The New Republic

What a relief—but much damage was still done. READ MORE >>

[Guest post by Harold Pollack and Vivek Murthy] READ MORE >>

[Guest post by Harold Pollack. Cross-posted from The Incidental Economist] READ MORE >>

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“There are so many ways a brain can let you down. Like an expensive car, it’s intricate, but mass-produced.” So wrote Ian McEwan in his short work, Saturday. The British novelist wasn’t pondering autism’s heartbreaking and mysterious symptoms when he wrote those words. But he might have been. Autism’s social, communication, and behavioral challenges reflect some biological package of human brain disorders. The origins and the causal pathways of these disorders remain largely unknown. READ MORE >>

It’s never a happy thing to see someone convicted of serious crimes. With rare exceptions, I don’t believe people should serve really long prison sentences. So I don’t want Rod Blagojevich to serve decades in prison. Still, these were just and necessary verdicts. The Chicago Tribune’s Annie Sweeney reports that our corrupt former governor is expected to serve ten years. This seems about right. READ MORE >>

President Obama faces a knife fight for reelection next year. Of course, the catastrophic economy poses his greatest political challenge. He also faces implacable Republican opposition, two difficult wars, and a host of other toxic foreign and domestic legacies of the Bush administration. Have I mentioned that he is still African-American and has a funny name? READ MORE >>

My kids and I just read Jose Antonio Vargas’s brave and gripping account, “My life as an undocumented immigrant.” His essay underscores what many people across the political spectrum already know: “Unauthorized residents” are here. They do more than pick our fruit and mind our kids. Their kids go to school with our kids. They sometimes work down the hall or in the next cubicle. READ MORE >>

Pardon my excursion into graphs and scatterplots today. There is a broader purpose. Last Tuesday I hit the “send” button on a big grant concerned with intellectual and developmental disability (I/DD) policy issues. Last Wednesday, the bible of the field, State of the States in Developmental Disabilities, appeared in my mailbox. Such is life. READ MORE >>

I’m grateful for this opportunity to help populate Citizen Cohn with a few blog contributions while Jonathan is away. I’m especially grateful because I want to address some reactions to my last TNR article concerning the potential linkage between cell phones and cancer. READ MORE >>