Blame the Women

Women say they are sick of the impossibly high beauty standards men ruthlessly impose upon them. They are tired of having to spend hours at the gym and weeks recovering from ...

10 Things I Hate About LA

If my kids turned out to be gay, I"€™d say, "€œOh great, there go my grandchildren"€ and move on. But if my son turned out to be the guy at The New York Times who covered ...

Christiane Amanpour

It’s So Funny, You Don”€™t Even Laugh

In the otherwise forgettable movie Betsy’s Wedding, the chichi event planner swoons over a cake sample: “It’s so subtle you can’t even taste ...

When Atheists Are A+holes

Fifty percent of Americans think atheists are a pain in the ass. Only half as many dislike Muslims, despite the national hobby of raining electric death on Muslims the world over. ...

Did Heavy Metal Brain Damage Cause the 1960s?

As part of my continuing series on the causes of the 60s, let’s consider Kevin Drum’s revival (”America’s Real Criminal Element: Lead”) in Mother ...

Evolutionary Zen

The upcoming presidential debates will likely sidestep details of immigration, employment, offshoring, or public safety. Instead, valuable minutes will be given to philosophical ...

Pamela Anderson

10 Things I Hate That Everybody Loves

One of the downsides of being special is that you feel out of place wherever you go. I don't understand half the stuff people like and I suspect they don't either. Take cigars, ...

Sir John Gielgud

Google Gaydar

Our era's dominant narrative focuses lavishly on gays, who are portrayed as society's powerless victims. Yet gays themselves don"€™t find the party line very interesting. They ...

Let’s Be Perfectly Clear About Scientology

As someone who was molested in a previous life, I have a lot of respect for Scientology. Not only does this 3.5-million-strong “Way to Happiness” offer answers that ...

The Ten-Million-Dollar Question

I just got back from Virginia Beach, and boy are my arms tired of gesticulating. We drove there to cover a surf competition, and spending 16 hours in a car with an all-male film ...

Reducing Hate by Restoring Tolerance

Though I cannot demonstrate it statistically, I believe the US is inching toward coercive, state-directed thought control. On such "€œcontroversial"€ topics as immigration ...

Occam’s Butter Knife

MIT's Daron Acemoglu is a rock star among economists, one of the ten most cited in his profession. This is largely because of the paper the Istanbul-born Armenian cowrote in 2001: ...

Human Rights: The Useless Fiction

I watched a Pennsylvania GOP gubernatorial candidate bring an evangelical crowd to their feet three years ago by announcing that "€œOwning a gun is a human right."€ I mumbled ...

Empty Promise, Barack Obama and the Death of the American Dream

Once upon a time, there was the American Dream, "€œthat dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone,"€ as James Truslow Adams described ...


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