Republicans Should Stop Pandering about Charter Schools![]()
The Right - “I have no idea why Republicans and the GOP media fall over themselves rallying to the cause of those who hate them and who would never vote for them, no matter what.” 2/9/2023
The Right - “I have no idea why Republicans and the GOP media fall over themselves rallying to the cause of those who hate them and who would never vote for them, no matter what.” 2/9/2023Arguments Against School Choice Presume We Have Options![]()
The Center - “In short, if public schooling on average is so woefully inadequate, how can we take seriously the argument that if a family cannot afford or otherwise access private or home schooling, public schooling is a perfectly sufficient choice?” 2/3/2023
The Center - “In short, if public schooling on average is so woefully inadequate, how can we take seriously the argument that if a family cannot afford or otherwise access private or home schooling, public schooling is a perfectly sufficient choice?” 2/3/2023Stop Pretending All Cultures Are the Same![]()
The Left - “So I will say it with my heart, and others should too: If a culture persecutes LGBT people, is overtly racist, or makes women second class citizens, then to hell with that culture. My culture is better than that one.” 1/27/2023
The Left - “So I will say it with my heart, and others should too: If a culture persecutes LGBT people, is overtly racist, or makes women second class citizens, then to hell with that culture. My culture is better than that one.” 1/27/2023Understanding Why Netanyahu Won![]()
The Center - “Whatever else one may think about the unholy trinity of Prime Minister Netanyahu, Ben-Gvir, and Bezalel Smotrich, they are, among other things, willing to discuss the serious internal security concerns that much of the country outside of Tel Aviv faces.” 1/11/2023
The Center - “Whatever else one may think about the unholy trinity of Prime Minister Netanyahu, Ben-Gvir, and Bezalel Smotrich, they are, among other things, willing to discuss the serious internal security concerns that much of the country outside of Tel Aviv faces.” 1/11/2023Work Is About Knowledge That Pays and Relationships That Are Priceless![]()
The Center - “And both wages and relationships advance worker opportunity, the essential elements of which are what individuals know (i.e., profitable knowledge) and whom they know (i.e., priceless relationships).” 12/15/2022
The Center - “And both wages and relationships advance worker opportunity, the essential elements of which are what individuals know (i.e., profitable knowledge) and whom they know (i.e., priceless relationships).” 12/15/2022On the Inevitability of Racism![]()
The Center - “As psychoanalysis long ago has perspicaciously demonstrated, prejudice is universal to human nature and is evolutionarily informed.” 12/5/2022
The Center - “As psychoanalysis long ago has perspicaciously demonstrated, prejudice is universal to human nature and is evolutionarily informed.” 12/5/2022COVID-19 and the Banality of Evil![]()
The Left - “Compulsory obedience can especially be seen in how the Democratic Party has changed since the election of President Biden in 2020. Before he entered office, COVID-19 was more accepted as an important and legitimate issue.” 12/4/2022
The Left - “Compulsory obedience can especially be seen in how the Democratic Party has changed since the election of President Biden in 2020. Before he entered office, COVID-19 was more accepted as an important and legitimate issue.” 12/4/2022Russia Will Pursue Desperate Strategies After It Exhausts Its Missile Supply![]()
The Center - “Aside from the fact that history shows that rockets are far more useful at inflicting damage against military than civilian targets, their misuse may indicate an underlying strategic desperation in the Kremlin.” 12/1/2022
The Center - “Aside from the fact that history shows that rockets are far more useful at inflicting damage against military than civilian targets, their misuse may indicate an underlying strategic desperation in the Kremlin.” 12/1/2022The First Metaverse Nation![]()
The Center - “What is new, in this case, is that the people of Tuvalu are hoping their future metaverse-based civilization will continue to function as a state and will be recognized internationally as a proper nation.” 12/1/2022
The Center - “What is new, in this case, is that the people of Tuvalu are hoping their future metaverse-based civilization will continue to function as a state and will be recognized internationally as a proper nation.” 12/1/2022The Complexity Paradox![]()
The Center - “We are great at handling complexity until things get really, really complex.” 10/27/2022
The Center - “We are great at handling complexity until things get really, really complex.” 10/27/2022Putin’s Nuclear Threats Show that Jacinda Adern is Wrong About Nuclear Weapons![]()
The Center - “[Prime Minister Ardern] is correct that nuclear weapons arsenals carry with them great risks of widespread destruction. However, the greatest risk lies in committing not to use them.” 10/14/2022
The Center - “[Prime Minister Ardern] is correct that nuclear weapons arsenals carry with them great risks of widespread destruction. However, the greatest risk lies in committing not to use them.” 10/14/2022Iran’s Uprising: Precursor to a New Revolution![]()
The Center - “The unrest that flared up in response to [Mahsa Amini’s] death has been virtually unprecedented and provides the international community with perhaps the clearest reminder that the Iranian people abhor authoritarianism.” 10/12/2022
The Center - “The unrest that flared up in response to [Mahsa Amini’s] death has been virtually unprecedented and provides the international community with perhaps the clearest reminder that the Iranian people abhor authoritarianism.” 10/12/2022Why I Support Australian Republicanism![]()
The Left - “A republic represents the ability for Australians to recognize formally what has been long known: that we are willing and capable of charting our own future released from the bonds of the past.” 10/11/2022
The Left - “A republic represents the ability for Australians to recognize formally what has been long known: that we are willing and capable of charting our own future released from the bonds of the past.” 10/11/2022Friendships as Pathways to Upward Income Mobility![]()
The Center - “For example, if poor children grew up in a neighborhood where 70% of their friends were wealthy, their future income on average will increase by 20%, similar to the effect of going to a four-year college.” 8/16/2022
The Center - “For example, if poor children grew up in a neighborhood where 70% of their friends were wealthy, their future income on average will increase by 20%, similar to the effect of going to a four-year college.” 8/16/2022Salman Rushdie: The Antithesis to Moral Cowardice![]()
The Center - “Leading by example, Rushdie refuses to be intimidated into silence.” 8/15/2022
The Center - “Leading by example, Rushdie refuses to be intimidated into silence.” 8/15/2022When It Comes to Iran, Say “No” to Appeasement![]()
The Center - “Without an enemy to demonize, the Islamic Republic would have to answer for its many and grave failures.” 8/3/2022
The Center - “Without an enemy to demonize, the Islamic Republic would have to answer for its many and grave failures.” 8/3/2022Peter Buxtun, the Hero of Tuskegee, 50 Years On![]()
The Center - “In later interviews, Buxtun would shrug off the accolades he later received for his whistleblowing. ‘I don’t want to be embarrassed by an oversupply of compliments. I am who I am,’ he would tell bioethicist Carl Elliott in 2017.” 7/25/2022
The Center - “In later interviews, Buxtun would shrug off the accolades he later received for his whistleblowing. ‘I don’t want to be embarrassed by an oversupply of compliments. I am who I am,’ he would tell bioethicist Carl Elliott in 2017.” 7/25/2022The Acute Danger of Iran’s Belligerence![]()
The Center - “Our collective inability to push back against such a hateful worldview by holding Tehran accountable for the terror it is has funded and weaponized could soon prove to be a costly mistake.” 7/14/2022
The Center - “Our collective inability to push back against such a hateful worldview by holding Tehran accountable for the terror it is has funded and weaponized could soon prove to be a costly mistake.” 7/14/2022If the Horseshoe Fits: Illiberalism Across the Political Spectrum![]()
The Center - “While far-right ideologues make no secret of their illiberalism, their counterparts on the Left tend to cloak theirs in the language of equality.” 7/10/2022
The Center - “While far-right ideologues make no secret of their illiberalism, their counterparts on the Left tend to cloak theirs in the language of equality.” 7/10/2022On Finland’s Memorandum with Turkey![]()
The Left - “Finns should decide their own fate. Their pact with Turkey signals the opposite.” 6/30/2022
The Left - “Finns should decide their own fate. Their pact with Turkey signals the opposite.” 6/30/2022Like in Ukraine, We Must Recognize Iranians’ Right to Resistance![]()
The Center - “Political leaders in the United States are increasingly recognizing the vitality and capabilities of the Iranian resistance movement and are looking for ways to empower it.” 6/7/2022
The Center - “Political leaders in the United States are increasingly recognizing the vitality and capabilities of the Iranian resistance movement and are looking for ways to empower it.” 6/7/2022The Great American School Tragedy: The Coronavirus and Students![]()
The Center - “So while parents are generally satisfied with what schools did under trying and unprecedented circumstances, they have good reason to be worried about the pandemic’s effects on their children’s academic and emotional well-being.” 5/31/2022
The Center - “So while parents are generally satisfied with what schools did under trying and unprecedented circumstances, they have good reason to be worried about the pandemic’s effects on their children’s academic and emotional well-being.” 5/31/2022Narrative Ethics: A Modest Proposal![]()
The Center - “I wryly refer to the universal adoption of narrative ethics as a ‘modest proposal’ because while telling stories is a fundamental part of human nature, telling stories in perfectly ethical ways is, unfortunately, too often alien to our nature.” 5/25/2022
The Center - “I wryly refer to the universal adoption of narrative ethics as a ‘modest proposal’ because while telling stories is a fundamental part of human nature, telling stories in perfectly ethical ways is, unfortunately, too often alien to our nature.” 5/25/2022On “The Diversity Paradox”![]()
The Center - “Similarly, while professional hockey is considered to have an under-representation problem, the same is not considered true for the National Football League or National Basketball Association, in which African Americans are very over-represented.” 5/19/2022
The Center - “Similarly, while professional hockey is considered to have an under-representation problem, the same is not considered true for the National Football League or National Basketball Association, in which African Americans are very over-represented.” 5/19/2022Why the Left Is Accepting Finnish NATO Membership![]()
The Left - “With that said, however, as a country with a 70-year commitment to welfarism, it would not be desirable to substitute this for Russia’s brand of plutocratic capitalism.” 5/18/2022
The Left - “With that said, however, as a country with a 70-year commitment to welfarism, it would not be desirable to substitute this for Russia’s brand of plutocratic capitalism.” 5/18/2022When Anti-Israel Bias Finds Its Way into Coverage Choices![]()
The Center - “Our media’s acceptance of anti-Semitic narratives is eroding Israel’s standing in the world and, in turn, the nation’s ability to defend itself against an enemy that has long ago broken its borders and used its very liberalism against it.” 5/11/2022
The Center - “Our media’s acceptance of anti-Semitic narratives is eroding Israel’s standing in the world and, in turn, the nation’s ability to defend itself against an enemy that has long ago broken its borders and used its very liberalism against it.” 5/11/2022The Term Woke Is Losing Its Punch![]()
The Right - “It was a linguistic indication that revolutionary consciousness had made ‘the long march through the institutions.'” 4/30/2022
The Right - “It was a linguistic indication that revolutionary consciousness had made ‘the long march through the institutions.'” 4/30/2022The Pandemic Is a Chaos Narrative ![]()
The Center - “Chaos narratives, however, defy our narrative expectations. There is no order, sense, or logical chronology but, instead, suffering without an apparent purpose or meaning.” 4/29/2022
The Center - “Chaos narratives, however, defy our narrative expectations. There is no order, sense, or logical chronology but, instead, suffering without an apparent purpose or meaning.” 4/29/2022Do David Brooks and the New Right Share Common Threads?![]()
The Left - “The general public—and not the elite—is, in fact, the primary obstacle to the New Right’s political project.” 4/19/2022
The Left - “The general public—and not the elite—is, in fact, the primary obstacle to the New Right’s political project.” 4/19/2022Why Putin’s Russia and Xi’s China Are Cozy Bedfellows![]()
The Center - “Why is there this close bond? Why does China do nothing in response to President Putin’s bloodlust?” 4/18/2022
The Center - “Why is there this close bond? Why does China do nothing in response to President Putin’s bloodlust?” 4/18/2022Nuclear Iran—Why the Islamic Republic Is Not the Actor We Think It Is![]()
The Center - “As the only Western journalist allowed to enter Iran prior to its presidential elections back in 2017, I followed then-candidate Ebrahim Raisi on the campaign trail. Whatever illusions I had about Iran and its ambitions melted under the sheer brutality of his war rhetoric.” 3/30/2022
The Center - “As the only Western journalist allowed to enter Iran prior to its presidential elections back in 2017, I followed then-candidate Ebrahim Raisi on the campaign trail. Whatever illusions I had about Iran and its ambitions melted under the sheer brutality of his war rhetoric.” 3/30/2022Kids and the Coronavirus: Unintended Consequences Two Years Later![]()
The Center - “So, we have been living in two pandemics, but only one has dominated our public health discussions.” 3/12/2022
The Center - “So, we have been living in two pandemics, but only one has dominated our public health discussions.” 3/12/2022Ukraine and “The Fog of War”![]()
The Center - “Amid the memes and rhetoric, there has been much in the way of propaganda, unverifiable information, and outright lies that seem, at times, not to be appreciated for what they are.” 3/7/2022
The Center - “Amid the memes and rhetoric, there has been much in the way of propaganda, unverifiable information, and outright lies that seem, at times, not to be appreciated for what they are.” 3/7/2022What Whoopi Goldberg Got Wrong about the Holocaust—and Why It Matters![]()
The Center - “Only days before Goldberg made her ill-informed comments, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) changed its definition of racism to ‘The marginalization and/or oppression of people of color based on a socially constructed racial hierarchy that privileges white people.'” 2/5/2022
The Center - “Only days before Goldberg made her ill-informed comments, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) changed its definition of racism to ‘The marginalization and/or oppression of people of color based on a socially constructed racial hierarchy that privileges white people.'” 2/5/2022No to Money for Hostages![]()
The Center - “When I was imprisoned in Iran, I made it clear to the Swiss ambassador to let the Trump administration know not to offer any money in exchange for my release.” 2/4/2022
The Center - “When I was imprisoned in Iran, I made it clear to the Swiss ambassador to let the Trump administration know not to offer any money in exchange for my release.” 2/4/2022
