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An unusual thing happened at dinner tonight. A couple comes into the restaurant with a dog. The hostess tells them that the dog has to wait outside, and they tell her that its a service animal; the fellow is handicapped, and that he needs it with him. They assure the reluctant hostess that its very well trained, and point out the official uniform that it’s in as a handicapped helper.

A half hour goes by with no incident, but then two teenage girls come into the restaurant. Maybe the dog didn’t like their perfume or clothing – I’m not sure what happened. But suddenly the dog jumps up, starts barking, growling and bearing its teeth at the two (very frightened) teenagers. The owner of the dog is telling it to hush, but the dog isn’t listening, straining at its leash in what appears to be an attempt to attack the girls. The hostess is forced to put the girls at a back corner table well away from the dog before it quiets down.
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It’s that day again. The worst day of the year. The day that society rubs it in the face of those of us who can’t find love. As if it wasn’t bad enough that we have to deal with the social, emotional, health, financial, and psychological burdens of being single. I’m not going to expound upon those burdens here – I’ve done it in previous years’ posts.

I want to use this as a chance to reflect upon love, and on being single. The thing is, for many people, love just isn’t in the cards. There is a small, but non-negligible percentage of the population that will never find love. Most of our culture is predicated on the notion of finding meaning in life through romantic relationships. But for those of us who don’t get to live out that cultural meme, where can we look for models of a fulfilling life without romance? Continue reading »

I am constantly surprised, when talking to policy makers, how rarely they ask the question “then what happens?” when developing their policy. Imagine you need a source of revenue, but you don’t want to burden the taxpayer. A surprisingly large number of policy makers “solve” this dilemma by suggesting a tax on business, say oil companies. But lets ask “then what happens?” The business isn’t going to just take the loss. It will raise prices to pull in additional revenue in order to pay the tax. Where does the revenue from the business come from? The consumer, i.e. anybody who uses gasoline, i.e. anybody who drives or uses public transit, or uses products that are transported in a gasoline powered vehicle, i.e. the taxpayer.
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