A Book I Contributed to Is Coming Out Next Week and Other Random Stuff
I've Been Insanely Busy Lately
Lately, I’ve noticed that I’ve picked up a bunch of followers. (Thanks,
! I’m so glad to see you’re doing well.) With two jobs in the policy world, I’ve stayed pretty damn busy. Also, analyses that I would’ve published here at Exiled Policy have been posted on the blog of my second job.What have I been up to besides work? Well, I took Emily and The Kid™️ down to Disney World in late February. This was their Christmas gift. We had an amazing time. We’re also heading out of town for a beach trip soon. Unfortunately, I’ll have to work the entire time I’m there, but that was always the plan. There’s just a ton happening right now, especially with FISA reauthorization coming up. Emily and I are also doing a cruise later this month. We very much front-loaded our trips this year. I have no idea why we did that.
What do I have coming up? Next week, a book that I’ve contributed to is coming out. The book is Excessive Punishment: How the Justice System Creates Mass Incarceration. My contribution is on the bipartisan history of criminal legal reform and the First Step Act. You can pick up a copy through the publisher, Columbia University Press, or Amazon.
I’m also working on a paper for the Square One Project on changing racial and generational demographics in the United States and the declining influence of religion. This one is a bit of a passion project for me since I enjoy studying these aspects of society.
I have some ideas for posts here, but finding the time to write them has been difficult. Hopefully, that’ll change soon. Some of those ideas are more down the road of the post I wrote in August about religion and the founding of the United States.
Readers who know me personally know that I’m both an agnostic atheist and an avid reader of biblical scholarship. For years, I’d generally kept my atheism to myself. Really, only people close to me knew that I was a nonbeliever. I’ve been more outspoken about it lately because of the growth of national conservatism and Christian nationalism. (That sound is people unsubscribing from Exiled Policy.) Relax. I’m not confrontational about religion. Well, until one uses the force of government to compel behavior based on religious morality.
Finally, I’ve been working on music. I have a SoundCloud for my project. I’m finally getting around to vocals on some of the songs, but that has been a slow process. I’m not a good lyricist. Honestly, other than spending time with family, music has gotten most of my attention in my downtime.
Anyway, that’s it for now.