Former President Barack Obama used his platform at the Democratic National Convention to assail sitting Republican President Donald Trump as a threat to “our democracy.” Trump responded, IN ALL CAPS, via Twitter. If you like history hot and in your face, like a pizza straight out of the oven, 2020 always delivers. Last night was […]

Standard financial analysis suggests the value of any stock is equal to the present discounted value of its future earnings. Thus an increase in the price of any stock is due to either an increase in expected future earnings, or a reduction in expected future interest rates, or some combination thereof. With today’s close at […]

In my last blog post, Caleb defended California against my critique, as he’s proud to be a Californian. Now perhaps I was too harsh, as CA has a lot going for it. But I still struggle to see the positive aspects of its progressive legal vision. Today, in advance of starting school tomorrow, I took […]

Millennials love their Uber, and the sharing/gig economy has been a bright spot for innovative approaches to make cab riding a thing of the past. What’s not to like? Drivers seem to be happy, in that they voluntary agree to work for Uber. Their customers seem to be happy, as they continue migrating away from […]

Pity the history teachers of the future who must deal with the calamities of 2020. But the year’s politics may not be defined by a pandemic or the potential end of a shambling presidency; instead, the United States Senate is leaping toward the gaping maw of democracy, and our government may never recover. Former President […]

The works of Eric Voegelin (1901-1985) are the most challenging and rewarding of any philosophical studies I’ve ever confronted. For those of you wondering why Voegelin wasn’t profiled in my short-lived first run at a Weekly Sage column, my answer would be that his contributions to thought and literature earned much more than a single […]

Bari Weiss resigned from The New York Times yesterday. This news will be greeted with yawns by most Americans, but it marks a critical moment. The American paper of record, perhaps the most famous newspaper in the world, will no longer pretend to value opposing points of view within its pages. Weiss stepped down with […]

“Churches Were Eager to Reopen. Now They Are a Major Source of Coronavirus Cases.” So says the headline of this NYT article. Now I think churches are a risky place for transmission of the virus,* especially through singing. So I’m interested in this argument. Major sounds like churches are a big part of the problem […]

The Supreme Court struck down Louisiana’s law that required physicians who perform abortions to have hospital admitting privileges. The ruling, in June Medical Services v. Russo, fits seamlessly with the Court’s 2016 decision in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt, which considered a nearly identical Texas law. The story here is not the ruling, or the […]

I can still remember vividly my first conversation about how hard the effects of racism are on African-Americans. It was about 1995 and I was stationed in Colorado Springs. I was a senior Captain, talking with a black major and another white major during a break (perhaps lunch, but it was at the office). This […]