Be your own beacon.
I have three rules for clear thinking. All are correct interpretations of commonly misstated rules. 1. Ockham DIDN T say Simplify. He said Don t make up extra things to argue about. Reality is complicated! As long as you re discussing reality without manufacturing talking points, you re simple enough. Politics and the social sciences are nothing but extraneous [ ]
This was a week after the big fires, on the east side of town. Since it was in the city, the regular firefighters caught it fast and knocked it down fast. = = = = = START QUOTE: Through their investigation, Detectives identified 61-year-old Danny J. Riesberg as a possible suspect and determined he is [ ]
Mangione was charged separately by state and feds. As usual the feds didn t have jurisdiction. As usual they found a technical way to charge him with fake crap like stalking . Today his lawyers got rid of the fake crap by pleading guilty. The real state case is still on pause. Smart lawyers ALWAYS TAKE THE [ ]
I see an Official Credentialed Philosopher has caught onto the idea that dreaming is a good EXTERNAL MEASURE for consciousness. I said it in 2019, but there was no purpose in saying it. Status exists. Non-status doesn t exist. = = = = = START UNCREDENTIALED LOW-STATUS NOTHING: Article considers the possibility of a Turing test [ ]
Ideally: Laws should apply to all people and all companies. Don t steal. Don t kill. Don t defraud. Don t evade taxes. In practice: Most laws apply to one type or class or religion or political party, or one of two competing companies. The traditional method is sneaky. When you see weird-looking exemptions and requirements in a law, [ ]
Sailors on the USS Lincoln have mutinied. Conscription is a natural counterforce to imperial lunacy. Draftees don t want to be there unless there s a DAMN GOOD REASON, and unless they TRUST the government. WW2 fulfilled both of those conditions, so the draft wasn t really needed. Everyone recognized that the government was on our side, and [ ]
I was struck by the deep strangeness of a common phrase. If it hadn t been for the bible in his pocket, the shot would have killed him. If it hadn t been for those pesky ants, we could have enjoyed the picnic. There are more concrete ways to say the same thing with the same words. [ ]
Do birds have mental jukeboxes? Do they hear the tune repeatedly in their heads when they re not singing it? We can t ask them, but the human analogy is awfully tempting. The repeated tunes in my head are a lot like birdsong in length and pattern. Relatively short pieces, ranging from four notes to one stanza. [ ]
Radio Caroline, the tacitly approved pirate station, got in trouble by announcing the death of King Charles. A technician was debugging one of the control computers and came across the digital tape prepared for the event. Hmm. What is this? Let s listen to it and find out He thought he was listening privately but instead [ ]
Jan 13, 2026: For 20 years a vacant apartment building was the worst thing in the neighborhood, constantly squatted and constantly visited by cops who weren t allowed to do anything. This situation was NOT understandable. The property was owned by an LLC who could afford to fix things if they wanted to. In 2017 the [ ]