“King Leopold’s Ghost, A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa;” by Adam Hochschild; Houghton-Miflin Company; 1998. ISBN 9780618001903. $15. Adam might have titled his book, a National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist, “E.D Morel, One Man’s Heroic Effort to Bring Down A King And Shame Western Society.” Hochschild’s history of colonial Belgian…
Let me ask you this question: How much money did the United States Interstate Highway System make in 2010? Undeniably, the United State Interstate Highway System is critical to commerce not only within the United States but really the world. Americans are consummate consumers and what we buy has to end up at Wal-mart, Target,…
The Keystone XL (KXL) Pipeline I call "America’s Crack Pipe." Not a harsh assessment in my book. Listen to the frantic rhetoric of the GOP. Newt Gingrich calls President Obama’s reticence on passing KXL legislation as "irrational." Michelle Bachman rants like a strung-out intravenous drug user who feels threatened her dealer might be incarcerated soon…
Bookstores are my favorite places to hang-out. Before bookstores became popular, I grew-up in a library. The neighborhood library was three blocks from my Kansas City, Missouri, home. In the summertime, I would spend days and weekends in the library, sitting at a table, reading reference books. Science, mostly, but pretty much any kind of…
I’m not a big fan of government supporting or trying to legislate some issues of morality. I’m also not a fan of special interest groups that attempt to use government not to protect their own interests but prevent others from expressing their own beliefs. I couch my beliefs this way: the way you conduct yourself…
To be honest, I do not have very good critical thinking skills. I do know my critical thinking skills are poor. Knowing this, I spend a lot of time thinking and examining problems, and trying to figure out the context of the issue. People wonder why I don’t trust what they say; it could be…
Again, I found myself ignorant. All this talk about Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 Economic Plan, and his 9-0-9 Economic Plan forced me to face my bias against the Flat Tax. Nothing is ever as simple as people who are biased for that something claim. People claim the simplicity of a Flat Tax makes the Flat Tax…
“Honey, you can do anything that you put your mind, too. You can be anything you want, just study, and work hard, and you can become anything you want!” As adults, we don’t really want to crush the hopes and dreams of future generations by seeming to be negative all the time. Some kids genuinely…
I’m not aware of any test. The phlebotomist cannot draw blood, run the blood sample, and then give you the good news; “Guess what, Mr. Busby? You’re good, you are a Rational Consumer. Keep your finances in order, and you should live a long life of comfortable consumption.” If only life were simple like that.…
I’ve spent the last year educating myself about economics. Why economics? Simply put, government bureaucrats use the Ignorance of the Masses to push through economic policies which superficially sound well-grounded yet have dangerous and harmful downstream effects. Being ignorant myself of economics, I did recognize many U.S. foreign and economic policies were damaging in the…
Constant Geography 
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