Brexit, liberals, and learning about people
I have made my last blog post into a video. It incorporates some extra information and utilizes the video format. See it below:
Learning the truth about people
I never really liked Nigel Farage. He seemed like a guy I’d dislike if I met him in person. But as leader of UKIP, I believed that he believed what he said about sovereignty and about democracy. I didn’t see this evil being that the political left portrayed him as – instead I saw this man who was standing up to politicians who were obviously not listening to their voters because of a first-past-the-post system that doesn’t reflect the people’s…
Have you tried everything?
There are two perspectives on life and after-life. “Only two?” you might reasonably wonder. I would argue that there are only two of all binary choices. You only have the choice between standing up and not standing up. If you choose to do anything other than standing up, you are choosing the other thing. There is subtlety here – you can do millions of things that aren’t standing up – but if the sets that you are working within are…
A letter to Maggie Hassan
Senator Maggie Hassan (D. NH) wrote to subscribers to her newsletter to celebrate an extremely regressive and ill-advised policy by the Democratic administration. Here’s her email and my response: Maggie Hassan’s email Families are reeling from the impact of Putin’s war and supply chain challenges, and Granite Staters are paying the price at the pump. It’s clear that we need to take additional action to bring down costs for families. To help bring down high oil and gas prices, I…
Predictions about how the economy will change
This post is a little bit of prediction – pretending we can see the future clearly, and describing what it will be like. Specifically, I will make some predictions for the global economy in light of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, climate change, and the supply chain issues arising from COVID-19. How the economy will change: EU and Brexit Let’s get the elephant in the room packed up in his trunk and moved into another room which better suits its…
How well the COVID-19 vaccines protect
ArsTechnica has a thoroughly researched and very well-written article about how well the COVID-19 vaccines protect and whether they are worth getting if you have already been infected by any of the virus’s five variants: Read about the COVID-19 vaccine as at March 28th, 2022.
The UK and its flag are confusing
Let’s face it, the UK is confusing, and so is its flag. The video embedded below is my first made-for-watching YouTube video and explains how the UK became more than one country combined, and how its flag became what it is today. The video sets out to explain why the UK and its flag are confusing. I have included the whole script below the video but the video includes subtitles: Script If you’re watching this video, you are curious about…
How fundamentalist Christians could get it right
I spent the last weekend with some evangelical Christians who I like on a personal level. They all believe that they are called to “spread the word”. Despite a genuine intellectual interest from me for most of my life, they have all singularly failed to communicate a positive image of Jesus and, especially, his followers. This article explains how fundamentalist Christians could get it right, but instead get it wrong when it comes to sharing their world view. First, everyone…
How to make your content accessible
I have long been concerned about following web standards (and any others that apply to me) to ensure maximum accessibility for readers of my website (and others I maintain). I recently attended a brief training that covered the definition of accessibility. It’s wider than I realized. Accessibility can be defined in terms of people’s disabilities – something like “the product or service can be used regardless of a user’s disabilities” – but it’s better to define it more broadly as…
Being Green in 2022
I recognize that most of the impacts from climate change can only be mitigated by governments making regulation changes. Without those regulations, landfill might continue to be cheaper than recycling, single-use plastics will remain cheaper than more sustainable alternatives, and gasoline (UK: petroleum) vehicles and machinery will continue to be easier to use than alternatives. A few companies are responsible for most of the world’s carbon emissions, and Americans are by far the largest polluters per head. This article is…