The Free World Is Like A Box Of Chocolates
In Sunday's Washington Post, Joel Achenbach took a great look at the banalities of the American presidency. We're holding the longest job interview in the history of the office--and we've now heard more than a dozen candidates explicate their best ideas for America in 2009. READ MORE >>
If You Want Something Done Right...
Wall Street Green (no, That Kind)
In an Earth Day-inspired foray into environmental flim-flammery (on par only with NBC's woeful, GE-sponsored November "Green Week"), the refreshingly batty Jim Cramer devoted a portion of "Mad Money" to "The Next President's Green Thumb"--and what it might mean for the savvy investors among us. READ MORE >>
The Ship Of Shame
Is Religion Like Drunk Driving?
On the Guardian website, Tufts professor Daniel Dennett and British Lord Robert Winston have engaged a fascinating exchange on the role of religion and reason in public life. Dennett mainly argues that illogic is hopelessly bound up in all religious devotion, and therefore comes to be a dangerous part of our (gently) Judeo-Christian mainstream. He notes: READ MORE >>
Indiana's American Gothic
Maybe we haven't seen enough video from Indiana yet (cue the weeks until May 6th), but the risers behind Obama as he speaks tonight look, I think, different. They host a single lady, a trio of young men in totally blatant Abercrombie and Fitch tees, and a couple straight out of American Gothic. No one looks that jazzed, especially the Grant Wood couple, but there must be some truth to those reports about Obama staffers tweaking the riser demographics. READ MORE >>
The Old Ball And Chain
We've known for some time that military recruiters tend to prey upon communities of color, which have overperformed as a proportion of war dead since the Iraq offensive began. READ MORE >>
The Trouble With Earth Day
Today, kids, is Earth Day--a celebration made official by President Jimmy Carter in 1980 (incidentally, one of his last acts in office), ten years after the original Earth Day touched down in cities across the US. The New York Times provided excellent coverage of the 1970 Manhattan gathering: READ MORE >>
The Work Of Art In The Age Of Mechanical Reproduction
If you hadn’t heard, the senior thesis of Yale art major Aliza Shvarts was going to destroy our civilization. Shvarts told the Yale Daily News Thursday that in the last nine months, she artificially inseminated herself “repeatedly,” terminating each resultant pregnancy using abortifacient drugs. She supposedly documented this process on a film that was to be displayed, alongside the miscarriages themselves, in Yale’s Green Hall next week.The story was quickly Drudged into a mushroom cloud of American cultural conflict. READ MORE >>
Take A Nibble Out Of Crime
It's hard to pay attention to policy when pins and sniper bullets are whizzing by us, but it's worth pretending as long as the candidates are also willing. To wit: Hillary Clinton gave a major policy speech on crime in Philadelphia one week ago. In it, she notably reversed READ MORE >>
