The Inner Monologue

Thinking Out Loud

“And Do the Other Things”: What Kennedy Was Really Asking of America

When John F. Kennedy stood before a crowd at Rice University in 1962 and declared, “We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things,” he wasn’t padding a sentence. He was embedding a worldview. The Moon gets the headlines. The rockets get the documentaries. But “the other things” is…
The Infrastructure We Complain About Is the Infrastructure Others Dream Of

There is a quiet absurdity embedded in modern wealth: the louder a society complains about its infrastructure, the more likely it is that its infrastructure already works. In wealthy nations, people rage about potholes that would be impassable roads elsewhere. They curse broadband speeds that would be transformative in poorer countries. They treat a delayed…
The Utility of Poverty: Why Extreme Wealth Requires Someone Else to Stay Poor

Consider a hypothesis that sounds inflammatory only because it is usually left unstated: poor nations are not a failure of the global economy; they are a structural requirement of it. The modern international system does not merely tolerate poverty—it organizes around it. Disproportionate wealth is not an accidental outcome layered atop globalization; it is a…
The $20 Olive: How Distance Turns Food Into a Luxury

Somewhere in a Mediterranean open-air market, a vendor scoops olives from a shallow bin. The price is written on a piece of cardboard in marker. No branding. No story. No adjectives. Just olives—food so ordinary it barely deserves explanation. A kilogram might cost five dollars. Maybe less. In the United States, those same olives—same cultivar,…
January 1 Is a Suggestion, Not a Beginning

Every year, billions of people participate in a collective fiction: that January 1 represents a clean break in time. Fireworks explode, resolutions are declared, and language briefly pretends that something has ended and something else has begun. But beneath the noise, the world keeps moving exactly as it was the day before. Budgets don’t reset.…
The First Place That Will Rename Itself for Trump Won’t Be New York—It Will Be a Message

There is a certain inevitability to the question. Not if, but where. At some point, some jurisdiction in the United States will attempt something more radical than a highway sign or a commemorative plaque. A town council vote. A county resolution. A ballot initiative. A place that decides it does not merely want to honor…
“The Cloud Is Just Someone Else’s Computer” – And Other Hilariously Bad Tech Takes

Oh, you’ve figured it out, haven’t you? The big secret of cloud computing. All those fancy terms—”elastic scaling,” “multi-region redundancy,” “serverless architecture”—are just smoke and mirrors. Because, as any truly enlightened tech bro will tell you: “The cloud is just someone else’s computer.” Wow. Deep. Profound. Revolutionary. Let’s all pack up and go home, folks.…
Behind on Reviews, Ahead on Excuses

There is a strange arithmetic creeping into the machinery of government. It isn’t the arithmetic of budgets, deficits, or GDP—it’s the arithmetic of oversight. And the math doesn’t add up. Across agencies, periodic reviews—whether for safety, compliance, or financial accountability—are falling further and further behind. Once-regular inspections now pile up like unopened mail, while agencies…
Your Tax Dollars at Work: Propping Up Dying Fossil Fuels Like It’s 1923

Ah, fossil fuels—the industries that just won’t die, no matter how many times economics, physics, and common sense try to euthanize them. But don’t worry, Uncle Sam has a plan: subsidies forever! Because nothing says “free market” like shoveling taxpayer cash at coal, oil, and gas to keep them on life support while the rest…
Retirement Planning Based on “Average” Lifespan? Enjoy Eating Cat Food at 95

Oh, you’re using average lifespan numbers to plan your retirement? How adorable. Nothing says “I love gambling with my future” like betting your golden years on a statistic that literally means half of people die before that age. But sure, go ahead—bank on keeling over at 85 like some kind of actuarial fairy tale. Meanwhile,…