Monthly Archives: August 2020

Lifting the veil of ignorance in Minneapolis and Kenosha

One more week, one more caught-on-video incident of a policeman shooting an unarmed Black man who was not posing an imminent threat, this one in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Honestly, my first thought on seeing this particular episode after all of this ugly summer’s “repeats” was “How stupid a policeman are you?” The “veil of ignorance” may have been lifted for you… Read more »

Type I versus Type II errors in election security

I-Voted

You likely first encountered the “Type I versus Type II error problem” in grade school and didn’t realize it. Perhaps some kid in the class played a practical joke on the teacher, and because nobody confessed, the entire class got detention. In some situation or another, you were likely punished undeservedly as a group for the actions of a small… Read more »

Choose your own stock market adventure

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If you are fortunate to be living off sizable and broadly diversified investments in the world’s financial markets, then your financial position by mid-August likely came back pretty close to where it was in January of 2020, before the “Coronavirus Crash.” This is especially true when dividends and interest payments received since then are included. And if you are not?… Read more »

Self-dealing non-profits and the NRA

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Charity Navigator

The recent filing of a civil action to dissolve the National Rifle Association by the New York State Attorney General will generate headlines and political debate for months to come. I have done a lot of work over the years with “not-for-profit” organizations (more commonly called “non-profits”), serving on the boards of several in various roles, including president and treasurer…. Read more »

Covid math you learned in elementary school

Desk

The three major Covid-19 mitigations available to “normal folks” have clearly become highly politicized. The frustrating thing here is that all three are based on science and mathematics principles that you likely learned in elementary school, but have either been forgotten or have been overridden by anti-science political cultism. So, squeeze yourself back into that 5th grade desk and let’s… Read more »