Michael Bell
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Booze in MoCo: Part 1, How We Buy Alcoholic Beverages
Read more: Booze in MoCo: Part 1, How We Buy Alcoholic BeveragesThis is part 1 in a 4 part series debunking the excuses ABS uses to justify its existence, identify who benefits from this monopoly, and what (if anything) can be done to dismantle it. John and Jerry, residents of Silver Spring, are preparing a small summer wedding and an even smaller reception. They go to…
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Who Serves on the Committee Against Hate/Violence? Kristin Mink!
Read more: Who Serves on the Committee Against Hate/Violence? Kristin Mink!In 2018, the Trump Administration took the United States out of the hypocritical United Nations Human Rights Council, arguing that no nation that itself abuses human rights (Venezuela, China, Saudi Arabia) could serve on that body. Fast forward to 2023: one of the members of Montgomery County’s Committee on Hate/Violence is Council Member Kristin Mink,…
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Reason #4 for School Vouchers—Prejudice
Read more: Reason #4 for School Vouchers—PrejudiceThe most common justifications for school choice and school vouchers are curriculum and quality. Parents and students want a curriculum that has an emphasis different from what the public schools offer; parents and students are desperately seeking a way out of their failing neighborhood school. There are significant populations within Montgomery County that fall into…
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Anti-Hate Task Force Dehumanizes Straight Whites
Read more: Anti-Hate Task Force Dehumanizes Straight WhitesA lot of CleanSlate supporters bemoan the progressives’ coercion, hypocrisy, and anger. In conversations with them, I always effuse optimism, saying the progressives’ bigotry will flame out, and America’s great, tolerant, centrist majority will prevail. I’m not optimistic today. Last June, Council Member Evan Glass sponsored a resolution to establish an anti-hate task force. We’ll…
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Pronouns Banished in CleanSlate Newsroom
Read more: Pronouns Banished in CleanSlate NewsroomThe whole pronoun thing has been causing a lot of friction among CleanSlate’s content creators. The bloggers use gender assigned at birth, the graphic artists are transitioning to alcoholics, and the investigators are cross dressing between dirty plaids and filthy solids. All these groups are spending more time during meetings correcting each other’s pronouns than…
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Let’s Bag the Bag Tax
Read more: Let’s Bag the Bag TaxThe English writer Edward Bulwer Lytton said, “The pen is mightier than the sword.” At Clean Slate MoCo, we say, “Taking a percentage is mightier than a Russian T-90 tank (if the Russians still have any).” Let’s apply that principle to the bag tax. Plastic bags are indeed a problem. If I’m eating a take-out…
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Opt-Out Rally #3: Yes, Whites Still Control People of Color
Read more: Opt-Out Rally #3: Yes, Whites Still Control People of ColorMaybe it was the weather. Less than one-third of the people showed up for today’s opt-out rally compared to the previous one. By one-third, I mean that the no-choice crowd had seven people in attendance, compared to about 20 last time. Still no diversity in terms of ethnicity; they were, and always have been, whites.…
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Exile the Poor, Keep the Golf Courses
Read more: Exile the Poor, Keep the Golf CoursesIn his 1967 speech The Three Evils of Society, Martin Luther King, Jr. accused white civil rights leaders, and whites in general, of promoting “socialism for the rich and capitalism for the poor.” His line of argument was compelling, and evoked what today’s free-market activists think about government programs: no matter what that program is,…
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Wanted: Rent-Control Stories
Read more: Wanted: Rent-Control StoriesCouncil Members Mink and Jawando are pushing hard to get rent control passed in Montgomery County. CM Stewart is on board, because she really believes that rent control gives renters a “predictable housing,” an outcome that didn’t happen in Takoma Park. It’s hard to know what the final version will look like, but one thing…
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The Fallacy of the Small Business Narrative
Read more: The Fallacy of the Small Business NarrativeWhen I think of MoCo’s small, home-grown businesses, the first one that comes to my mind (and should come to yours) is Carmen’s Italian Ice. And when I think of Carmen’s, the first flavor that comes to my mind (and should come to yours) is Chocolate Rum Cake. Mercifully, Carmen’s has only two locations (Rockville…