Dear readers:
It’s a been while since I’ve posted on this website. One reason is that Elizabeth and I have been traveling a lot since last September. We sold our home in the Washington DC suburb of Vienna, Virginia, a year ago, and since last fall we’ve been on the move visiting family and seeing sights across the United States and abroad.
Another reason I haven’t posted lately is that I’ve established a new blog site on Substack, which I’ve cleverly titled “Daniel’s Substack.” (See a fresh screenshot of the page below.) Substack has become a popular blogging platform for discussing big and controversial topics. We’ve explored plenty of meaty subjects on this website, but it’s a bit of an island in cyberspace, while my blog site on Substack is more of a storefront in a bustling and growing city with a lot more foot traffic.
If you haven’t already, please check out the recent posts on my Substack site–and please click the free “Subscribe” button. Here are a few offerings on the site that may pique your interest:
Last week I shared my thoughts about the book Patriot, the posthumous memoir by the Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny, who was imprisoned and murdered for exposing corruption in the Putin government. As I note, “The corruption in Russia emanates from the very top. Besides wielding unchecked power over a huge population and land mass, Putin has used that power to indulge his desires for wealth and other pleasures.”
In another post, I discuss the recent book Notes on Being a Man, by business professor Scott Galloway. While I quibble with a few minor points, I find a lot of wisdom in the author’s observations about why so many young men today are struggling. He tackles the hot-button issues of social media, relationships, sex and pornography, and marriage and monogamy. Among my observations, “Galloway dismisses the notion that being a male is a social construct assigned at birth. Manhood is a physical reality driven by genes and testosterone. We should embrace this biological fact, not deny it.”
The last post I’ll highlight is “My failed effort to reform the real-estate industry.” It tells my personal story of how little has changed despite the multi-million dollar settlement against the industry over stubbornly high commissions for both buyer and seller agents. As I concluded, “In today’s real estate market, despite the big settlement, you can come to any arrangement you want when buying or selling a home–as long as you pay the buyer’s agent an non-negotiable 2.5 percent!”
In coming weeks and months, I plan to post about other topical books I’m reading, a potential follow-up to the real-estate blog when we get around to buying a house in our new home of Colorado Springs, and my keen interest in the nexus between political economy and religion, or what you could call the moral underpinnings of our market democracy. All that and more is in the mental pipeline!
Please stay subscribed to my WordPress site, “Daniel Griswold’s Blog,” where I plan to keep posting about our travels and other more personal subjects. But please also check out and subscribe to my new Substack blog. I would love to see you come in the front door for an engaging discussion!
Daniel Griswold's Blog 