Be careful assigning “responsibilities” that cost money

I’ve been hearing a lot of chatter about “adults” who were too “irresponsible” to buy health insurance, and how that’s forced Obamacare on us, or how Obamacare is going to fix that or something. (Side note: the real problem with healthcare is that they charge way the hell too much. Just in case you’re wondering.) [...]

The art and value of complaining

I saw this recently in my Facebook. For those who can’t see the image, it’s George Takei saying “Goodness, I didn’t realize that I wasn’t permitted to have “first world problems.” We all do, and we shouldn’t pretend they don’t bother us. Not if we’re being honest, right?” You may have heard the term “white [...]

Republicans are in the pocket of the rich

I know, it’s obvious, right? They’re putting their foot down over a bill to prevent the extension of a $1,000/year tax cut to the middle class, but they won’t consider getting rid of a few tax cuts for the wealthy that haven’t helped the economy one iota. They promised no increases in taxes, but clearly [...]

No, everyone cannot just go get a job

I’ve been trying to figure out precisely how many jobs are available in the US at any time, but I think that information is not tracked. I guess it would involve employers letting someone know, “We’re hiring a new [position]” every time they decide to do so, and nobody in the government would take the [...]

Just testing the new email system

I am switching our email subscription service from FeedBurner to FeedBlitz, which should be more reliable. If everything is working properly, those of you subscribing to the site via email should receive this article in your email via FeedBlitz this evening, US time.

Changing feed URL, please update

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Language privilege and regionalism

I recently told a Californian. “If it needs changed, I’ll let you know.” He asked where I was from. Until that moment, I had no idea that “needs changed” is a regionalism. Californians are taught to say “needs to be changed” or “needs changing.” This really took me aback because I’ve had a number of [...]

Psychology myths: the snap

There’s an idea in this culture that a perfectly nice person can suddenly snap (if sufficiently traumatized) and then go on a random killing spree. There’s another idea that a perfectly nice man/boy who would never go around looking for someone to rape can be driven into a sort of temporary insanity by some woman [...]

The few controlling the many

Someone sent me an interesting article about how US workers get so little vacation compared to workers in other developed nations. The article makes the usual points: US workers get typically 2-3 weeks, at best, while Germans get 6 weeks and loads of countries provide four. Part of the reason, of course, is that other [...]

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