Problems of Applied Law

I was thinking about this yesterday, and it seems like the police abuse their power to arrest. I don’t really have a problem with the laws, but I don’t think they’re enforced very well. They’re like, “Well, technically it meets the letter of the law.” But they say to hell with the spirit of theContinue

10 Commandments

I have posed this question to myself: Which, if any, of the 10 Commandments do I agree with? The 10 commandments are listed in both Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5. I suppose I’ll go with the list in Exodus because the book comes before Deuteronomy. List of the 10 Commandments “You shall have no otherContinue

On Guns, Violence, Duties, & Rights

I have been hearing people argue, bicker, yell at each other, and debate about gun laws. I like a good debate, but the gun debate has fallen short of “good.” Honestly, I’m not going to contribute much, but I hope to do slightly better than the arm-chair arguments and the Facebook banalities. So here’s aContinue

Updated Drunk Driving Fatalities Data

I have updated my scatter plot for Iowa’s drunk driving related traffic fatalities here: There is a slight increase in more recent years, but an overall decline in the percentage of traffic deaths related to alcohol. And did one for California here, which shows a similar general decline in alcohol-related traffic death by percent: ForContinue

School Shootings & Gun Laws

In wake of the latest school shootings, and in light of this post on a friend’s Facebook page, I offer a few thoughts on school shootings. The friend’s post said: Watching the news and I am furious. This is what is wrong with this country. The police are characterizing the girl who brought the gunContinue

Drunk Driving

A friend made a social a media post that was critical of alcohol laws, to which I replied: “As they relate to civil rights, I don’t think it’s so much that people don’t like cigarettes, alcohol, or guns. It’s more that people don’t like inhaling secondhand smoke, being assaulted by alcoholics or being injured inContinue

Dog Bites, Dangerous Breeds, Assumption of Risk

One of my friends on Facebook was upset by a story (1) about a disabled man’s pit bull being taken away from him because his possession of a pit bull was against a city ordinance. My friend posted the following in reaction to the article: What the hell is wrong with people? I was seriouslyContinue

Individuals In Relation To Society

If you had to name the seminal figure in Western philosophy, it would probably be Socrates. Alfred North Whitehead said of Socrates’ student Plato, “All of philosophy is a footnote to Plato.” From Plato, and a few other sources such as Aristophanes, we get the impression that Socrates, though he disagreed with Hellenistic democracy, feltContinue