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The Tyranny of ZIP Codes: A Progressive Case Against the Property Tax
A Tale of two ZIPs A child is born in well-to-do town that’s a suburb of somewhere. The curving streets lined with oak trees and white picket fences are dotted with well-to-do houses that pay property taxes. The well-to-do community that comprises these houses easily fund their local schools: after school-tutoring, sports of every type,…
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The Four Powers Of Citizens – Riots
The common thread through history is that riots, generally speaking, work. In our American system, property damage (coupled with potential violence) has always been what gets the gears of societal change actually turning. Public schools overwhelmingly downplay this in history classes. The current curriculum expounds upon the peaceful protests of Martin Luther King Jr. or…
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Joe Biden is Not the God-damned President Anymore
Jesus Christ Republicans Need to Stop Talking About Joe Biden This is Embarrassing Ever since convicted felon Donald Trump swore into office, I’ve heard with increasingly regularity this familiar whine from Republican political actors. With the best 3rd-grade level reasoning, those on the Right deflect each and every question about their governing with snotty retorts…
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How to Screw It Up as a Landlord: a Case Study with Chicago’s Residential Landlord Tenant Ordinance
The CRLTO Protects You from Bad Landlords This is the story of what happened to me in the back half of 2024. My landlord attempted to remove illegally from my new apartment, and it backfired quite badly. August: a Regrettable Introduction So, I had just moved into an apartment in Uptown. After lugging all my…
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How to Actually Use a Word Processor
A Guide to Making Documents that They Never Taught in School Whether it’s Microsoft Word, Google Docs, or LibreOffice, everyone will use word-processing software at some point. The simple what-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSIWYG) interfaces allow people to start writing their thoughts right away. However, hidden above, below, and on either side of the blank page is a…
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I asked Chat-GPT to Review a Book and the Results were Horrible
I conducted an experiment with Chat-GPT Pro today. I took an incomplete manuscript for a book (approximately 100 pages, double-spaced), and uploaded the *.docx file to Chat-GPT. Then, I gave it simple instructions: give me a chapter-by-chapter feedback and analysis. The results were bad.