Tales From This Side

On the voluminous list of erroneous philosophies there are, perhaps, few more able contributors than modern governments. The U.S., particularly, has produced some spectacular philosophical failures. Take, for instance, the inherently racist Affirmative Action program, intended to, ironically, curb racism in employment, all the while mandating racial quotas in the employee base. The idea of embarking on a massive highway and infrastructure construction campaign , in the middle of a burgeoning energy crisis , is an equally fine example. When it comes to personal experience, though, I've always thought that the Leave No Trace concept is a poster child for misguided approaches. This personal experience started during my employment with the Bureau of Land Management. Although examples of foolish government policies are manifold within this organization (a fact not confined merely to the BLM), Leave No Trace has always seemed notably ludicrous to me. In short, the practice prom...

A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. ( Anonymous ) What is happening right now in the United States? What has happened to the gap between wealthy and poor over the past 50 years? How have the population percentage shares of those two groups changed? What has happened to fiscal regulation in the U.S. over the past 20 years? What is happening with taxpayer money right now? Where is it going? Who is getting it? The quote mentioned is often paired with the following: Great nations rise and fall. The people go from bondage to spiritual truth, to great courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundanc...

Winter term at my educational facility is hell (think of an assembly line with people on it, ala The Wall , and then you might start to understand where I work). Who am I kidding? The whole year is hell. Who has time for a blog? Personal opinions? Forget it! Besides, such things are not conducive to the efficiency and productivity of a conditioning engine, which is, in truth, what educational institutions (at least at the pre-college level) are. The anarchist dream. But more on my anti-educational views another time. It is enough for now to note that it isn't that I haven't had thoughts in the past five months, but merely that my overlords have provided no time for their expression. This is a bad equation that I move swiftly to remedy, but in the meantime, I'm pressed to fall on older material, and in this case that material is really just informational. The following post is actually an email that I have "at the ready" to send to students that ask for it...