My family’s home looks beautiful and functions great with new vinyl-encased windows, prefinished Hardie Board fiber cement siding, and a new asphalt shingle roof. Getting to the finish line was brutal, and the entire process, from initial research to completed project, took a serious time commitment over the span of about a year. I hope that these notes might help other homeowners navigate the process a little more smoothly than I managed. Continue reading “How to Renovate Your Home’s Exterior without Going Crazy”
Reflections on American Gun Laws
Sensible gun laws will not be achieved by demonizing peaceable gun owners or by ignoring the realities of gun use (including defensive use) and gun laws. Some possible changes in gun laws are worthy of reasoned discussion.
Some people who believe that changes in American gun laws would save lives seem to think that somehow it will help to demonize the millions of peaceable (and voting) Americans who own guns or who are members of the National Rifle Association. This is despite the fact that many gun owners favor certain changes to gun laws and that many have good reasons to oppose certain changes.
Is the goal to gin up partisan rage for the 2018 elections or to actually achieve the most sensible set of laws? Continue reading “Reflections on American Gun Laws”
All One Tribe: Black Panther’s Message of Openness
I recommend Black Panther and I found it enormously interesting. Readers may want to delay continuing with my notes on the film until they’ve seen it, as there is some value to viewing it with no preconceptions or knowledge of the story. If you do go, stay until the very end, by the way, past all the credits. Continue reading “All One Tribe: Black Panther’s Message of Openness”
Frederick Douglass and the Meaning of Individualism
In our polarized and angry age, most people can at least agree on the brilliance and historical importance of Frederick Douglass. Most of us have more in common than blaring headlines typically indicate, and that is worth remembering.
What first struck me when reading Yale historian David W. Blight’s New York Times critique of Timothy Sandefur’s reflections in Douglass is how irascibly Blight often agrees with Sandefur. Continue reading “Frederick Douglass and the Meaning of Individualism”
Michael Shermer Stares Down the Grim Reaper in Latest Book
Haidt on Identity Politics: The Problem Is Collectivism
A sort of identity politics is a major force tearing at the seams of America’s liberal democratic order (broadly understood), argues Jonathan Haidt in his recent and important essay (originally a talk), “The Age of Outrage.” My aim here is to amplify and comment on his piece. Continue reading “Haidt on Identity Politics: The Problem Is Collectivism”
Property Rights and Democracy: Reply to Wilkinson
Property rights—at least “absolutist,” “hard-core,” “hard-nosed” property rights that are “rigid and all-encompassing”—are the enemy of democracy. That is essentially the theme of Will Wilkinson’s essay and follow-up on the matter.
I answer that Wilkinson, who apparently favors the “standard redistributive policies of successful modern states,” does not recognize property rights at all, but merely property permissions that can be granted or retracted by democratic majorities at will. Continue reading “Property Rights and Democracy: Reply to Wilkinson”
On the Outside Looking In at Ayn Rand’s Moral Philosophy
In the early 1990s I attended an Objectivist event in southern California. I’m pretty sure this event was organized by George Reisman, an economist who also advocates Ayn Rand’s philosophy, before the Ayn Rand Institute split with Reisman and his wife Edith. During a social period at this event I was talking with a fellow, not too much older than I was, who asked me, “So, are you an Objectivist?”
I answered, I thought sensibly enough, “I don’t know.” Disdain wrinkling his face, he retorted, “How could you not know?”—and that marked the end of our conversation. Continue reading “On the Outside Looking In at Ayn Rand’s Moral Philosophy”
Calling Vile Racists Right-Wing or Extreme Only Gives Them Cover
In Charlottesville at a rally of white nationalists, a man with neo-Nazi sympathies drove a car into a crowd of counterprotesters, killing Heather Heyer. The need to condemn racist ideologies and the violence they inspire remains urgent.
The language we use to combat racism matters. Calling white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and their ilk “far right” or “extreme,” rather than white supremacists or the like, only obscures their vile nature and helps them falsely claim ties to mainstream America. Continue reading “Calling Vile Racists Right-Wing or Extreme Only Gives Them Cover”
An Exchange on Climate Change and a Tort-Based Response
The following exchange was prompted by my September 9 article, “Sketching a Free-Market Response to Climate Change.” John Clinch sent in some critical comments, which are reproduced here with my reply. Continue reading “An Exchange on Climate Change and a Tort-Based Response”