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I don't often think about inflation, but it is present whenever I buy anything, and it is not as benign as some would have us think. There are many measures of inflation, but I like to use a few things to show the change in proportion. You may not remember it, but in 1820 an ounce of gold was worth $20. That same ounce of gold would have sold for $35 in the 1960'a. But that isn't comparable, because the market for gold was highly regulated.

Another comparison is in the cost of labor ...

I thank Antiquarian for posting this earlier.

1. What is one book that changed your life: "Bored of the Rings" showed me that great literature can be hidden in something that looks silly.

2. What is one book that you’ve read more than once: "Lord of.Light" by Roger Zelazny and "The Stones of Nomuru" by L. Sprague de Camp are two that I can read and enjoy every year. I feel compelled to reread The Ship That Sailed the Time Stream fairly often, ...

I suppose that there are reasons for holidays existing, but they can’t be very good reasons, because holidays mostly just get in the way, and yesterday I heard someone ask why Columbus Day was a holiday. If that’s the kind of respect that Columbus gets these days, then he probably would agree that there should not be a holiday for him, even though that’s one of better reasons for a holiday.

If we go back to the beginning, I don’t think that anyone has determined whether demand for ...

It has been written that a work of fiction is a conversation between the author and the reader, or one side of the conversation. That that implies that the reader must think about and understand what the author is expressing ( see The Role of the Reader by Umberto Eco for more detail). For that reason, I am giving some insight into my novels Causation and Paradoxes and Contradictions.

I have long had a problem with most apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic literature and movies, because ...

I am not advocating the use of any illegal substance, but I do not believe that there should be any illegal substances, certainly not in a supposedly free society. There are fairly good rationales for the existences of some laws that are supposedly intended to save people from themselves, but I question whether it is the business of government to save people from themselves. I realize that there are individuals who are incapable of caring for them, and some laws are intended to protect such people ...