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Robert de Neufville
Contributor, Big Think
I lecture and write about politics and philosophy. I hold degrees in politics from Harvard and Berkeley, and have studied complex systems at the Santa Fe Institute. Other interests include theoretical physics, cognitive science, evolutionary biology, and the game of Go. You can find me on Twitter at @rdeneufville.
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Sarah Palin is not to blame for the attack on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ). As I wrote on Monday, she cannot be held accountable for the actions of an obviously […]
Gun control and drug policy are important issues, but it’s dangerous to read too much into a single tragedy. It isn’t fair to suggest that Republican rhetoric was in any way responsible for Jared Loughner’s attack in Arizona.
On New Year’s Day, a bomb exploded outside a Coptic church in the Egyptian city of Alexandria, killing 21 people and injuring 79 more. It was the deadliest terrorist attack […]
Nobody in Congress really cares about the deficit. Sure, everyone would love to cut the deficit as long as it doesn’t mean having to cut any programs they like. What […]
It’s a new year in Congress. With the start of the 112th Congress the Republicans have assumed control of the House. Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) became the new Speaker of […]
Since I’ve run out of blog ideas—and have New Year’s Eve parties to get to—today I’m just going to post some of the things that people who are more interesting […]
Since I’ve run out of blog ideas—and have New Year’s Eve parties to get to—today I’m just going to post some of the things that people who are more interesting […]
Do we pay top executives too little? That, as Tyler Cowen points out, is the question raised by a recent paper by Bang Dang Nguyen and Kaspar Meisner Nielsen. The […]
Happy holidays! Every year as I range across the web in search of news and ideas I come across a few articles that stand out as exceptionally worth reading. Today […]
Happy holidays! Every year as I range across the web in search of news and ideas I come across a few articles that stand out as exceptionally worth reading. Today […]
Happy holidays! Every year as I range across the web in search of news and ideas I come across a few articles that stand out as exceptionally worth reading. Today […]
When 71 senators to voted to ratify New START it was a huge victory for Obama and the Democrats. The vote would normally have been a victory for Republicans. The […]
Congress finallyrepealed the military’s ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy today. After 17 years, gay and lesbian troops will be allowed to serve their country without having to lie about who […]
With the Senate voting 81-19 on an $858 billion deal to extend all the Bush tax cuts—as well as extend unemployment benefits and reduce the payroll tax—it’s hard to take […]
Terrorism is not so much a military strategy as a public relations strategy. The aim of terrorists is not to defeat their enemies militarily, but to provoke some kind of […]
There has been outrage from both sides of the aisle at the deal that Obama has worked out with the Republican leadership to extend the Bush tax cuts. Some Republicans […]
We have to stop kidding ourselves, Paul Krugman says. No one in Congress really cares about the deficit. Krugman’s right. As much as our politicians claim to care about the […]
In the wake of Wikileaks release of leaked diplomatic cables, the White House has directed federal employees not to access the Wikileaks web site with out authorization. That includes people […]
Yesterday I tried to clear up some of the confusion surrounding the fight in Congress over extending the Bush tax cuts. But in the process of trying to explain how […]
Tax cuts are in the eye of the beholder. The House voted today 234 to 188 to extend the Bush tax cuts for people earning less than $250,000 a year. […]