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.
The First Amendment’s clause regarding the freedom of the press is crucial to maintaining a well-informed electorate and a world-class republic. Within a small social unit, such as a family or neighborhood, it’s possible for everyone to know everyone else, but in a polity as large as the United States, we rely on media outlets
It’s bad enough when you have to leave your home and family to go fight in a war. It’s even worse when that makes you a target not just for enemy fire, but also for American scammers. Cheating the troops is a profitable industry, since they are often distracted by duty, economic circumstances, and inexperience.
For most of our history as a species, we relied on solar energy in the form of plants, animals, and human muscle. Living plants would use the sun’s light to photosynthesize their own food out of the air. Trees grew woody tissue that could be burned, releasing the collected energy quickly to warm us in the wintertime.
Beginning last August, a wave of creepy clowns swept the collective consciousness. The first few examples were but a trickle: mysterious sightings in Green Bay, Wisconsin, that ended up being a marketing ploy, an incident in Greenville, South Carolina, where clowns tried to lure children and adults into the woods. Perhaps these events inspired others
In a deeply satisfying turn of events last week, 70 people were arrested in Thane, near Mumbai, India, for allegedly posing as IRS workers to cheat Americans. The IRS scam calls have increased in recent years as entire call centers were staffed by people whose full time job was to call Americans, especially recent immigrants,
Facebook, for all of its flaws, is a rich source of food for thought if you have the right contacts. Today I was scrolling through my newsfeed when I came across a good friend’s homage to Ambrose Bierce, author of the Devil’s Dictionary and late 1800s prequel to the likes of Jon Stewart and Stephen
For many cities with a significant homeless population, a lot of money, time, and effort goes into compelling them to move along. Various methods have been deployed, from spikes embedded in the sidewalk where homeless folks might take shelter from the elements, to the intermittent waterfall that a church in San Francisco built over its
Out in the rural hinterlands, it’s not unusual to pass yards with “Protect Religious Freedom” signs. Religious Freedom has become a dog whistle in recent years, with the “Religion” part understood to mean the speaker’s preferred brand of Christianity, and “Freedom” meaning, in practice, the ability to force others, who may not necessarily believe the
With last August’s 500-year flooding in Louisiana fresh in their minds, our pals over at FEMA are editing their flood insurance maps again. These maps are intended to be a reality-based assessment of the likely risk of damage from flooding, with people in the most vulnerable areas having to pay more, often significantly more, for flood
Maverick libertarian economist and author Tyler Cowen argues in his book Average is Over that in the coming years, American society will deeply bifurcate into Haves and Have-Nots. The lucky Haves will become (or remain) quite wealthy by developing tech-based skills that allow them to partner with intelligent computers. This will enable them to work