A pedestrian has been hit by a bus. And killed.

Five years ago, there was a similar accident in Portland, Oregon, though that one was far more deadly. That crash served as a wake-up call to transit operations everywhere. As a direct result of that crash, for example, we drivers in King County had a mandatory "pedestrian awareness" training ( Read more... )

From Kevin Kruse's One Nation Under God, we learn about the kick-off to Dwight D. Eisenhower's presidential campaign in Abilene, Kansas.

The town staged a massive parade in his honor, with a series of floats depicting events in h is life, ending with one carrying a replica of the White House with him inside. His parents had long since passed away ( Read more... )

Ridden the bus lately in King County? Or, rather, tried to ride it? Things are a bit sticky of late. Why? Well, let's run down the laundry list. First, ( what you know. )

If I have learned nothing, it is to always follow the links, for that is where you find stuff ( Read more... )

I'll be the first to admit that most primary and even secondary educations are inadequate. No, scratch that: they are adequate for most things; for some things, they completely miss the point, because to come to the point they would have to address uncomfortable facts and what school wants to deal with uncomfortable stuff? That's just unnecessary ( Read more... )

Ever since the "New Democrats" have installed themselves in the political scene, many of the standard rallying calls of the Progressive Movement have been sidelined into being mere tropes and tall tales. The problem, as I see it, is that these New Dems are, rather than the raging bull liberals of our past, merely steers who mewl rather than snort ( Read more... )

Some years ago, I asked myself a question: What is an investment, and how does it differ from an act of speculation? I'm getting closer to an answer, especially after hearing Seth and Justin interview two authors on the topic of a man who has become largely myth, and about whom we know almost nothing: Henry George.


( Read more... )

Do yourself a favor. Watch a short movie.


Real Estate 4 Ransom from Real Estate 4 Ransom on Vimeo.
I have never heard of this Land Tax concept, yet it has been around since the late 1800s. It was so revolutionary, in fact, the modern configuration of neo-classical economics was created to bury it. Rockafeller funded the foundation of the ( Read more... )

(I've been putting this one off for too long. I can't drop it, try as I may to convince myself. It's just not droppable.)

Ah, Mike Daisy. First you bend the facts of the case, then you defend the bending ( Read more... )

When last I posted, I ended our short history of money noting, among other things, that money is no longer backed by precious metals as once it "was" (I hope to make the scare quotes more salient later). Even before Pres. Nixon removed the US from the gold standard in 1971, wild swings in our money supply drove the country into a Great Depression ( Read more... )