The Inner Monologue

Thinking Out Loud

I hereby invent a holiday: Recalibration Day.

Invent a holiday! Explain how and why everyone should celebrate. It arrives once a year, exactly halfway between the winter solstice and the summer solstice—right at that quiet hinge in the calendar when nobody is paying attention, when the world isn’t demanding a mood. Not a beginning, not an ending, not festive, not solemn. Just…
The Protest of Presence: A New Theory of Resistance in a Monetized Age

In an earlier era, protest meant abstention. To boycott was to withdraw, to starve a system of attention, labor, and capital. We deprive the merchant by refusing his wares; we reclaim our dignity by denying him our dollars. It is an act of absence, a moral exit. But the modern economy has mutated. Platforms are…
Why Do Americans Treat Their Biggest Investments Like Garbage?

Let’s talk about the great American paradox: people will drop tens of thousands of dollars on a house or a car, then proceed to treat them like disposable razors. It’s like buying a golden retriever and then forgetting to feed it—except in this case, the retriever is your mortgage and it’s actively losing value while…
“Oh, You Didn’t Read the Playbook? Shocking.”

Let’s talk about playbooks. You know, those things that everyone seems to follow when they’re about to do something terrible, but nobody seems to read when they could, you know, stop them. Monopolies? Oh yeah, there’s a playbook for that. Step one: Dominate a market. Step two: Crush competitors. Step three: Jack up prices while…
Digital habitats.

What are your favorite websites? If you peel back enough layers of my curiosity, you eventually arrive at a simple truth: I don’t have favorite websites in the traditional sense. I have digital habitats—places I wander through like a nomad with a Wi-Fi signal instead of a compass. I live in a world where information…
Gen X Faces an Inheritance of Opportunity

For decades, Baby Boomers have shaped the American landscape. Their sheer numbers forced the construction of new schools, the expansion of suburbs, and the widening of roads. Every stage of their lives demanded a response, and entire systems were built around them. Now, as Boomers age and eventually pass, Gen X will inherit not only…
“Spending Money to Save Money: The ROI Delusion”

Ah, the eternal wisdom of the eco-marketing gurus: “Replace your perfectly functional [thing] with this shiny new [thing] and SAVE MONEY!” Sure. And if you believe that, I’ve got a “net-zero carbon footprint” timeshare in a swamp to sell you. The Gas Guzzler Gambit A long time ago, I drove a car that drank gasoline…
The Bureaucrat, the Idiot, and the Ass

In a bustling kingdom where the affairs of state flowed like rivers through stone channels, there lived a small but steadfast clerk. Each day the clerk bore scrolls and messages from one office to the next, ensuring the business of the realm marched onward. Now, this clerk dealt with folk of all kinds: some wise,…
The Renaissance We Never Choose

Imagine a world where nations did not cling to past glory as a cudgel or a myth, but as a syllabus. A global syllabus of greatness. Where history was not weaponized nostalgia — the kind that breeds nationalism, grievance, and paranoia — but rather curriculum. A shared document of principles that once lifted a civilization…
New Mexico’s Doctor Shortage: Groundbreaking Idea—Maybe Pay Them?

Oh, New Mexico. Land of enchantment, green chile, and a health care system held together by duct tape and the sheer willpower of the three remaining doctors who haven’t fled to Texas yet. But fear not! The Legislative Finance Committee has stumbled upon a radical new strategy to fix our physician exodus: paying doctors like…