I see that we now have socialists coming out of the political woodwork. This is quite strange to me because there has never been a successful socialist state. Socialism has been tried many, many times—in the USSR, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan, the People’s Republic of Albania, Czechoslovakia, Ethiopia, the People’s Republic…
I’m a reasonably good automobile mechanic and a very good computer programmer. Put the two together, however, and I got stymied by our 2003 Dodge van. Here’s the backstory. I started learning to be a mechanic on the remote cattle ranch where I grew up. If you live at the far end of nowhere, you…
I’ve been mulling over the recent case of the Colorado baker refusing to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple. It has led me to finally understand how this kind of case differs from, say, Woolworths refusing to serve black people in the South in the 1960s. This has been an unanswered question for…
Today is voting day here in California, and I just wanted to remind folks on both sides of the aisle of the amazing privilege that we have of living in a country where we get to choose our own leaders. I love voting in person. Voting by mail seems so sterile to me. I enjoy…
You know how people say “What are the odds?”, meaning that something probably did not happen by random chance alone? I got to thinking about that saying regarding the current situation with the Mueller investigation. I read that: None of the 16 lawyers known to work for special counsel Robert Mueller are registered Republicans There…
In March of 2017, then-FBI Director James Comey testified under oath to the House Intelligence Committee. The full transcript of his testimony is here. I want to discuss the following excerpt of a discussion between Representative Peter King and FBI Director James Comey during that testimony. All emphasis is mine: KING: I fully understand the…
Since my age starts with “seventy”, I’m in what I call my “Middle Youth”. I figure that “Late Youth” starts at seventy-five, so I’ve got a few years until then. And as befits a man in his middle youth, I’ve been giving some thought to the idea and the reality of death. Both my parents…
Here’s my email to Mother Jones: ===== TO: scoop@MotherJones.com Your article about the citizenship question says: The White House Is Lying About the Census Sarah Huckabee Sanders says the citizenship question has been on nearly every census since 1965. It hasn’t been asked since 1950 However, I fear it’s you that is lying. Here are questions…
Well, I’m tired of writing about important issues. And various people have been asking me to continue writing the bit-by-bit autobiography that I started seven years ago with an episode called “It’s Not About Me“. I published most of the previous autobiographical pieces on Watts Up With That, which is where I publish my scientific…
Lots of folks are hyperventilating about the possibility of a trade war with China. I see this as a result of wide-spread misunderstandings about the economics of trade between countries. So let me start from the basics. There are three and only three ways to create wealth. What is wealth? It is the stuff that…
Well, since guns have been in the news a lot lately, I thought I’d discuss my experience with guns. I grew up on a cattle ranch, and just about every boy I knew got a deer rifle when they were twelve years old. We were all taught gun safety by fathers, uncles, and in my…
OK, here’s the text to translate … Source #1 was approached by an identified U.S. Person, who indicated to Source #1 that a U.S.-based law firm had hired the identified U.S. Person to conduct research regarding Candidate #1’s ties to Russia. (The identified U.S. Person and Source #1 have a long-standing business relationship.) The identified…
