselves and their property.  This would be an important step towards becoming fit for liberty once again.

Unfit for liberty

In 1927, General John McAuley Palmer said that professional armies threaten government by the people, not because they consciously seek to pervert liberty, but because they relieve the people themselves of the duty of self-defense. A people accustomed to let a special class defend them must sooner or later become unfit for liberty. I believe …

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How to re-open public schools

About the only thing we can say for sure about the next school year is that it will be very different from previous ones.  How can we make the best use of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to change the bathwater, while keeping a firm grip on the baby?

Tax, or commission?

How does a tax rate get set? For example, what makes the top federal income tax rate 37 percent, instead of 70 percent (as it was when I graduated high school), or 91 percent (as it was when I was born), or any other percentage? The basic idea is that the government wants to set …

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