I have a controversial opinion – the Federal government of the USA should have more power, and the local governments (state, city, other regions) should have less. This is my opinion as an American. As a European by birth, I think the same is true of the EU. My friends moved from England to Belgium when England was still part of the EU. They had to register with all the Belgian government’s myriad tax and other authorities. Social security was…
If you’re reading this, you’re probably a Christian or in a Christian-majority country. If so, this post is for you. If not, then I don’t know enough about your God to reject him so easily. In this post I want to set forth my reasons for not believing in the Christian / Jewish God. This includes the pantheon of Catholicism (Mary, God/Jesus, and the saints), as well as the newer Christianities that rely on the Old Testament / Torah and…
I am an advocate of hope. For me, the future is not scary, and nor is change. 137,000 escaped poverty yesterday (source). And another 137,000 will today, too. I believe that, in the long-run, everything will be better than it is now. Dystopia, if it happens, is temporary and is always a small step back on the road towards utopia. In our lifetimes, the internet is arguably the biggest change. My grandmother might disagree, living as she has, through the…
I have made my last blog post into a video. It incorporates some extra information and utilizes the video format. See it below:
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…
Some people believe, not inaccurately, that the people of the US are guilty of ignoring the rest of the world. As I discussed in an earlier post, if Americans knew how good the Scandinavians have it, they would not be voting the way they vote, or stomping around about the superiority of their country. The same is true of Britons. They vote against their best interests all the time, but the voting system there also reduces the need for compromise…
I have to admit, I did not know about the filibuster’s history, nor its actual timing in the bill approval process. This video makes it very clear, and makes it very clear why it has to go:
Everyone knows about the differences in British and American English like the spelling of “color” versus “colour”, and the differences between word choices like “closet” versus “wardrobe” even where both the words exist in both languages. But less appreciated are the pronunciation differences of individual words. I thought it would be fun (nerdy fun) to look at the differences phonetically between English English and American English pronunciations, at least in northern New England: Tuna In the UK this is pronounced…