40 Years on the Road: A Report

In 1977 I began taking road trips (driving a car or truck) up and down Interstate 80. I had taken a few road trips prior, but 1977 was the first time I drove cross-country as an adult and for work… the first time I was looking on the experience with moderately confident and mature eyes. I’ve taken road trips many times since, though not in the past two years.

40Yearsroad(This piece was originally published in 2017.) 

In 1977 I began taking road trips up and down Interstate 80. I had taken a few road trips prior, but 1977 was the first time I drove cross-country as an adult and for work… the first time I was looking on the experience with moderately confident and mature eyes. Continue reading “40 Years on the Road: A Report”

The Covid Calculus

(Originally posted in December of 2023.)

It has now been two years since the height of the Covid compulsions, and even though some people are clinging to their rhetoric, almost no one is lining up for each new injection. After all, everyone got the disease regardless. The Covid vaccine (“You won’t get or spread Covid”) was, in modern parlance, an epic fail.

And so I’d like to examine what happened to us, then find a way back to living with each other in decency and in peace. Continue reading “The Covid Calculus”

I Like Jordan Peterson, But He’s Wrong

Anyone teaching young men to seek responsibility and meaning has a place near my heart, especially when he or she delivers their message in a humane way. And Professor Peterson has certainly done that, at great personal cost. Nonetheless, I’m hearing from young people, asking me to address another part of his teaching that is impacting negatively upon them. And after getting substantially the same report from multiple directions, I feel compelled to write about it. Ah well… Continue reading “I Like Jordan Peterson, But He’s Wrong”

Don’t Panic, We’ll Rebalance After

The ruling cliques of the West have run off the rails, and we all know it. (“We” being productive people.) Who among us would volunteer for the outrages being spewed at us?

We the productive have been thrown into a deep contradiction: Firstly, we are sickened by the things we see. But if we imagine the systems doing this going away, we feel panic.

What I’m telling you is not to fear the loss of the high and mighty: they’re not helping us and we’d rebalance in their absence anyway.  Continue reading “Don’t Panic, We’ll Rebalance After”

Western Civilization, Seen from 2150 AD, Part 1

A small roll of pages showed up in my mailbox last week, printed on an odd size and type of paper. They appeared to have been ripped from a history book entitled 2000–2150 AD: The Emergence of Modernity. I’m repeating the text here verbatim, sans the header, which mentions only the title of the book. (Or perhaps it’s the title of a chapter.)

Make of this what you will. Continue reading “Western Civilization, Seen from 2150 AD, Part 1”

To the College Student Drowning in Debt and the Single Mother Who Can’t Afford Insurance

studentdebtYou’re in a bad situation; you’re depressed, frightened, and need a solution. I’ll do my best to give you one. But first, please believe me that I know what it’s like to be in desperate circumstances.

I’m offering you advice, earned the hard way. What you do with it will be your choice, but unlike politicians, I’m not trying to get anything from you and my plan actually works. Continue reading “To the College Student Drowning in Debt and the Single Mother Who Can’t Afford Insurance”

You’ve Been Robbed

You work long, hard days, but you never have enough to be secure. Your husband or wife probably works too, and yet you still never get ahead. Now think about this: Your great-grandparents worked hard, and they did get ahead. You work just as hard, but you don’t make the same progress.

Was great-grandpa really that much better than you? Not likely. So, how was it that he could get ahead on one income, but you can’t? Continue reading “You’ve Been Robbed”