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LATEST ARTICLES ( 1469 )

• The Next President Will Be . . . Marco Rubio

  

  News flash: The Rational Optimist blog can now call the next presidential election for . . . yes, Rubio.We’re told Trump and Carson are “frontrunners” for the... Read more

  Posted on 12 November 2015 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Self-Driving Cars – Buckle Your Seatbelts

  

  Recently I responded to an essay suggesting that technological progress is juddering to a halt. Its author pointed to airplanes, hardly changed in decades. Read more

  Posted on 07 November 2015 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Charter Schools: How Democrats Betray Blacks

  

  “Draining” is the word of choice. As in “draining money from public schools.” As if charter schools hurt public education – a sinister plot (“corporate” of... Read more

  Posted on 01 November 2015 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• What Is “Socialism?”

  

  Bernie Sanders calls himself a “democratic socialist.” The word “socialist” has gotten much use in the past century. “Nazi” was actually short for “National... Read more

  Posted on 21 October 2015 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Being Mortal

  

  How would you like to spend your last days in a nursing home? In a tiny cubicle with no privacy, no autonomy, no possessions, everything gone that made life... Read more

  Posted on 15 October 2015 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Hollow Hillary’s Trade Terrors

  

  Republican presidential candidates are falling over themselves pandering to a right-wing activist base that dominates party primaries – exemplified by Scott... Read more

  Posted on 11 October 2015 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Things We’re Not Allowed to Say

  

  Blacks can say the N-word. Whites like me cannot. Not even in my own blog, nor even when talking of its offensiveness (as Christopher Hitchens once learned... Read more

  Posted on 07 October 2015 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• The End of the Man on the White Horse

  

  The Man on the White Horse is a hoary staple of the political imagination. The hero, with integrity, ideals, and vision, the leader who will put things right. W... Read more

  Posted on 02 October 2015 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Muslims Killing Muslims

  

  In the news: Over 700 killed in a human stampede at the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca.A presidential candidate was recently asked whether something about... Read more

  Posted on 27 September 2015 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Deep Down Dark: The Chilean Miners’ Rescue

  

  You are in a small hole inside the very bowels of a mountain, with thousands of feet of rock between you and daylight. Then the mountain violently convulses, an... Read more

  Posted on 22 September 2015 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• The App Generation

  

  Maybe you’ve noticed a lot of folks fixated on their phones. Recently I saw some college kids at a bus stop, three fiddling with phones, the fourth not. “Hey... Read more

  Posted on 17 September 2015 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Telling It Like It Is: My Presidential Campaign Speech

  

  My fellow Americans:I didn’t want to run for president, but alas now I must. Mr. Trump supposedly “tells it like it is.” Unfortunately he – and other... Read more

  Posted on 12 September 2015 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Of Quantum Mechanics, Cabbages, Kings, and Carpets

  

  Astronomer Arthur Eddington said the universe is not just stranger than we imagine, it’s stranger than we can imagine. I’ve written about the biggest question:... Read more

  Posted on 08 September 2015 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Michael Gerson on Obama’s Syria Disgrace

  

  I don’t normally “re-blog,” preferring my own words. But Michael Gerson’s latest column about Syria says it better than I could (click here).That photo of the... Read more

  Posted on 07 September 2015 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• The Wright Stuff

  

  A contraption hangs from the ceiling of the Smithsonian’s atrium, largely of wood, cloth, and wire, appearing somewhat like a mutant kite. Read more

  Posted on 03 September 2015 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• The Beautiful 14th Amendment, Birthright Citizenship, and Racism

  

  In the question period after my recent slavery talk, someone asked, weren’t even Northern whites, after the Civil War, very racist?No! Read more

  Posted on 31 August 2015 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• The Speech Hillary Won’t Give

  

  My fellow Americans:I am going to level with you about the e-mail controversy.“I did not have inappropriate e-mail with that server…”No, really, this time. Read more

  Posted on 26 August 2015 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• The Big Apple Nipple Crisis

  

  So it has come to this.What do you get when you mash up a) prudishness, b) a nanny-state mentality, and c) politically correct gender neutrality?Legislation to... Read more

  Posted on 24 August 2015 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Proust and the Mystic Chords of Memory

  

  Marcel Proust was an odd cat. Poor health immured him for much of his life in his bedroom, whose walls he had lined with cork to keep the world out; he succumbe... Read more

  Posted on 22 August 2015 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Next Door to the Dead: Poems, by Kathleen Driskell

  

  (This is a guest posting, written by my wife, Therese L. Broderick, and appearing on her own poetry blog.)Located on the same grounds where my father is... Read more

  Posted on 20 August 2015 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY