politics, history, force
Yesterday it occurred to me: what if Puerto Rico and Cuba had federated long ago? This morning, while measuring the nautical distance between their nearest port...
Yesterday I spent some time thinking about the differences between grifters and leaders and how the public stage beckons and rewards them both. So much so that,...
My parents just sent me a story in the Washington Post by Anne Kornblut that focuses on the personal slights and favors that underpin so much of our politics. I...
Bruce Sterling knows his nerds, outsiders in real life who are insiders online, alternately diffident and insolent. In his interesting assessment of the Wikilea...
There were well-publicized protests in select California cities after President Obama was elected and Prop 8 was passed. Some of that anger was fueled by the ru...
David Rothkopf, astute and witty as ever, discussing the various political centers, from the expedient to the principled center, from the independent center to ...
Charles Clover has written a brilliant, daring report on terrorists in Russia who are inspired by racist nationalism and financed by officials of the Russian st...
The Financial Times: Amex chief calls for jobs taskforce By Francesco Guerrera and Suzanne Kapner in New York Published: December 5 2010 22:00 Ken Chenault, the...
Fascinating, brief and polemical history of public media – now mass media – in the U.S., from the postal service to radio then television, etc.
Apparently, I’m a bleeding heart. Twice in two days I’ve sat through tear-jerkers; one about charter schools in New York City and a second about a U...
A striking parallel from Peter Beste’s celebrated series on Norwegian Black Metal bands and Houston rappers: Archetypes of alienation.
Given how many Americans consume illegal drugs, you’d think there’d be more television shows featuring the banality of illegal drug use. (I’m ...
The problem with political parties that offer their followers an identity is that identities are inherently conservative. If a certain attitude – say, animosity...
Josh Marshall: President Obama does have a re-calibration he needs to do with a big cross section of the electorate. Reality matters for policy; but perceptions...
All year long the new Speaker of the House John Boehner has been promising “common sense reforms” to the spiraling costs of health care and the myri...
Ha ha. Ha. Sigh. Kathleen Morse, a homemaker from Epping, N.H., described herself as a centrist-leaning independent, but this time she voted for anyone with an ...
I’ve read a few comments today from liberals all too happy to piss on the Colbert Stewart Parade because it’s not political enough or not the right ...
A few weeks ago I wrote that there might not be a Tea Party if more Americans treated their elders with love and compassion. Tom Junod has written a lengthy ess...
David Frum rips Charles Murray a new one but also points out that where there’s smoke (obfuscation) there’s a smoldering fire: Murray is of course r...
The NYT: Yet for all of its general unhappiness, the electorate does not seem to be offering any clear guidance for Mr. Obama and the incoming Congress — whoeve...