Dawn Allen is a freelance writer and editor who is passionate about sustainability, political economy, gardening, traditional craftwork, and simple living. She and her husband are currently renovating a rural homestead in southeastern Michigan.
In Part 1, I mentioned that the current election cycle is bringing the meaning of manhood into the national conversation, and discussed the biological roots of the differences between males and females. This is basic knowledge, but why is it important now? For most of our history, the collective was more important than the individual.
Donald Trump’s media-circus candidacy has been bringing plenty of cultural taboos to the fore for all to see. This being the USA, any contest between a man and woman for the highest office in the land was doomed to draw trolls and patriarchs out of the woodwork, but the Trump vs Clinton contest has been
Today is Hallowe’en, a traditional time to scare each other and scry into the future. And what a perfect time to do so, with a frightening verdict to report, and mischief that is sure to follow! Unless you’ve been stuck in a dungeon for the last several days, you’ve probably heard that Ryan Bundy and
There is no doubt that the internet is an incredibly useful invention, arguably one of our greatest innovations as a species. Without it, how could we use Facebook to “check-in” at WalMart, see pictures of the surface of Pluto while we’re waiting for the bus, or reset our home thermostats while on vacation in Hawai’i?
In August 2015, contractors working for the EPA were attempting to clean up the Gold King mine near Silverton, Colorado. Acidic water, laden with harmful metals like lead and arsenic, was backing up inside the abandoned mine. The entrance to the mine had been plugged on the cheap, and the force of the backup of
The Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EAHCA) was signed into law by President Gerald Ford in 1975. Renamed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in 1990, with amendments added in 1997, this law included provisions that required schools to provide appropriate, individually tailored special education programs for children with disabilities at no (direct)
It’s been a particularly vicious election season, and it’s not over yet. Dangerous rhetoric, including Trump goading his supporters to violence, has produced an environment of rancor that seems designed to bring out the worst in people. Yet among each day’s new stories of political grandstanding and admissions of sexual assault, two stories of people
I was wandering down the internet rabbit hole the other day when I came across one of those jokes that can be found in various versions in several places around the web. One version goes like this: A man is convinced he is dead. His wife and kids are exasperated. They keep telling him he’s not
Externalities are everywhere, once you start looking for them. These are the costs (or, sometimes, the benefits) that accrue to those outside of an economic transaction who likely didn’t consent to pay for them. I’ve written about them before, such as how WalMart profits by not having to pay for security services that are provided
Those of us who are of a certain age will remember the Cola Wars. In the 70s and 80s, soda rivals Pepsi and Coke went head to head to capture the brown, sweet fizzy water market. “Taking the Pepsi Challenge” meant participating in a blind taste test of the two drinks. There were loyalty programs, endless