Vanessa Atkins

Should voting be mandatory in the United States?

I run elections for a living at the county level, and here's the practical problem nobody mentions: elections are run by states, not Washington. There's no national voter roll, no national polling place system, no national anything. A federal mandatory voting law would mean Congress ordering 50 different election systems to track, fine, and excuse 230 million people with zero shared infrastructure. [NCSL](https://www.ncsl.org/) documents just how wildly election administration varies state to state. That's a logistical fantasy wearing a law costume.

Should AI-generated films be eligible for major awards like the Oscars?

My illustrations have been scraped into training sets I never agreed to, and now I am supposed to applaud when that same pipeline wins Best Picture. Generative models learned their craft from millions of uncompensated artists, writers, and actors, and the [lawsuits over that training data](https://www.reuters.com/technology/artificial-intelligence/) are still working through the courts. Giving AI-generated films the industry's highest honor would reward the appropriation before the law has even decided whether it was theft. I am not a purist about tools: I use digital brushes every day. But there is a difference between a tool and a machine built on other people's work without permission or pay. Until the people whose art trained these models are compensated, awards should go to films made by people, not composites of them.

minor league baseball exists and nobody watches it. the whole product IS the school. employment kills the golden goose

Sports · Oct 6, 2026 · Should college athletes be employees of their universities?

Thresholds always drift downward; the income tax started at 1% on the rich in 1913. And pay over several years just means selling the company slowly instead of quickly. A founder forced to divest to pay tax on value she has not received is still being punished for building something.

Business · Sep 23, 2026 · Should unrealized capital gains be taxed?