About

Religion

Christianity

Political Map

Economic Left/Right: 4.0 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -0.1

Abortion

Pro-Life

, against purposely killing the fetus in all cases. If the mother’s life is threatened prioritize the mother’s life while secondarily trying to save the fetus.

Affirmative Action

Against

Confederate Flag

Against

any display on public property unless it’s a museum.

Congressional Term Limits

Undecided

Convicted criminals allowed to vote

For

. I’m pro-redemption.

Covid-19 School Closures

Against

Cultural Assimilation

For

stricter standards like requiring English proficiency.

Drug Decriminalization

For and against.

For decriminalizing Marijuana; against decriminalizing hard drugs.

Drug Price Regulation

Undecided

Economic School

Austrian

Equal Pay Protections

Against

Estate Tax

Against

Euthanasia

Against

Federal Reserve Act of 1913

Against

Federal Reserve Audit

For

Foreign Aid

Generally against

Foreign Election Interference

Begrudgingly for

. Game theory.

Fracking

For

Free College

Against

Freedom of Information Act

For

strengthening FOIA rights.

Government Regulation of Private Business

Almost Always Against

Government Regulation to deal with Climate Change

Against.

Technological innovation will solve the problem. International agreements like the Paris Accords are silly. Game theory.

Government Requiring Masks Be Worn in Public Spaces

Against

Government Social Programs

Almost always against

Gun Control

Generally Against

Immigration

For

less restrictive immigration policies if social programs are cut. If not, then for current immigration law being fully enforced rather than status quo where executive branch controls whether immigration law is enforced through executive orders.

International Intervention

Begrudgingly for

because of game theory (example: China).

Labor Unions

Against

because they hurt economic growth.

Mail in ballot

Against

without stricter voter ID measures.

Manufacturing and Farm Subsidies

Against

unless there is a national security reason (China).

Monetary Policy

Hawk

. Current Federal Reserve Policy of inflating asset prices through near zero-interest rates to prevent a recession and thereby reduce economic hardship for poor is not justified. The Fed is accelerating inequality. The Fed claims their hands are tied and are preventing economic collapse. I disagree.

Net Neutrality

Against

Nuclear Energy

For

Paris Climate Agreement

Against

Photo ID Required to Vote

For

Public Healthcare

Against

Public Pensions

Against

Public Transportation Spending

Generally against

outside of major cities. Against public bus transportation outside major cities.

Quantitative Easing

Against

. The ends do not justify the means.

Quasi-Government Agencies

Almost always against.

Creates corruption.

Reduce Defense Spending

For

, but I am partial to the game theory issue.

Religious Exemptions

For

Student Loan Forgiveness

Against

Administrators should be held accountable for extreme cost increases for attending college.

Supreme Court Reform

Against

Tariffs

Generally against

. For national security purposes only. Game theory.

Tax breaks for married couples

For

. Should be tied to raising children.

Tax Law

Reform

to flat tax.

Tax-Exempt Organizations

For

much stricter standards.

Universal Basic Income

Against

Welfare

Generally Against

. Disability income is abused. Stricter measures should be enforced so those who remain qualified can receive more.

Religion: Christianity

Political Map:

Economic Left/Right: 4.0
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -.1

Political Views:

Abortion: Pro-life, against purposely killing the fetus in all cases. If the mother’s life is threatened prioritize the mother’s life while secondarily trying to save the fetus.

Death Penalty: For

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In a Strange Room by Damon Galgut

Compelling People by John Neffinger and Matthew Kohut

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

No Easy Day by Mark Owen

The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco

The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

The Three Theban Plays by Sophocles

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

The Crucible by Arthur Miller

Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis

Myers Briggs: ENTJ

Extraverted: 85%
Intuitive 58%
Thinking: 64%
Judging: 76%

StrengthsFinder:

Strategic
Achiever
Competition
Futuristic
Communication

Enneagram 8

HEXACO

Big 5 Personality:

Agreeableness: Low
Conscientiousness: Moderately High
Extraversion: Very High
Neuroticism: Moderately Low
Openness to Experience: High

True Friends stab you in the front.

Oscar Wilde

I grew convinced that truth, sincerity and integrity in dealings between man and man were if the utmost importance to the felicity of life.

Benjamin Franklin

A joke is a very serious thing.

Winston Churchill

The level to which we protect ourselves from being vulnerable is a measure of our fear and disconnection.

Brene Brown

You don't have to see the glory to be the hero

Unattributed

If you see fraud and do not say fraud, you are a fraud.

Nicolas Taleb

They know they are lying. We know they are lying. They know that we know they are lying. Yet they still lie.

Unattribued

There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must take it because his conscience tells him it is right.

Martin Luther King Jr.

It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it.

Upton Sinclair

Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.

Abraham Lincoln

The moment of enlightenment is when a person’s dreams of possibilities become images of probabilities.

Vic Braden

Now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no none on earth has read: which goes on for ever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.

CS Lewis

I started finding things that were comfortable, and the more things I found comfortable the more uncomfortable my mind became.

David Goggins

Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point.

C.S. Lewis

Play for more than you can afford to lose and you will learn the game.

Winston Churchill

I prefer to be true to myself even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and incur my own abhorrence.

Frederick Douglass

Even if you are a minority of one, the truth is the truth.

Mahatma Gandhi

Nature has never read the Declaration of Independence. It continues to make us unequal.

Will Durant

A man must be disposed to judge of emancipation by other tests than whether it has increased the produce of sugar,–and to hate slavery for other reasons than because it starves men and whips women,–before he is ready to lay the first stone of his anti-slavery life.

Wendell Phillips

Take a good look, friends, at who you were when you got called into this life. I don’t see many of “the brightest and the best” among you, not many influential, not many from high-society families. Isn’t it obvious that God deliberately chose men and women that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses, chose these “nobodies” to expose the hollow pretensions of the “somebodies”? That makes it quite clear that none of you can get by with blowing your own horn before God. Everything that we have—right thinking and right living, a clean slate and a fresh start—comes from God by way of Jesus Christ. That’s why we have the saying, “If you’re going to blow a horn, blow a trumpet for God.

1 Corinthians 1:28 MSG

The purity of silver and gold is tested by putting them in the fire; the purity of human hearts is tested by giving them a little flame.

Proverbs 27:21

If you see oppression of the poor and perversion of justice and righteousness in the province, don’t be astonished at the situation, because one officials protects another official, and higher officials protect them.

Ecclesiastes 5:8

But when He heard this, He said, “Those who are well don’t need a doctor, but the sick do. Go and learn what this means.”

Matthew 9:12-13

Surely, the practice of extortion turns a wise person into a fool, and a bribe destroys the mind.

Ecclesiastes 7:7

Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own site.

Romans 12:16

Remember the words of our Lord Jesus for he said, it is more blessed to give than to receive.

Acts 20:35

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding, In all your ways submit to him, And he will make your paths straight.

Proverbs 3:5-6

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

Galatians 6:9

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 5:3-10

If you love me you will keep my commandments.

John 14:15

We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Isaiah 53:6

If anyone wants to come with Me, he must deny himself take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of Me will find it.

Matthew 16:25

Make this your common practice: Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you can live together whole and healed. The prayer of a person living right with God is something powerful to be reckoned with. Elijah, for instance, human just like us, prayed hard that it wouldn’t rain, and it didn’t—not a drop for three and a half years. Then he prayed that it would rain, and it did. The showers came and everything started growing again.

James 5:18-18

You will know the truth and the truth will set you free.

John 8:32

Become wise by walking with the wise; hang out with fools and watch your life fall to pieces.

Proverbs 13:20 MSG

But they set an ambush for themselves; they attack their own lives. Such are the paths of all who profit dishonestly; it takes the lives of those who receive it.

Proverbs 1:18

As Jesus went on from there, He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office, and he said to Him, ‘Follow me!’ So he got up and followed him.

Matthew 9:9

Who made the human mouth? Who makes him mute or deaf, seeing or blind? Is it not I? Now go! I will help you speak and I will teach you what to say.

Exodus 4:11-12

Pure and undefiled religion before our God and Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

James 1:27

This playlist should give you a good idea of what I'm about, my internal vibe and how I try to live my life.

about matt

Journalist | Commentator | Analyst