It’s safe to assume that most voters want their elected representatives to clean things up. That’s true, whether your concept of “clean” applies to the environment, ethics, or political discourse. In other […]
America’s Lost War Against a Highly-Addictive Substance
Who could have anticipated the dire consequences of the pharmacist’s experiments? It started so innocently. Hippolyte Mège-Mouriès was participating in a challenge that was sanctioned by none other than Emperor Napoleon III. […]
How the U.S. Nearly Created a $1 Trillion Coin
Regardless of whether you are a coin collector, you probably would be interested in any currency with a big number on it. It might be something comparatively worthless, such as Zimbabwe’s $100 […]
How the Goverment Made a Huge Mistake By Selling $1 Coins for $1
There is no one smarter, better experienced, or more capable of wise financial management than the United States government. Whoa! Mom wasn’t kidding when she told us what would happen if we […]
How Much Do You Know About the Declaration of Independence?
The United States of America celebrates its birthday on July 4. That day marks the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and the formal separation of the colonies from Great Britain. But […]
How to Recognize a Logical Fallacy — Part 1
Reasoned, civil discourse is increasingly a thing of the past. Rather than analyze disagreements through some rational filter, social media seems to encourage the debate strategy of screaming loud enough to drown […]
How to Lie With Statistics
You may have heard someone say that there are three types of falsehoods: lies, darn lies, and statistics. Despite the imputation, statistics can be very compelling. Adding a statistic to your argument […]
Andrew Carnegie and Theodore Roosevelt’s Doomed Effort to Simplify Spelling
Wy duz English hav such weerd spelling? Sum words uze silent letters. Others use dubel letters inconsistently for ekwal sounds, such as “blizzard” and “lizard.” Wat if we cud mak it eezy? […]
Congress Got Rid of Lunatics But Kept All the Idiots
If you ever decide you’d like to learn all of the laws of the United States, you will need to grab a copy of the United States Code (or you can read […]
Why Do Thousands of Mysterious Arrows Cover the USA?
You can be driving through what appears to be the middle of nowhere when you see it. With no explanation as to its presence in that place, you will find a massive […]
Who Is Next In Line? Understanding the Order of Presidential Succession
When Secretary of State Alexander Haig attempted to calm the nation’s fears after the assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan, it was one of those moments that made history. Unfortunately, it was […]
Did a Missing Constitutional Amendment Take Away the Citizenship of All Lawyers?
“The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers!” (Henry VI, Part 2, Act IV, Scene 2). When William Shakespeare wrote those infamous words about lawyers in 1591, he parodied the […]
Was the USA Nuclear Launch Code Really ‘00000000’?
In the 1983 movie WarGames, the fictional W.O.P.R. succeeds in hacking NORAD’s launch code, revealed to be “CPE1704TKS.” National security experts at the time reassured the public that the movie was a […]
What if the President Goes Stark-Raving Mad? Presidential Succession Due to Disability
UPDATED November 19, 2021 An earlier post answered the question about what would happen if something happens to a presidential candidate during the election process. There, we discussed all kinds of scenarios, […]
What Happens When a Presidential Candidate Dies During the Election Process?
A colleague of ours recently asked what would happen if one of the candidates for President happened to die during the election process. She said, “I pray it doesn’t happen, but after […]