Recent Comments

1. 21 days ago on Calvin and Hobbes

   Sadly, those who created our current Prussian-style compulsory education system did so explicitly to destroy any love of learning the students might have and to ensure no more self-educated geniuses such as Franklin or Edison would be created, so it’s not likely to find a teacher willing to engage Calvin’s imagination to teach him. Recommend John Taylor Gatto’s Underground History of American Education for more details. I was especially intrigued by his experience trying to introduce his students in Harlem to Moby Dick.

2. 3 months ago on FoxTrot Classics

   Keep in mind that Oxford students introduced to the term “soccer” to differentiate “association football” from “rugby football” – soccer was somehow related to association. Since rugby football is closer to American football than to association football, it makes more sense to me that we continue to call soccer soccer and real football football.

3. 3 months ago on Calvin and Hobbes

   Until I started working with my daughter on arithmetic, I didn’t realize that dyslexia could impact an understanding of what numbers were greater or less than others. To this day (she’s 16), she has to use the tools we taught her to figure out what the numbers mean. The other day, I told her an activity was delayed 1 hour, so she needed to leave 1 hour later than normal – she had to stop and think if that meant 7:00 or 9:00 (since she normally leaves at 8:00 for this particular activity). It makes me wonder if Calvin would have benefited from some of the special practices we’ve learned to help my daughter function in a “normal” society.

4. 4 months ago on Non Sequitur

   Frank Gilbreth (one of the fathers of Industrial Engineering), in his first job as a brick mason, created a device to keep his bricks and mortar at the same level he was working at. When he showed his foreman, the response was, “You’re not efficient, you’re just too &%^@ lazy to bend over.” Gilbreth later would walk into a factory, ask the foreman who the laziest person in the factory was, observe him and then have everyone else do the job the same way. I’ve tried to do the same things. Much of my job deals with spreadsheets, so I’ve learned to write macros to do the repetitive parts of my job more quickly and easily.

5. 5 months ago on Non Sequitur

   That’s pretty much exactly what I’ve heard my pastor say on several occasions. We protect our kids from all sorts of evils (we have minimum ages for drinking and smoking for example), but when it comes to the entire world in a small box, we give them the box at age 6 and say “you figure it out”.I mentor a group of about a dozen high-school men. Most of them have voluntarily given up their social media as they recognized the harm it was doing to them. I’m not saying it’s all bad, but depending on how you’re using it and what accounts you follow, it can cause all manner of headache, heartache, envy, and grief as well as opening yourself up to cyberbullying. When my then 14yo daughter had to get social media because that was how her dance instructor communicated with the class, my wife and I were very clear about the rules around social media use and the fact that 1) she couldn’t hide her activity from us and 2) her phone was being paid for by us, so we could, at any time, take it and see what’s on it. So far, this seems to be working out – though honestly, I’d still prefer it if she didn’t need it for dance.

6. 6 months ago on Non Sequitur

   Yep, you’d need to displace 1916 m^3 of air to lift 2000 kg (a juvenile elephant), which would mean a sphere of diameter nearly 25 m or 81 feet.

7. 6 months ago on Overboard

   Is there a way to wear out a lab? My lab-pit mix has never worn out. I can take him for a five mile jog, play fetch for another hour and he’ll come running up with a toy ready for some tug-of-war. Even when he’s asleep, if he hears me walking around, he jumps up and grabs a toy ready for more play. The only time he doesn’t have that kind of energy is when he’s actually ill and I need to get him some help.

8. 6 months ago on Non Sequitur

   Frankly, I’m surprised to find an issue where Wiley and I agree so closely – I’m usually reading his strips to see what I disagree with him on now.

9. 6 months ago on Non Sequitur

   Three years ago, my dad passed away (my mom predeceased him by almost exactly 1 year). He was one of the world’s last great savers, so he was able to pass on to my brothers and me a generous inheritance. However, most of it was in tax advantaged IRAs, so we now have required minimum distributions which we must pay taxes and penalties on. Before this, I had my withholding balanced such that I was always about +/-$500 of what I actually owed. With the RMD’s, my taxes have gone up so substantially, I run a real risk of having to pay penalties for not withholding enough money, even though I’ve reset my W4 to have the maximum withholding possible. I agree with you, the penalty for “underpaying” is substantial. Frankly, I’d rather keep all of my money and have to write a big check at the filing deadline – then I’d know in my heart as well as my mind exactly how much I’m paying in taxes and it would force me to be frugal to ensure I’d have the funds to cover the cost. I understand that for many people, this wouldn’t be a possibility, mostly due to a lack of discipline quite frankly, but I wish I had that option.

10. 6 months ago on Non Sequitur

    The problem is that no one really knows how much of their income is actually going to taxes. Most people never look at their paystubs other than to look at the net amount. Then April 15 comes around and they hire someone like Jackson Hewitt (who promises to get you your refund faster) then think they took money from the government instead of the other way around. It amazes me when I talk about HR 25, people’s knee jerk reaction is that they don’t want to replace the ~25% total federal taxes (this # includes, not only income taxes, but payroll taxes and embedded taxes in our paychecks and cost of goods) with a 23% inclusive retail sales tax. So you’re telling me you don’t personally want a 2% pay cut? The answer is always, “I don’t pay, I always get a return.” I don’t care your political position on anything (even if you disagree with me across the board), I just want you making decisions based in reality rather than some fantasy forced on you by those who wish to control your life.