The Inner Monologue

Thinking Out Loud

When Technology Surpasses Us

By now, we live in a world where technology is less about meeting human needs and more about outpacing them. It’s progress at full throttle, barreling ahead long after the passengers stopped asking for more speed. The Case of the Supercar Nobody Needs Consider the automobile. A century ago, the Ford Model T’s 20 horsepower…
Privacy on Trial: What Michigan’s VPN Ban Really Means

When Michigan lawmakers introduced House Bill 4938, they wrapped it in the language of protection. Protecting children. Protecting families. Protecting “public morals.” On the surface, who could argue with that? The bill claims to fight traffickers, predators, and the flood of online obscenity by demanding stricter moderation from platforms and mandatory filtering by internet service…
Trump’s Erratic UN Speech Was a Global Warning

The United Nations has endured its share of theatrics. Fidel Castro lectured for hours about imperialism. Hugo Chávez waved books and declared George W. Bush “the devil.” Mahmoud Ahmadinejad denied the Holocaust and raged about Zionist conspiracies. These speeches were offensive, sometimes dangerous — but at least they carried an ideological spine. Donald Trump’s September…
Should Kenvue Sue Trump?

There’s a saying in business: reputation is built over decades and can be shattered in seconds. On September 22, 2025, President Donald Trump used the full weight of the presidency to declare Tylenol (acetaminophen) a danger to unborn children — warning pregnant women to avoid it due to alleged links to autism.That is not mere…
The Soybean Betrayal: How U.S. Trade Policy Doomed Its Own Farmers

For decades, the American farmer has been told that trade is his lifeline. “Feed the world,” they said, and global demand—especially from China—would reward hard work in the fields. And for a generation, this bargain held. China’s middle class swelled, its appetite for meat (and the soybeans needed to feed livestock) soared, and U.S. growers…
Why Being a Pragmatic Adopter > Being a First Adopter (Or: How to Avoid Being a Tech Industry Beta Tester)

Oh, you’re a First Adopter? Cool. Enjoy: Paying triple the price for a gadget that’ll be obsolete in six months. Debugging someone else’s half-baked software because “innovation!” Explaining to friends why your cutting-edge smart fridge now only displays error codes. Realizing the “game-changing” tech you championed is, in fact, a glorified paperweight. Meanwhile, Pragmatic Adopters…
Why YouTubers Need Their Own ASCAP: Fixing the Broken System of Incidental Music Rights

In the early days of broadcast radio, music creators were furious. Stations were spinning records, filling the air with songs that people loved, but the artists themselves weren’t seeing a dime. The broadcasters argued that airplay was “free promotion,” but the musicians and songwriters recognized what was really happening: they were providing the raw cultural…
The Cult of Fragile Patriots: How MAGA Turned Strength Into a Performance Art

There was a time when the American right prided itself on toughness. They were the party of stoicism, bootstraps, and grit—the cowboy myth made flesh. But in the post-truth America of red caps and reality TV, that archetype has collapsed into something much smaller, louder, and infinitely more fragile: the Cult of Perpetual Victimhood. The…
How Accurate Was My 2014 Prediction About Genomic Sequencing and Species Taxonomy by 2030?

In 2014, I made a bold forecast about the future of biology: By 2030, genomic sequencing will have established a comprehensive taxonomy of all known species. Now, as we approach the midpoint to 2030, let’s assess how close we are to achieving this vision—and whether the prediction is on track. The State of Genomic Sequencing…
When the Lights Go Out: How the October 2025 Shutdown Became a Blueprint for Control

October 2025 History Repeats—Only Louder The United States has endured shutdowns before, but none so eerily familiar as the one now paralyzing the government in October 2025.The last time the nation faced such a prolonged paralysis was during the 2018–2019 shutdown, which stretched 35 days—the longest in American history. That shutdown, too, took place under…