President Obama is fond of quoting Abraham Lincoln, and this year’s State of the Union address was no exception. Then as ever, he deploys Lincoln’s words to make the precise opposite point than originally intended.
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January 25, 2012
January 23, 2012
After years of reaping only modest returns from the “cultural cesspool” strategy of attacking Hollywood, the GOP may have discovered in internet freedom the perfect political wedge.
Posted in Politics, Technology
January 20, 2012
SOPA or no, we can all agree that IP theft on the internet is a problem. Or can we?
Posted in Technology
January 19, 2012
The libertarian-friendly argument to “get the government out of the marriage business” serves well as a white flag in the culture war, but would be impossible to implement. Why libertarians should support existing marriage law.
Posted in Culture
January 18, 2012
When a woman uses IVF to become pregnant with a donor egg, she is undeniably the sole legal mother. But if the two women are or were in a romantic relationship, the law should recognize two mothers, according to a new Florida Supreme court ruling.
Among science fiction writers, Ray Bradbury was closest to the mark in predicting the future; meanwhile, he thought he was writing nightmare visions.
Posted in Arts & Literature
January 17, 2012
Friedrich Nietzsche went from obscurity to global celebrity in a single decade, propelled to fame in no small part by by American fans who could draw “a direct line from Emerson’s ‘oversoul’ to Nietzsche’s ‘overman.’”
Posted in Arts & Literature
January 16, 2012
Edge.com’s Question 2012: What is your favorite deep, elegant or beautiful explanation?
Posted in Science
January 12, 2012
John Mearsheimer: Realism never found purchase in America because it’s too alien to American traditions. Dan Drezner: Nonsense.
Posted in Foreign Policy
America’s think thanks are increasingly becoming political messaging shops.
Posted in Politics
January 11, 2012
Forestry, First Aid, Archery…and Basic HTML? Web-based educational institutions are experimenting with a “badge” system for student accomplishment “inspired by Boy Scout achievement patches and video-game power-ups.” Will this upstart movement end the tyranny of the degree?
Posted in Education
David Brooks’s The Social Animal aspires to be a version of Rousseau’s Émile for today’s era of neuropsychology. Perhaps the main similarity between the two is that the lives he holds up as exemplary are at root quite impoverished.
Posted in Arts & Literature, Culture
