The Book of the Shadows

The media tends to have a lot of unforced errors - stuff they're more than capable of getting right but they can't avoid getting in their own way. You put politics into the mix and they can't seem to avoid going for the easy pot-shots, banding about their faux masks, and the like. Such is the case with the Clinton wealth matter of the last few days.

One of the most bandied about terms you'll hear, particularly in politics, is "accountability". As such, I pose a simple pair of questions; what is accountability, and do we need to rethink what we consider accountability to be?

"Perhaps we just shouldn't be killing people". A guest on a news program said that. Are they right?

Irrational fear and hatred is usually dangerous. That is what has beset the IRS, and the dangers are not being fully appreciated. It's a little lengthy, but you should read this article from Forbes and MSN .

Freedom of speech is one of the central tenets not only of our democracy, but of just governance in general. But it is limited. Is that right, and what are those limits?

Slowly, the most powerful and important democracy in history is turning from the power and influence of the people in general to the power and influence of a select few – from a real democracy into an oligarchy.

A new kind of infrastructure project - Should the government step up and get to work on the information super-highway?

The Cold War never ended, it just took a different form.

The State of the Union is a Constitutional mandated report card the Executive Branch must deliver to the Legislative Branch once every year. It is an update of what accomplishments and failures the nations has had, where the nation needs to go, what it needs to focus on. Often times it is also a “to do” list from the Executive Branch for legislation it wants the Congress to complete in the next year and lays out not just the president’s agenda, but a roadmap of potential compromise and contention.

No this isn't about the new Godzilla movie coming out next year, although it is looking quite amazing so far. This is about a sort of mis-characterized debate that has gone on in our government for a long time; big government versus small government.

This time of the year can often be very magical. A bit of a mini miracle occurred this year, however. Congress did its job and got a deal on the budget.

The test scores are out and guess what... the U.S isn't doing all that hot. The question is, should we start to panic, or is it time to take a step back and look again at what's going on.

Esquire magazine conducted a survey whose goal was to determine the political leanings of the American community. Such surveys have been done in the past, and have established the popular assertion that the country as a whole is “center right”, meaning we as the American public are mostly independent, but lean towards the conservative side of the spectrum.

Sorry I missed my post on Friday, family stuff got in the way, but as you can see, I’m back and everything’s alright. So, back to the matter I left off with; my final estimation of the future of energy in the United States and around the world.

The Republican Party is a party in need of friends. They don’t have many right now. They have a number of loyalists among their members and voters, and they have their opponents in the Democrats. They even have outright enemies all over the place. But they don’t have a whole lot of friends. Perhaps the long talked of revolution in the Republican Party is finally at hand.

Tuesday was election day. It wasn't big E, big D, Election Day, but it was still a day for some people to go out and vote. I'm not gonna get into the politics of who won and who lost. But I do have something of an idea that might make it a little more meaningful when we do have the little E and D election days.

I wanted to take a break from my planned post for today to speak for a moment about the looming expansion of the conflict in Syria. There’s always a conflict waiting to erupt somewhere around the world. The world is a complicated place and we don’t really get along so well. The justifications are diverse, but if one of your loved ones dies those words amount to a hill of beans. Now, we have the matter of Syria.

The minimum wage debate is one of the most central, complex, and controversial economic debates in the United States. Part of the problem is that there is a lack of understanding of what the minimum wage is, where it comes from, and what it does. Another part of the problem is that the two sides of the debate tend to talk past each other. I want to try and lay out what this is all about.

The minimum wage debate is one of the most central, complex, and controversial economic debates in the United States. Part of the problem is that there is a lack of understanding of what the minimum wage is, where it comes from, and what it does. Another part of the problem is that the two sides of the debate tend to talk past each other. I want to try and lay out what this is all about.

I waned to wait before weighing in on this matter. I wanted to let certain people speak, and hear what it was they wanted to say. The president was the last person I wanted to hear speak. He spoke movingly on Friday afternoon, a little before two in the afternoon. So here's my take on the case and its aftermath.