Plausibly Live - The Dave Bowman Show

In our modern society, you will  often hear the cry, "What happened? How did things come to this?" I never expected to find an  answer to that question. A few weeks back I decided to delve into the Anti-Federalists and their arguments against the Constitution. What inspired their thinking and debates? Little did I know where the whole thing would take me. So I was a little surprised when...

Happy Election Day! Although it is  a midterm election, which are every bit as important as the Presidential  Elections, we're going to take a look at the Top 5 Most Heated Presidential  Elections in the history of our country.

Look, I said this  the other day on   Bill Mick's Show , I am a free speech advocate. In point of fact, I am a free speech radical. I personally do not believe that there should be ANY limits on speech. The absolute answer to bad speech is more good speech. A bad argument should be countered by a good argument, not censorship. But... and you know what that means... there is some speech t...

If you happen to  have Netflix, there is an interesting documentary series called " How  To Become a Tyrant ," which I give a pretty good rating to overall. The  only drawback is that it relies entirely on a modern era understanding of who is  a tyrant and how they obtained that position. There are some really applicable  lessons in this show, and they're not wrong about t...

One  November 1, 1765, the Stamp Act, passed by Parliament and given assent by King George III, took effect in Colonial America. For most Americans of that day, it was an intolerable action that violated the basic principle of "No taxation without representation." In  Britain, the tax was seen as being implemented in the "easiest and least  objectionable way," which was, of course,...

From time immemorial, elections have been a mess. There has been "ritualized bribery" to outright rigging of them, elections have always been a fiasco.  And, of course, they are still rigged today. Just not the way you are being told that they are rigged. Meanwhile, we need to figured out what to do about it, if anything even can be done. The lessons of history are NOT encouraging... 

At 2:30am on October 25, 1944, USS Tang, one of the highest scoring US Submarines in the war, launched the final torpedo of her patrol. After attacking a convoy all through the previous evening, she was hoping to finish off one last ship before turning for home with a broom lashed to her periscopes. The real horror of war is how many things can go wrong. Usually with deadly consequences. As that l...

Producers Note:  The air quality in the Puget Sound Region today   is the worst in the world . Dave's voice is raw, he has a massive headache and his eyes are burning. So please excuse the smokers voice sound of  things today... In mid-October of  1787, James Wilson,   the man who invented the Presidency , gave a speech encouraging the voters of Pennsylvania to approve the...

If you ask one  hundred Americans, who is the best American citizen of ALL time? I've never done that, but my guess is the overwhelming answer would be George Washington. There is an almost worshipful quality that we take towards him, perhaps with some  justification, as we have painted his deification onto the ceiling of our  Capitol Dome. We have a  corporate memory of him th...

There is a line in the film "The Da Vinci Code" which I have always liked: "Can you know a thing and never say it again?" The biggest problem with knowing something is that it automatically means that one cannot be  blissfully ignorant of what it means and how it effects ones thinking and  actions. when we know something, it compels us to use that knowledge - for good  or for bad. B...

My son likes to ask me the question about what I  would have thought about today's technology back when I was his age. when I was  in the 4th grade, we actually had to do a written assignment where we would try to explain football to a person from a hundred years before. When Ben asked me about the fabulous iPhone 14, I began to realize something. When I was twelve (like him), I would ha...

The weirdest thing about the current hatred of Columbus Day is that there shouldn't even be a "Columbus Day." What do I mean? He was an absolute boss when it came to being the Admiral of the Sea. He did something that hadn't been done and he did it over and again. He brought glory and honor to his nation and his Monarch. But... and I cannot stress this  enough... he would have no idea what we...

You have often heard Bill Mick complain about GOP Republicans who give fire and brimstone conservatism speeches while  running for office, and then turn into "do-nothings" once in office. He is, of  course, not alone, nor is he wrong to express such sentiments. But is it anything actually new when it comes to specifically the GOP? Today we fear today the slide into progressive socialism...

Among the founders  of the nation stand many from Boston. For all the firebrands, the one who seemed more determined than any other to win American liberty was Sam Adams. No... he was not a  brewer. Yes, he did make malt - one of the main ingredients in beer, but he left the brewing to those who would honor his name later as they created their  beverage in Boston. Sam Adams was a &n...

A television ad among a sea of television ads has Dave asking questions about why it is that the GOP seems utterly incapable of responding in any cogent way to the one issue that they had to know was coming...

As we've seen,  Brutus is deeply concerned that the proposed Constitution will result in a government that extends its reach into every aspect of Americans lives. And not in a good way. We turn next to Brutus' concerns about the judiciary. He will explain that it's too complicated for a simple everyday man such as himself to  completely grasp - because, he reminds us - lawyers make every...

So... what exactly IS history? It's an important  question, perhaps even more so than "Why study history?" Like so many thing, if  we do not understand WHAT we are studying, how can we have any  realistic idea of HOW to interpret it? Let's take a look  at two recent events, a Supreme Court case, the firing of a high school football  coach in Bremerton, WA.  And the bi...

A long time ago, my Dad sat at the kitchen table with me and a book. For me, books are  the wellspring of inspiration and my sanctuary. And when I get stuck on trying to get a podcast ready, and I find myself stuck for an idea or a direction to go, it is to a book that I will turn to unblock my mind. I got stuck last week and I mentioned it on my website . After that a listener asked me what...

The issue is now  out in the open for debate. For Brutus and the other Anti-Federalists, there are many examples, but only one real issue - how will the proposed Constitution do a  better job of preserving and protecting liberty than the Articles of Confederation? On first glance, there really doesn't seem to be any way that it can...

We have - today -  an almost scriptural reverence for the founding document of the United States government, the Constitution. To listen to most conservatives speak of the Framers is almost like going to church. They were, it seems, infallible. In fact, at least one painting in our own Capitol building portrays one Framer as being apotheosized. But this week in 1787, the true feelings were mo...

It has been long established that the  President has plenary powers when it comes to the foreign affairs of the nation.  Wide latitude and power has been generally understood to be within the purview  of the executive, as the Constitution is less than precise as to who exactly  does what - other than advising and consenting on treaties. Like many things though, that was not &nb...

Back in June of  2013, John and I managed to get both of our Fathers to visit the show, live in studio. We had a blast with them as they quickly showed that they were every bit  as adept at radio chatter as we were. After yesterdays loss of my father, this is what I went back to listen to, not just to hear his voice again, but to remind myself of the joy my dad was in my life...

There are any number of people who are annoying. But in all of history, we learn that the all-time champion of being annoying was none other than the greatest philosophical mind ever known. That’s right… Socrates is hands down the winner of being the most annoying person to ever live. Why? In Socratic Debate, he would begin his discourses with what has become known as the “What Is Question.” For e...

In the summer of 1922, the Republican  Party was in deep trouble. Tradition holds that all Presidents see their party lose seats in Congress during the mid-terms, but the Administration was facing the loss of seats to it's OWN party! While the republicans had trended to become more conservative, there was a significant segment of the party leaning  full on into the progressive movement o...

I have long held that the Anti-Federalist of 1788 is the ideological grandfather of today’s libertarian*. Many of the same issues of today find a distant echo in the complaints of the Anti-Federalists. In those distant echo’s of the past are many ideas and knowledge points which both the Federalist and Anti-Federalist not only knew, but understood. Many of the things that would have stood out to t...