Jay Stooksberry

The Oxford comma is overrated

Alternative title: “Oxford Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Obsessing and Become Ambivalent About the Serial Comma” I have strong opinions when it comes to writing. I loathe passive voice, especially when police departments abuse it in their…

An Open Letter to the Chair of the Delta County Republican Party — and Why He’s Wrong About the Charter Commission and Question 2B

David Bradford, chairman of the Delta County Republican Party, wrote quite the whopper recently. In what is mostly a 5,000-word diatribe about this year’s ballot, Bradford offers one soft-headed take after another about each and every measure. I…

Defending against state violence : Murray Rothbard, John Brown, Timothy McVeigh, and why the NAP is crap

Murray Rothbard, John Brown, and Timothy McVeigh walk into a bar — and other reasons why the non-aggression principle is an unfunny philosophical joke that libertarians should abandon. Libertarians often argue about the NAP, or the nonaggression…

The Singular They: Grammar vs. Style

Lately, I’m seeing versions of the following rant: “The singular ‘they’ is grammatically incorrect. If you don’t know the gender of the subject, then you should default to ‘he’ or ‘it.’” People often confuse grammar and style. Many think they know…

Texas Abortion Law: A Quick Rant

Jay Stooksberry Just now·4 min read Let’s talk about the Texas abortion law and the recent Supreme Court decision because I believe there are a couple of things that partisans on both sides of the aisle seem to be missing regarding this specific…

Schrödinger’s Conservative vs. Schrödinger’s Progressive

Jay Stooksberry 3 hours ago·4 min read Erwin Schrödinger is probably the last guy you want to take care of your cats while you’re away. Schrödinger, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist, designed a thought experiment to explain the “paradox of quantum…

What Richard Arreola taught me about Paige Pierce

I didn’t know Paige Pierce, the woman shot and killed by a Delta County Sheriff deputy after a car chase in April. (The 7th Judicial District Attorney’s Office has determined the deputy involved will not be charged in this incident.). But I did…

Evicting government from the housing market

Evicting government from the housing market Government, whether at the federal or local, is quite the deadbeat tenant when it comes to housing. Jay Stooksberry 4 hours ago·4 min read Housing demand is through the roof, but housing supply, like a…

We ain’t getting any younger

We ain’t getting any younger Jay Stooksberry 2 hours ago·4 min read Our declining birth rate may put the squeeze on younger generations. I assumed that there was going to be a pandemic baby boom — a future generation of quaran-teeny boppers. Much to…

Disqualifying qualified immunity

Disqualifying qualified immunity Jay Stooksberry 21 hours ago·4 min read How this made-up judicial doctrine protects buffoonery, brutality, and everything in between. Have you ever heard of qualified immunity? No, it isn’t what happens when you…

Can sex ed get any worse?

Hard to believe that we are debating sex ed in my community, but here we are. What did your sexual education look like? For me, sex education was, at best, a sporadically taught class, akin to weightlifting or square dancing. Arguably, I received…

Fauci Ouchies, vaccine hesitancy, and passports

There is no immunity to scientific illiteracy or bad policies. I recently received my “Fauci Ouchie” (i.e., COVID-19 vaccination). Aside from a sore arm and feeling lethargic, I’m fine. (As a parent, I’ve learned to function in a permanent state of…

Guns & Immigration: What’s good for the Glock and the Greenlander?

What if the arguments used to refute gun control were applied to immigration restrictions? Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, never one to shy away from controversy, drafted legislation that would, if passed (not bloody likely), codify a four-year…

Is gun control effective? Evidence says, “meh."

Before I proceed, I want to express my deepest condolences to the victims of recent tragedies and their families. My intent is not to belittle such loss but rather to satirize the goofy policies that over inflate their ability to solve this complex…

Ban “Assault Weapons”? “Meh,” Says the Research.

Jay Stooksberry Sep 13, 2019·4 min read The gun debate is understandably emotional. The dialectic is frustratingly repetitive: It flares up in the aftermath of tragedy, dissipates into a state of legislative inertia, and turns dormant until the cycle…

The Mask at Hand

The one-year anniversary of our failed two-week campaign to flatten the curve has come and gone, and I thought that I would write about the lessons I learned from this pandemic. For example, I vote that we abolish one-way shopping aisles and replace…

First, cancel culture came for…

Tales from the frontline of cancel culture by an easily spooked white dude. Martin Niemöller, a German Lutheran pastor who personally witnessed the rise of the Third Reich, wrote a guilt-ridden poem titled “First they came…:” in which he described…

War and Deficits are Strictly for the Birds

I am an animal lover. Our household has adopted enough animals to alleviate the guilt of watching those incessant ASPCA commercials. In the interest of further emotional manipulation for the betterment of animals, I would like to advocate on behalf…

Presidents are Overrated

Our obsession with the White House is misguided and the presidency is vastly overrated. Do you remember your first time? When you’re young, there is so much nervous energy and youthful curiosity in anticipation leading up to the day it finally…

Free Speech Failures on the Left and Right

Conservatives and progressives can agree on one thing: the First Amendment is confusing. In these divisive times, I found one topic that conservatives and liberals agree upon: The First Amendment is confusing. This 45-word introduction to the Bill of…