As I’m sure everyone is aware, the plethora of allegations coming from the Don Draper aspirants over at Fox News have pushed the issue of sexual harassment into the light – where it should be, quite honestly. Additionally, the news about Mike and Karen Pence and their rule prohibiting one-on-one meetings with the opposite sex also came out within the last month. Regardless of how you feel concerning either debacle – personally I couldn’t care less what the Pence family does if both parties are in agreement and careers aren’t being stalled – the controversy surrounding both issues made every club wielding neanderthal in Conservative media decide that it was time for them to exit their caves in unison, thumping their chests and throwing feces at anyone who questions their superior opinions.

The Federalist, Erick Erickson, and Matt Walsh have produced some disturbing cringe-worthy material before, but lately it feels as though they found all the diaries men kept on Warren Jeffs’ compound and are now publishing them. The best part is that women are writing a good portion of these articles, because what a great way to try and create a defense of nonsense material. They’re also having Jews write articles critical of Jews, it’s a fun new shtick. Back to the point, instead of articles telling men to behave themselves and learn some self-control – since, after all, women were the ones in the “victims” column at Fox News – we get articles like this: Continue reading “‘You are what you wear,’ and other dumb advice.” →

“You know, if you hit the gas we’ll make it home in time for me to see my Great-Great-Great-Grandkids be born,” he said to me with a smirk as I slowed his truck – the truck he’d sell me for a dollar the day I got my driver’s license – to a crawling 25 mph down a hill that barely merits the label. I was just learning to drive, and my Grandpa had taken it upon himself to teach me. I was a fast learner, but I wasn’t fast enough for the bar I had set for myself.

I had grown up with a deep fear of disappointing those who had expectations of me, scared of being a burden, and I was a perfectionist to the point of being terrified of failure. Somehow my Grandpa knew all of this about me, and with one quick-witted remark at a time he shattered the walls of perfection and created a world where the freedom to be human was like a net beneath a tightrope. “Sorry, I’m just a little scared going down hills,” I replied. “It’s alright,” he laughed, “the Great-Great-Great-Grandkids can wait.”  Continue reading “Let me tell you about Harold Gray…” →

I have good news: I’ll be doing a weekly podcast now!

I’ll be posting them here on the blog. Let me know what you think of Episode 1, and if you have any questions you want answered on the next episode, leave them in the comments or tweet them!

I talk about civil asset forfeiture a lot, and every time – without fail – I have a great deal of people ask what asset forfeiture is. Definition wise, it’s a fairly simple concept to comprehend, but it’s the nitty gritty details that tend to confuse people. Just last week I was sitting in my doctor’s office talking about an article I did on forfeiture, and my interview with a lawyer familiar with CAF cases, when suddenly my doctor looked at me and said “I’ve never heard of that.” So if you’ve found yourself scratching your head, you’re definitely not alone.  Continue reading “Forfeiture without due process? You bet your civil asset.” →

I wrote a post this week on embracing The Nothing, as I’ll call it. The political wilderness I once feared is what I’ll now call home, and the tribal tendencies that once provided affirmation now seem so silly and undignified. I’ll provide a few excerpts from that post below so that you understand where I’m coming from, and then move on to the point of this particular post.

First, my acknowledgement that conservative media and pundits, many of whom proudly stood against Trump, have already spiraled back into their pack mentality: Continue reading “Thanks for ‘Nothing’” →