How many countries were born with the advantages of America? How many countries have squandered their inheritance like America has?    more »

Something as big as the earth doesn't really engage the human imagination. We need something more bite-sized and concrete.   more »

If I were a sculptor or painter I would avoid making ornaments for rich women's living rooms, choose a theme like this, and then strive...   more »

I did act on the advice given by readers regarding a new digital camera, despite...   more »

The camera autopsy seemed sacrilegious. If eyes are the windows of the soul, what about a camera lens?   more »

How could the camera companies make money off of cameras that didn't use film?!   more »

...as I sifted through the internet, which, despite its reputation as a high-tech wonder, is just a flea market for data. Data, not information.   more »

But just look at all the food cults, fads, and phobias! Those who believe in Progress should explain how this shows that the average person today is less superstitious than...   more »

His little book hearkens back to the 1700's. Unlike in our day, a scientist and a poet could probably sit down together and discuss things.    more »

I was in a romantic fog when I left the coffee shop to finish the bicycle ride. There is something aristocratic, medieval, politically incorrect, and irresistible about falconry.    more »

Why didn't the USA develop Weimar Republic-style inflation years ago? What was to stop it?   more »

But in a blog, with the spiffy software and web-page design, we puff up into seers and clairvoyants.    more »

...but surely it was actually true, back in the good old days, that when you went to a public festival in the summer, you could expect a modicum of success at...    more »

Years ago I learned to be uninhibited when anthropomorphizing. It is one of the tricks of the trade.   more »

People worry about risk only when it accompanies uncommon or unpopular behavior. They yawn at common risks like turning left out of the grocery store's parking lot or walking down the wedding aisle.   more »

A bird flying by a bluff line at just the right moment can be a powerful experience. It captures the human observer's mood so perfectly. It brings on a temporary, endorphin-induced metempsychosis.    more »

Thus the final degradation of the Baconian philosophy is that knowledge becomes power in the service of appetite.   more »

In the process the ideas become vivified. Without this effort at application, reading would be so sterile.   more »

Is it being sentimental and idealistic to wish for a transformation at retirement that has a little bit of beauty and drama?    more »

So what do we get better at, with age? Whatever it is, the profession of retirement (aka, independence from employment) should be concerned with the pursuit of it.    more »

Although he traveled extensively in the USA for about a year, the book is no travelogue. I was unprepared for how exciting the book was.    more »

For most people hiking or bicycling with other people makes it five times as much fun. But what do you do in a demographic no-man's-land?   more »

Thus it is quite natural for the modern environmentalist--living in a sterile and secular age--to fill the emotional vacuum with new ideologies that...   more »

He at least has the satisfaction of asserting a personal sovereignty over his valuable years, instead of surrendering them all to the System.    more »

An idea in a book is just disembodied intellect, and the reading of it is sterile and mechanical. But try to use that idea when investing and the idea sinks right into your skin tissue.   more »

The green shoots that I have been noticing lately are associated with 'creative destruction.'    more »

Later, working in Detroit, I came to see GM as a sinking empire, like ancient Rome. But in those days slaves could buy their freedom eventually. Why couldn't...   more »

I was surprised at my friend's reaction. It was as if I had confessed to bigamy. All I said was that...   more »

It is odd how someone who always considered travel to be an expensive bore would end up as a full time RVer who traveled quite a bit. But all along, my loyalty was to early retirement and independent living   more »

As the economy starts to perk up a little, the new program can be expanded to include payday loan stores, car dealers, and even RV lots. Especially RV lots.    more »