LDAHL
Senior Member

Maybe if the sweater was stuffed with straw it could be propped up as a suitable debate opponent.

I read an interesting factoid this morning. You are three times more likely to die choking on food than you are to die in a mass shooting. Dare I...

My dad used to drive a Matador. My best friend inherited his dad’s Hornet. The AMC Pacer was the coolest of all. Especially when you had a long...

It is a common trait of conspiracy theorists to decry the willful blindness of people who don’t share their views. America isn’t The Weimar...

I think you’re right about Trump. If people grant him a rent-free tenancy in their heads, they share responsibility for the resulting mental...

Leaving aside the question of whether we can measure happiness, as opposed to how people respond to polls about their emotional state, is happiness...

American Motors used to have a huge presence there. The lakefront looks s lot nicer than when they used to ship steel there. I used to have a...

My wife has an uncle who’s fond of saying that Illinois begins at the Kenosha County line. Over the years, Kenosha has gone from a struggling old...

How reasonable is it for us to hold our politicians and bureaucrats responsible for our prosperity and happiness? What do we surrender when we...

Will you be north, south or west of the city?

I heard it yesterday, From my angry wife after she was cut off on the interstate.

I think it’s odd that we assign so much blame and credit to incumbent presidents for the state of the economy. It has a sort of cargo cult flavor to...

I’m trying to picture a cop in some back alley pondering the difference between “reasonable” and “necessary”.

I agree. Trump’s descent into identify politics is every bit as objectionable as his opposition’s.

Since Bob Mueller refused to play ball on the Russia thing, we seem to be returning to the America-is-a-racist-nightmare thing. I guess it will have...

Failed in what sense? In the ability to win offices and exercise power? In the ability to frustrate the plans of it’s opposition? In the capacity...

It will if the Democrats come up with even scarier and more ridiculous proposals. Open borders, higher taxes and outlawing private health insurance...

I quite agree. I am, however, agnostic on the subject of paper straws.

So they have nothing more definite than “what we think is right”? Who gets to speak for we? Sounds like your cartoonish Republican straw man may be...

Once the ice sheet melts, there will be plenty of valuable minerals available to be mined. Plus we’ll have a site to relocate detention facilities...

I don’t know that any two of them could agree on what American socialism would look like. I know I don’t have a clear picture.

I don’t think Warren is a socialist in the classic sense. I would classify her as more of a statist who believes she can immanentize the eschaton...

I see Hickenlooper is out, reasonableness being the narrow niche market that it is.

A bit too close to home, was it? Why do people try so hard to make everything an ethnic slur? Don’t most of us provide the world enough material...

I grew up in the Spring Grove/Fox Lake area back in the day. My dad worked out of Waukegan.

I hear Elizabeth Warren is catching up with Joe Biden in the polls. That should please the dirigisme fans in the audience.

I would like to live like the guys in the original “Top Gear”.

Many’s the time I have referred to something as “an egregious insult to good taste”. I also would never have read “The Consolation of Philosophy”...

I tried “Infinite Jest” a few years ago, but couldn’t finish it. I sort of class DFW with Thomas Pynchon as one of those...

Protectionism seldom works out well for the trade warriors, although in the present situation there seems like plenty of blame to go around. I...

I believe most people like to think of themselves as reasonable moderates. But they define “moderate” in some radically different ways. What is the...

Best day of my life? I slept through it.

Great news. Best of luck in whichever you choose. Odd how things like that often come in clusters.

A kid stealing candy is motivated by the same impulse as Bernie Madoff. It’s a difference of degree only.

Right, lacking anything more substantial in their moral/ethical/social operating system, they fall prey to gimcrack political ideologies. This is...

I think the lost, unmoored souls who construct reasons for committing some of these crimes are trying to fill some of the same emptiness as Twitter...

If each generation makes it’s own, it’s not tradition it’s fashion.

Debt is like any other tool. You can use it effectively or you can hurt yourself with it. I understand the average college debt is something like...

I think politics is filling a couple of voids. One is affiliation. The “bowling alone” thesis. As families fracture, traditional forms of civic...

I think that there is a good chance that we will see a referendum on the more statist version of “government for the people” in 2020. We are seeing...

I think that’s very true. You could especially see it in the second debate. The progressives would tout things like slavery reparations, single payer...

Wouldn’t it be easier if the government simply tattooed or chipped the citizenry with all the pertinent information needed to manage us?

Just picked up the new Kevin Williamson book, “The Smallest Minority”. He’s always a fun and interesting read. You may remember him as the guy who...

I hear she's trending right now. Chakras and awe!

Biden seemed a little more active in his own defense than last time. Can he win by just surviving while the rest of the pack stakes out positions...

Probably wise. Especially in a campus setting, where the thought police seem to be the most active.

Yes. He’s as bad as Obama with his pen and his phone. I don’t know why people keep expecting me to defend Trump.

Have we really changed that much from the days when people were fired for adultery, or have we just redefined moral turpitude? Google fired an...

The problem I see with that kind of thinking is that it imbues the office of president with a sort of imperial aura. The president as hero who will...

I found that to be one of the more wrong-headed statements of the evening. She basically invites people to believe there are no constraints on the...

Didn’t see much of note emanating from last night’s debate. Williamson will need to burn a lot of sage to drive those dark psychic forces out of the...

Congratulations and good luck. Having recently ended one career and begun a new one in a new place, I know it can be both exciting and...

So smarting from their frustration over Mueller’s book report, the Dems demand unanimous approval for a couple of big steps toward federalizing...

The whole episode should teach Congress, especially those Constitution-loving, truth-committed and disinterestedly objective Democrats, what every...

It gets complicated. Look for instance, at the recent Erica Thomas checkout line dispute. The tearful news conference, the conflicting witness...

The degree and category of offense taken will depend on your position in the intersectional matrix. Campus culture generally trends toward the...

And what of Thomas the tank engine, laboring for the greed of predatory capitalists like Sir Topham Hat? Or Bob the Builder, raping the Earth with...

Curious George is emblematic of colonialism and Western imperialism. You have triggered countless innocents by your thoughtless or deliberately cruel...