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For several weeks, I’ve found myself ruminating on a passage from a book I recently read during my research on the good, bad, and benign of multi-tier marketing systems. This was part of my counter-evidence file; people who strongly opposed the model as currently practiced. It was written by Steve Butterfield several decades ago and is…
After writing about the mathematics of Borda count voting systems as applied to the Eurovision contest, I realized I never posted the Russian performance, presented by the virginal 17-year old Tolmachevy Sisters. Bask in the symbolism of both the staging and the orchestration choices. Those of you with a history or music background will spot it…
The Washington Post this morning had a story about the political discontentment in Russia over the outcome of the 2014 Eurovision competition. Given that a few days ago, I outright said I’d personally emigrate were I living in Russia, this confluence of events is particularly timely. I’m going to use it as an excuse to talk about something known…
When I wrote this post a year ago predicting the decline of individual freedom in Russia, I never could have imagined how far the country would descend in a mere eleven months. In addition to the Ukraine conflict, the anti-free speech laws that make it a crime to insult certain religious beliefs, the criminalization of any outward sign that you are gay under the guise of protecting minors, the ban of any potentially offensive words in film and art, and a host of other development that look like something out of a 20th century dictator’s textbook, the country has now passed a so-called “bloggers law” that requires any site with more than 3,000 visitors every day to register with the government.
We talk so often about the divide that is slowly happening in the United States as a result of socioeconomic forces. I did a double take this afternoon when I came across the front page of The Wall Street Journal involving a story based on this reality. It has a profile detailing how vastly different life experiences…
It’s like people never learned anything from the Oklahoma Satanist case last year. Unintended consequences matter. Yet, it seems like people don’t build them into their behavioral models. If you open that door, you’re not the only one that gets to walk through. It’s so simple. It’s so basic, yet people forget it time and…
It’s time we talk about the debt ceiling and what a debt ceiling default would mean for the United States. I’ve avoided this conversation because I was hopeful we would never end up here, again, after the last round of stupidity. I’ve also avoided discussing the on-going shutdown of the Federal Government, despite some strong…
A reader and I are having a discussion about the limits of using laws to legislate morality. I referenced Justice Scalia’s dissent in the Lawrence v. Texas case, where he lamented that we are now at the point that there is no longer any legal basis for the citizenry to legislate moral decisions that don’t…
Warning: This is the working essay I promised to release earlier tonight. It deals with certain common cult beliefs that arise throughout human history and civilizations. It contains mature themes, images, and concepts. It was written for myself as a way to process and understand these recurring patterns. Due to the length of the essay, I…
This is one of those deep, working essays that many of you won’t want to read that deal with understanding the underlying structure, changes, and direction of society. It is a response to a question by commentator Frat Man left on this thread. He asked: Hey Joshua, I had a question for you. As every…
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