“Heritage Americans: ‘You’re less American than I am because my ancestors built this country.’ Also Heritage Americans: ‘Don’t blame me for slavery or segregation. I’m not responsible for what my ancestors did,’” – Avik Roy.
Source: https://intellectualoid.com/2026/01/16/friday-1-16-26/
I was taught to not be a hypocrite, the implication being such a person cannot be trusted because you don’t know their true values. My childhood friend once told me what he dislikes the most is hypocrisy. I think we all at one time or another are a hypocrite, but the real problem is not recognizing it as a problem enough to be embarrassed by. In fact, it seems as though most people today have so little self-awareness that they can’t be embarrassed.
In his essay today Om Malik shared this quote from psychologist Rollo May, observing 1950s America:
The opposite of courage in our society is not cowardice, it is conformity.
Malik says May diagnosed this when McCarthyism was literally hunting down anyone who thought differently. The subject of Malik’s post was technology platforms, but I think in reality the quote is most applicable to where we are in the United States today. Supremacy does not seek peaceful co-existence, which is the alleged premise of the founding of the U.S., but rather conformity and compliance to a hierachial world view of winners and losers.
I don’t understand how anyone can think the U.S. annexation of Greenland is a good idea. First off, if you were a citizen of Greenland why would you want to be a U.S. citizen? Second off, in what way does that annexation help us normal citizens of the U.S.? I thought we were all “America First.”
Bumbling Cubs Front Office
Kyle Tucker signed a 4 year, $240m contract with the Dodgers. In my opinion the Cubs trading for Tucker last year and giving up a top prospect is one of the worst decisions made by Jed Hoyer. The mistake the Cubs keep making is that they seem unwilling to pay for the positions of need and then to appease the fans just sign whatever player regardless of the position, and that is a bad way to run a team.
Last season the Cubs need was at third base and Alex Bregman was available, but the Cubs were not aggressive in filling their need and for some reason settled on renting Tucker for a year. The only way the trade for Tucker made sense is if the Cubs had extended him before the season started, once the season started with no extension it was obvious the Cubs had made a mistake. Redemption for the front office would have been a deep playoff run, but instead Tucker was injured for most of the second half of the season and the Cubs lost to the Brewers in the divisional round.
Now the Cubs have signed Bregman to finally fill their need, but they could have done that last year and not given up any prospects in the process. It would have been much smarter for them to have taken the money they gave to Tucker and spent it on Bregman. All around, these were bad decisions and even bad business decisions by the owner. Of course, Ownership showed their bad business skills by extending Hoyer last year before the trade deadline, effectively rewarding Hoyer for mediocre work.
I received the Day One book version of this site. It’s a very cool bounded book print out of what I wrote here during the past year.
I have created the list of the books that I read in 2025. Unfortunately, I did not reach my goal for the number of books that I read but I am expecting to be able to exceed this number this year as I have more time to read. I have also updated my large outline of the books that I have read since 2020.
I accidentally bought the fat free version of the coffee creamer that I use and I am amazed by how much of a difference, for the worse, there is between it and the version that I regularly use.
I am shocked that the Chicago Cubs signed Alex Bregman to what will be the third most lucrative contract in team history. Ownership has not shown a willingness to sign big contracts since the one they gave Dansby Swanson. What I see from BleedCubbieBlue.com is that the math pegs the Cubs right at the luxury tax threshold, which I suspect is ownership’s upper limit. Being that the Cubs are in a large market, they ought to be more willing to pay the luxury tax, if they are willing I would love to see them pursue Cody Bellinger for a one year deal, but that won’t happen. The article reports that the Cubs are spending 36% of their revenue on player salaries, putting them at 26th in the league. Comparable big market teams New York Yankees and Los Angelas Dodgers are spending 50% (11th) and 73% (2nd) respectively.
While earlier this week it felt like spring, today Mother Nature sent a reminder that it is still January.
Military Not Law Enforcement
The killing of Renee Nicole Good by that ICE agent is bad enough, but the words of people in government, particularly J.D. Vance is what I am most troubled by.
Law Enforcement in the United States is vested by the state with the ability to take a life. The social contract between citizens and the state in this matter is that Law Enforcement is held to high standard.