Monday Links for June 15, 2015

Some of the stories I read in the past week that I found interesting, for whatever reason...

A Mileage Tax on Cars - story from The Atlantic, on a test program in Oregon on taxing a car's usage, as opposed to just the gas consumed.  The story, I think, highlights some of the competing interests here - reduced consumption of gas is good as regarding environmental, decreasing usage of fossil fuels, but then creates issue for certain levels of government financing that relies upon gasoline taxes.  Often, taxes based on usage of something have the ability to become overly regressive, so its interesting to see a state like Oregon test this, and will be interesting to see how this goes.

Q & A with Max Scherzer - Scherzer, now with the Washington Nationals, was one of my favorite pitchers, particularly for his willingness to embrace the new wave of baseball statistics.  This Q & A continues to remind me of why I like Scherzer, who appears thoughtful and intelligent in how he approaches pitching.  Very fun read for the baseball fan in me.

Politics with NBA Finals Coaches - Interesting read from The Nation regarding the politics of David Blatt, the head coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers, and the legacy of Golden State Warriors' coach Steve Kerr's father.  I enjoy pieces that show a cross section of culture (sports and politics here), and highlight the ways certain public figures are not simply one dimensional figures.  Whatever one's view of the politics involved in the story, involving the always tricky Israeli-Palestinian relations, the article is interesting, informative, and thought provoking.

Dems Insult Their Voters - this piece at The Rolling Stone, by Matt Taibbi, gets at a nagging feeling I've had about the Hillary Clinton campaign.  All modern politics, it seems, treats elections like games, unfortunately.  And Clinton doesn't seem to change that.  I don't necessarily disagree that the strategy of going partisan draws a map to win the White House, but I do think such a strategy does nothing to move the country forward.  And, strategically, while such may win the Presidency, it seems destined to make sure that Congress stays solidly for the Republican party.  I agree with Taibbi's point that a genuine focus on the economic policies of Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren has the possibility of rebuilding a more national coalition of Democrats, independents, and Republicans, but don't see such happening anytime soon.

Defending Millenials - I'm a sucker for these generational pieces, because I often feel that whatever is the newest generation gets, bluntly, insulted by the prior generations.  This seems to hold true for the Millenial generation, and the many unpleasant things said about it.  I like Zakaria's response here, and think he does a good job demonstrating that how much of those statements consist of blatant mistakes of fact or a failure to understand genuine differences in the emerging global society.

2015 National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest - I love these pieces.  Some remarkable photos from around this remarkable world we live in.

Why Twitter Hasn't Grown Huge Like Facebook - Having spurned Facebook in favor of Twitter (and the criminally underused Google Plus), I found this interesting.  In particular, that the reason I like Twitter (and Google Plus), the ability to have sole control over what appears in my media feed, which I guess requires more work than Facebook, whose algorithim does the work for you, is the reason for Facebook's dominance.  For me, it always worked the opposite -  I was tired of sorting through heaps of "extra" posts (likes, comments) for what I actually wanted to see (updates, direct shares), that I left Facebook in favor of the platform I could control, as opposed to algorithim.  But, from reading this article, I guess that puts me in the minority.