Since 2004, I have published political endorsements (and occasional non-endorsements) here on Off on a Tangent for every general and special election in which I have been eligible to vote. These have been long-form, in-depth articles that feature a complete overview of the candidates or issues of the race and a detailed explanation of what choices I endorse and why. These endorsement articles will continue as before.
But beginning this year, I will be expanding my political coverage to include brief “recommendations” in races and elections beyond my typical endorsement scope.
An Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) sounds great on paper, but how well does it work in practice? That depends on whether the company’s leaders embrace an ownership culture, trust their employee-owners, commit to big ideas, and make smart decisions.
In 2009, Scott Bradford was an employee-owner at Plexus Scientific Corporation, an ESOP that had gone badly awry. He tried to save it. He failed.
“Owning Plexus” was an unheeded warning—an effort to identify and solve the company’s problems before they became insurmountable. But while it may be too late for Plexus, it is not too late for other businesses to benefit from a renewed focus on a culture of ownership.
For April Fools Day 2017, in light of increased public concern about Internet privacy, Off on a Tangent displayed a new privacy request on page-load . . . requesting very absurd and exaggerated permissions. You can view that request by clicking here. Here is the explanatory announcement that appeared on the site itself:
Off on a Tangent is adopting a new, updated privacy policy. Your privacy is important. Visitors to the site will now be presented with a window explaining what user information we collect, and you will need to explicitly grant us permission to collect that information before being allowed access to Off on a Tangent content.
We want to be completely transparent, and give you full control over your data. You can trust us. Don’t worry about anything.
Everybody wants to be on “the right side of history.”
But here in the real world (what’s left of it), it is hard to tell in the moment which “side” will be viewed by our posterity as having been the “right side.” Humans are fallible. We misjudge. We misunderstand. We choose wrongly, and then we often persist in our wrongness. So when somebody says that you should adopt a particular political or moral position so that you can be on the “right side of history,” you should not follow them blindly. Sometimes they will be right. More often, they will be wrong.
Adding even more complexity is the fact that something can seem to be on an inexorable track toward “rightness” when it isn’t.
When the ancient Roman Empire was in its prime, I’m sure that many argued that Roman paganism, Roman law, and Roman imperialism would rule indefinitely. One can easily imagine a Roman governor telling early Christians that their weird little religious sect was obviously on the “wrong side of history,” especially with its counter-cultural ideas about love for God and neighbor, the sanctity of life, moral living, and sexual ethics. And yet history has shown that Christianity was, in fact, on the “right side” and pagan Rome, aside from some of its early republican ideals, was not. (Some are working tirelessly to rewrite and distort this bit of history.)
Things remain suspiciously calm in the world of ugly cars. Only one of last year’s (dis)honorees—the Nissan Juke—has gone on to the great parts-bin in the sky. Toyota, however, stepped up to the ugly subcompact SUV plate with their new C-HR. There have also been some of the usual adjustments to the ordering, most notably those caused by the proliferation of weird sub-models of the Honda Civic.
The criteria for inclusion is the same it has always been. I don’t include models that aren’t sold in the United States. I don’t include models that sell in very low volume (and volume is defined subjectively based on how many I see on the highways in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area). I don’t include exotic, military, or special-purpose vehicles—so no super-cars, tanks, or postal trucks. I also don’t include vehicles reserved exclusively for the commercial market, such as the persistently horrific Ram Promaster.
This list is my personal opinion. If you own one of the cars on this list, well, don’t take it personally.
Scott Bradford is a writer and technologist who has been putting his opinions online since 1995. He believes in three inviolable human rights: life, liberty, and property. He is a Catholic Christian who worships the trinitarian God described in the Nicene Creed. Scott is a husband, nerd, pet lover, and AMC/Jeep enthusiast with a B.S. degree in public administration from George Mason University.
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