Here is something that everyone who has ever been through third grade knows in the deep reptilian recesses of the brain: the best way for an unpopular kid to increase his status is to pick on someone even less popular. And you get bonus points if the really unpopular kid starts the fight.

There once was a time when the wealthy upper class and the Catholic Church didn't pay anything to the government in terms of taxes and had special socioeconomic privileges. It would fall upon the largest class of citizens, the peasantry, to pay taxes and keep the coffers of the country full.

I'm talking about pre-revolutionary France, but the description of that society would almost tend to describe the way U.S. society is currently.

Although deemed a strongly Democratic district, the race for Assembly District 57 is turning into a toss up. Following the June nonpartisan, top-two open primary, small business owner Rita Topalian (R) gained significant support with 52.2 percent of the vote. Her opponent, incumbent Assemblymember Ian Calderon (D), came in second with 47.8 percent.

Does Calderon still have a fighting chance? If history is any indicator, the answer is definitely.

By the time Dwight David Eisenhower became president of the United States, he had already secured historical immortality as the supreme commander of the victorious Allied Forces in the Second World War. While vanquishing the Nazis, he could not help but marvel at the infrastructural achievements of the Germans, most notably their broad highway network called the Autobahn.

The German’s national accomplishment juxtaposed strongly with the United States’ meagerly funded, crumbling interstate highway system.

Our current tax code is not only hard to understand, but many people say it's unfair. Some think that the rich don't pay enough, while others think they pay too much. Regardless of one's stance on our current tax code, there is a solution out there that could potentially satisfy everyone.

FairTax." It has been a proposal in the U.S. House of Representatives, as H.R. 25, and in the U.S. Senate, as S. 13, for several years now.

1. Plurality of Americans think the election system is unfair to voters.

"A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 48% of Likely U.S.

According to a Washington Post Election Lab projection from May 2014, an incumbent in 405 of the 435 House contests has a 90 percent chance or greater of winning his or her seat, leaving only 30 seats still relatively up for grabs. Other prominent forecasters, such as the Cook or Rothenberg outfits, have similar predictions that approximately 10 percent of House races are competitive.

In Illinois, a Republican challenger recently announced the formation of a small business coalition he hopes will carry him to an upset victory in November.

So it's World Cup finals time again, and I will be at a watch party with friends. As a non-sports fan, these events are always hard for me, mainly because I just don't know things. It was at a Super Bowl watch party a few years ago, for example, that I first learned that the Colts weren't in Baltimore anymore. I was shocked. Apparently, the Rams aren't in Los Angeles either. Who knew?

Here’s an interesting little fact: to the best of my ability to recall, I have never seen one of my conservative friends post anything on their Facebook feed by Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, or Pat Robertson.

But my liberal friends post something outrageous by one of these commentators every day. When Ann Coulter wrote a column denouncing soccer as a symbol of America’s moral decline, I probably saw a hundred links to it. I forwarded it on myself.