An engineer in his mid twenties based in southern Wisconsin, Gherald has been hooked on the blogosphere since encountering Andrew Sullivan during the 2004 cycle.

He began writing himself in 2008, mainly to vent frustration with the Bush-Cheney-Palin axis of the GOP. His amateur interests include economics, civil liberty, freethought, and hard-nosed political realism.

Author archive:

The Art of Letting Go

by Gherald on 31 December 2010
Jason Kuznicki’s post at Ordinary Gentlemen is perhaps the best explanation of libertarianism I’ve ever seen.
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Rage Against The Tax Cuts

by Gherald on 10 December 2010

This Bernie Sanders video from November 30 has gone viral in the leftosphere:


With this populist furor gathered behind him, last night Sanders took to the Senate podium for an old school nine hour filibuster, standing there and speaking nonstop. The traffic demand caused the Senate’s video servers to temporarily go offline.

But it was all show; Reid will be bringing the tax cut compromise to the floor on Monday.

The White House, meanwhile, defended its deal by circulating this chart among Democrats on the Hill:

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Thursday links

by Gherald on 9 December 2010
Contrasting Medicine and Macroeconomics – Jim Manzi Garry Kasparov on playing vs. chess machines – NY Review of Books The 24 types of authoritarians – Misis Caffeine: Good In Moderation – Live Science So, Why is Wikileaks a Good Thing Again? – Answer generator When TV Went To Bed: 13 Classic TV Sign Offs – Woot An awesome Redditor – Read comments
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Dept. of magical thinking

by Gherald on 9 December 2010
Christine O’Donnell: “Tragedy comes in threes. Pearl Harbor, Elizabeth Edwards’ passing and Barack Obama’s announcement of extending the tax cuts, which is good, but also extending the unemployment benefits.”
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If “starve the beast” doesn’t work…

by Gherald on 8 December 2010
..then why is the Democratic left afraid the tax deal “basically ends progressive governance in America.” ? They quote a “bipartisan fetishist”:
The tax deal between the White House and Congressional Republicans, if approved, will put a little extra money in your pocket for the next two years. But you’re going to pay for it eventually. Without sizeable cuts in federal spending, Americans can expect higher taxes down the road to cover the cost of the package.
And retort:
Except that you cannot physically enact higher taxes in this day and age, and so more likely you’ll see savage spending cuts.
In other words, they expect “starving the beast” will work!  Plain and simple. Kevin Drum, one of the more illustrious progressive bloggers, put it this way:
Looking at American politics from a 100,000-foot level, conservatives have won. Programmatic liberalism is essentially dead for a good long time, and small bore stuff is probably the best we can hope for over the next 10-20 years — though social liberalism will continue to make steady advances.
Is he right?
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Really, OFA?

by Gherald on 8 December 2010
After the 2008 election, Obama’s campaign operation–Obama For America–became Organizing for America. I’ve stayed on their list, and here’s an email I just received:
The President has been on the phones. He’s asking lawmakers to finally end “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” With a vote coming as soon as today, we need as many Americans as possible to join the effort. Right now, there are a handful of senators who will make all the difference. The last time repeal came up in the Senate, it failed by just two votes. But that was before a Pentagon study confirmed that ending this policy would not negatively affect our military readiness or troop morale. In these final weeks of 2010, we now have a real opportunity to change the minds of some one-time opponents. The single best way to do that is to ensure that the lawmakers on the fence hear from their constituents about why repeal is so important. We need you to call supporters in key states like Maine, Ohio, Alaska, Illinois — and more — and ask them to get in touch with their senators. Can you call supporters in key states now?
They want me to call people in other states, and ask those people to call their senators… I don’t know whether to characterize this as “creative”, “weird”, or “silly”, but it’s… something.
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Doritos and Pepsi commercial

by Gherald on 7 December 2010
They’re holding a contest to air one during Super Bowl XLV.  Check out this contender.
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