The average American politician is far more extreme than the average American voter. Our current voting methods encourage these extreme viewpoints. To investigate how new voting systems like ranked choice voting and “jungle primaries” could change this, I created a simulation of different voting systems and tested it on various types of voting districts. How…
In Michigan, a group gathered enough signatures to put an abortion rights amendment on the ballot this November. Now an opposing group says the all-caps typography is so ugly that it’s unreadable, so the signatures should be tossed out. Here’s a portion of the petition in dispute: That is, unquestionably, extremely difficult to read. The…
It’s painful to have people tell you you’re wrong. If you’re powerful, you can make sure everyone around you would never do that. That’s a good way to end up looking like a complete fool. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Senate candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz both just showed us what a foolish decision looks like,…
In the wake of last month’s inflation report, I’ve seen headlines that say that inflation is at record highs. Others say inflation is now zero. The problem is that when it comes to rates, it’s easy to get confused — or to confuse people on purpose. So here’s an explainer. Understanding rates Let’s look at…
Reports say that the Secret Service deleted text messages relating to the events of January 6, the date of the insurrection on Capitol Hill. According to news reports, in response to a subpoena from the January 6 Committee in the House, the Secret Service was only able to retrieve and turn over a single text…
Nobody talks about it, but racism is efficient. That’s why it’s so common. I’m not talking about burning crosses or shooting up supermarkets. I’m talking common everyday racism. Should I hire her? I don’t know if customers would relate to somebody who looks like that. I’ll hire him instead, he looks like a better choice….
I am quite independent. I vote independent, I work freelance, and I depend solely on myself for nearly everything. I live in a house in a nice neighborhood in Maine. My neighbors are pretty nice people. The other day, a huge piece of one of my trees broke off. Apparently it landed in the street….
The political landscape is about to shift for Democrats. It’s unlikely they’ll control both houses of Congress after the November midterm elections. So in the lame-duck sessions that follows the election, they should kill the filibuster, pass major legislation, increase the size of the Supreme Court, and nominate four new justices. Oh yeah. And Joe…
Everyone is shouting right now. All my friends are telling me what I have to do, what I ought to do, what I should have done, regarding the Supreme Court’s ruling on abortion. In my experience, shouting doesn’t help. No one listens when you are shouting, and shouting never lasts very long. The question is…