I’ve been thinking a lot about Levon Helm and The Band over the past week. A few final thoughts. I’ve been really impressed with the outpouring of grief for the passing of Levon Helm. While his passage may not have had the pop culture impact of Whitney Houston, for “music people,” broadly defined, Helm’s passing […]
Month: April 2012
Colin asks a good question about the so-called Latin American “left.” One of the biggest problems here is that, simply put, I don’t buy characterizations of people like Correa, Chavez, o
Big agriculture is going to the mat for what really matters–exploiting child labor. Last year, two teenagers handling a large grain auger had their legs severed while working at the Zaloudek Gra
Andrew March has an excellent piece about the suppression of speech that has been made possible by Congress, the Obama administration, and the Supreme Court’s regrettable decision in Holder v. Humantarian Aid Project: The government’s indictment of Mr. Mehanna lists the following acts, among others, as furthering a criminal conspiracy: “watched jihadi videos,” “discussed efforts […]
I have some thoughts about Ronald Dworkin’s new NYRB article on the constitutionality of the PPACA. My primary takeaway: Alas, as Dworkin also notes while the constitutional issues involved in t
Why, it’s almost enough to make me think that abstinence education doesn’t work… …see also.
Darren Aronofsky is directing a film about Noah and the ark starring Russell Crowe as Noah? Um. Wow. Will the scenes on the boat be very, very slow? Hey look, water!
The Civilization series of games is in some sense ideal for depicting the influence of seapower on history. Civilization connects geography, technology, and economic power to military capability, re
One of the nation’s wealthiest communities, Aspen, Colorado has a complex relationship with the environmental movement and social justice. While a community deeply self-conscious about its own l
Fifty years ago, Rachel Carson published Silent Spring, the landmark book connecting pesticide usage with species decline. Carson noted the very real threats of chemicals on humans as well as species and helped usher in the environmental movement that transformed the nation in important ways during the 1960s and 1970s. Elizabeth Kolbert wonders if, a […]
It’s just been too long since Republicans created a non-scandal scandal. What I want Chuck Grassley to investigate is not whether Barack Obama brought some Colombian prostitutes to his suite, fo
Ah, Atlas Shrugged II: Pretty Much Just A Bad Actor Giving a Bad Speech For Six Hours — this will be another excellent demonstration of the fact that libertarians are not, in fact, a mass moveme