From a certain view, the most probing question Alexis de Tocqueville had to answer in Democracy inAmerica is “Why are the Americans so restless in the midst of prosperity?” Why […]
As I’ve said before, my home away from home is Panera Bread. It has a fireplace with real gas logs, couches, and a leisurely and rather personal environment. It’s a […]
Ross Douthat has written on the revival of Marxism as a seductive theory in the wake of burgeoning economic inequality and the withering away of the middle class. He might […]
A regional division of the NLRB has ruled that Northwestern’s football players are more like employees of the university than students. So they are entitled to unionize and bargain collectively […]
We’re told that our high-tech meritocracy based on productivity is the source of our enlightenment when it comes to our resolute opposition to racism, sexism, and heterosexism. Certainly the demands […]
So here’s an absolutely humorless article from the somewhat humorless liberal Salon that accuses the seemingly philosophic filmmaker Harold Ramis of having been a semi-closeted (well he’s loud and proud in Ghostbusters) […]
Our opinion leaders and policy makers seem to have been genuinely surprised that Putin has invaded a part of Ukraine (mostly but not only Crimea) and will likely invade more. […]
So Professor Jacob Stoll defends the study of the humanities with the thought that all the great economic thinkers from Aristotle to Locke to Adam Smith to Karl Marx to […]
So I rarely share my opinions on contemporary international relations. Let me throw caution to wind and say something about the significance about what’s going on in Ukraine. The real […]
Her is quite the meticulous and creepily seductive criticism of our techno-orientation toward transhumanism. It is the dystopian film of our time, a haunting glimpse at the near future. The transhumanist theory is […]
Miya Tokumitsu writes with incisive elegance about our altogether elitist and self-indulgent view that our experts have these days about the relationship between love and work. That view, of course, […]
So I differ from many other non-libertarian conservatives by appreciating many of America’s huge national and multinational chain institutions, such as Walmart and Waffle House. I was glad to discover […]
Well, I realize I’ve been failing you by not sharing my views on the top films. My remedial effort will begin with three I saw in the last couple of […]
The Merriam-Webster people have named SCIENCE the word of the year. Why? It had “the greatest increase in look-ups” in the online version of their dictionary. This data might be […]
Several people have asked me what I thought about David’s column about the moral message we send people by completely legalizing marijuana. The price would drop rapidly. It would be […]
So Hanna Rosin is getting some attention by playing with the big idea that “men are finished.” That doesn’t mean they will literally disappear. It’s just women don’t need them […]
So now that he’s been named Time‘s man of the year and all, it might be safe to say something good about Pope Francis on BIG THINK. Liberals like the […]
My Christmas gift to you is this version of the African-American spiritual “Go Tell on the Mountain,” sung by the Blind Boys of Alabama (with Stephen) on the Colbert Show. […]
Let me remind you of why I think all the Singularity talk about making what used to be called personal immortality possible by turning each of us into conscious machines is ridiculous. […]
The “visionary” and “philosopher” Zoltan Istvan says that, as an atheist, he must be a transhumanist. You probably think I’m going to start mocking transhumanism again. Once again, you’ve misjudged […]