Civic Passport

I thoroughly enjoyed this book by Ian Leslie about the writing collaboration and praetorship between John Lennon and Paul McCartney. I’ve been a fan of The Beatles for over 15 years now, and they became one of my favorite bands. This book added a lot of insight and depth to my understanding of their songwriting craft, the development of the Beatles, the breakup, and aftermath of the 70’s as well as John Lennon’s murder in 1980. ...

One of the things that I have learned over the years is how when it comes to the Bible is that there is no instruction manual for how it is to be handled. Any framework that is place on the Bible for interpretation is necessarily extra-Biblical. This is not a condemnation of frameworks that people use for Biblical interpretation, but it is a plead for people to recognize that there are many different ways to understand the Bible, and no one right single way. ...

There is a model of American history I’ve been toying with lately that helps to explain the moment we are in. I’m sure I’m not the first person to have come up with this, but I find it more useful than the dominant lens that is typically used. The normal model that you come across in political science is the sun and moon parties. You have the era where there is a dominant party and then a minority party that reflects the issues and concerns of the sun party. In this view, there is a Democratic majority after the New Deal, and then after that the Republicans have a majority party with Reagan, and each usually lasts about 40ish years. ...

I’ve largely avoided commentating on recent events. The murder of Charlie Kirk was a horrific crime. Even as I think that he employed a style of debate that was needlessly provocative (to put it mildly), and he took positions that I think are terrible, no one should be murdered while engaging in peaceful debate and conversation. I was listening to a podcast earlier and I thought the host spoke very powerfully about our politics. The fact is, we have to learn to live together without violence. Republicans, Democrats, liberals, conservatives, progressives, moderates, libertarians, socialists, atheists, Christians, Jews, Muslims, gay, straight, trans, MAGA fans and Bernie bros. No one is going anywhere. You aren’t changing anyone’s beliefs with a magical argument so we all agree. No one is going to permanently defeat the other party or group politically as long as we have elections. If we can’t learn to live together then the American experiment is fundamentally doomed. We are going to have to be okay with the other side having power every 2+ years. We have to be able to compromise with each other, and this can be done without sacrificing our principles or values. ...

I’m not sure I have much to add to the disucssion on the assassination of Charlie Kirk. I was not a fan of his, but murder is wrong, and our society is based on the idea, not just of freedom of speech, but that we are all created equal and endowed with the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This philosophhical liberalism is the bedrock that allows us to live peacably together and be one nation amidst the diversity of our differences. The nation’s motto is, after all, “E Pluribus Unum” (Out of Many, One). Political violence has plagued America in waves since the founding. America was founded in a violent war with Great Britain. There was a violent slave system, and a violent civil war that resulted. There was violence towards blacks and other minorities for decades, and political assassinations throughout. We’ve seen bombings and other instances as well. There’s no way to get rid of it, but every so often they cluster when there is a lot of societal turbulence. ...

David French had a really good newsletter this week. I’m pretty sure it’s gated to subscribers, but it’s about Article II of the Constitution and the ambiguity of the opening sentence: “The executive power shall be vested in a president of the United States of America.” The problem is in the vagueness of the phrase “executive power”. It’s so open ended that we end up with a chief executive officer who can in a sense do whatever they want as long as they are executing some action, at least in theory. What David French, and others, have proposed is an amendment that rephrases that sentence to drastically limit executive authority. Instead of how it currently reads it would say “A president of the United States of America shall execute laws passed by Congress.” This makes it clear that the President is executing laws passed by Congress and all executive power (however the Supreme Court decides to interpret that) does not reside in them. This still leaves open the president as commander in chief of the armed forces and all other enumerated powers laid out in Article II. However, it restrains the President from the potentiality of doing whatever they want with laws that congress passes.

For the past couple of years, I’ve been using micro.blog as my (in)consistent blogging platform. Whenever I’ve had flashes of inspiration—what Stephen King calls “the boys downstairs”—I’ve written them down here. For me, this blog has been an outlet to process ideas, current events, books, my faith, and more. Now I’ve decided to open this space to a wider audience—putting it out there for anyone who might want to think alongside me. This is, at its core, a blog about understanding: understanding the subjects that capture my interest, and exploring how the world works and why it works the way it does. ...

You’re a Republican, having a casual conversation at the YMCA with someone you know only as Bob, who happens to be a Democrat. You’re discussing your latest work project when the topic shifts to a recent school shooting. Bob suddenly says, “Can you believe how these Republicans won’t do anything about gun violence? They don’t care one iota about our children.” Immediately, you feel that tightness in your gut. You tense up, defensive. Your mind begins racing through all the usual counterarguments—your critiques of Democratic policies, your beliefs about the Second Amendment, your concerns about government overreach. But this isn’t the time or place, so you steer the conversation elsewhere. ...

Finished reading: The Scout Mindset by Julia Galef 📚

One of the concepts that has stuck with me from reading Thomas Sowell is the idea of the Constrained Vision versus the Unconstrained Vision. The constrained vision holds that humans are fallible and imperfect, and that this is not a fault of society but inherent in individuals. It also recognizes that scarcity is a fundamental feature of the world, and because of the limits of both the world and human nature, there are no permanent solutions to society’s problems — only tradeoffs. This means society will never be perfected, but it can be improved through various institutional arrangements. ...