I don’t know your views on guns, but I value both exploring different cultures and not polluting, which destroys life, liberty, and property. When my friend invites me to go to target practice at his shooting range outside the city, I’m happy to explore a culture as different from Greenwich Village, NYU, and Columbia as most places on earth. Unlike nearly anyone I know, I find cultures as diverse as[…] Keep reading →

That something in poppy can be extracted into something that addicts (opiates), that fruit and grains can be fermented into something that addicts (alcohol), or smoking tobacco can addict, or that gambling addicts are all chance results from nature. People may have found ways to capitalize on and profit from that addiction, but no one created the effect. Evolution did. By contrast, we now know how to addict people to[…] Keep reading →

If an adult wants to smoke in their home, that’s their business. If they give themselves lung cancer, that’s their choice, assuming their sickness doesn’t tax others who didn’t choose. Likewise, if people want to consume doof, that’s their business too. But if someone smokes where others who don’t or can’t consent to breathing that smoke, or if someone too young to know the long-term results of their choices smokes,[…] Keep reading →

People seem to want to defer to “experts” in sustainability and sustainability leadership. Many people know about science, technology, economics, legislation, and places where we might apply sustainability, but nearly no one knows anything about leading people or cultures to enjoy living more sustainably. Telling people facts or what to do or cajoling or coercing them isn’t leading them, yet it’s what nearly everyone does. It doesn’t work. It frustrates[…] Keep reading →

People complain if we don’t use energy sources like fossil fuels we’ll collapse or return to the Stone Age. That’s a failure of their imaginations, but more. Do we need to grow? Milton Friedman hardly promoted regulating markets. He said: “We have no desperate need to grow. We have a desperate desire to grow, and those are quite different. I believe that the level of growth in this country ought[…] Keep reading →

I confess I haven’t read Thomas Paine’s The American Crisis, but I’m working so much on opposing coercion and tyranny, I keep coming across him. I’m trying to learn more about the conditions that led to the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Learning history is one thing. Getting inside the hearts and minds of the people acting is another. What values were they acting on or not? If you[…] Keep reading →

Word choice matters. Why speak if you don’t want to be understood? It’s not their responsibility for me to be understood, even if I get mad at them for not understanding me. I recently wrote how I was Replacing “sustainability” with “not hurting people” and “polluting” with “hurting people” since “sustainability” is too abstract in many cases, as is the “environment.” I’m not trying to help some abstract environment. I’m[…] Keep reading →

I’m approaching one year training for and participating in the NYPD auxiliary police program. I wrote earlier about mustering for the September 11 service. Tonight I walked in the annual memorial service for two auxiliary officers who were killed on duty on this day in 2007. I took this picture as we were starting. Here’s a picture another auxiliary officer took from inside the group. I’m not sure if I’m[…] Keep reading →

Abraham Lincoln talked about a house divided being unable to stand. A Constitution that protected freedom in one place and slavery in another contradicted itself. You can protect freedom only. You can protect slavery only. If you try to do both, that divided house cannot stand. Likewise, you can have a Constitution that protects your life, liberty, and property from me taking or destroying it without your consent. You can[…] Keep reading →