Peyton has posted a rejoinder to Max, trying to buttress his initial claim that it is “inappropriate for 73 percent of federal income taxes to be paid by 10 percent of the American population.” I am struck by a few things from Peyton’s post, and I want to pull them out and talk about them … Read more
Such a headline is perhaps not so surprising coming from elements of the Republican Party’s religious right, see Larry Craig. The uneasy balance of openly and forcefully opposing gay marriage while still attempting to be accepting of gay Republicans like the Log Cabin Republicans has made it difficult for many leaders. The fact remains that … Read more
My fellow Americans… check out the HPR’s interactive Obama mad libs below! Enter the words in each category, hit submit, and scroll down to see Obama’s latest masterpiece of presidential oratory. Obama: Country: Place: Exotic Place: Title: Controversial Subject: Ordinal Number: Good Thing: Good Thing: Obvious Tradeoff: Cataclysmic Event: Number (8): Major Policy Initiative: Bad Event: … Read more
Below, you can enjoy interactive Biden and Gibbs Mad Libs. Once you hit submit, scroll down to see their speeches. Biden: Rambling, interminable anecdote: Contradiction of Administration Policy, Miss Manner’s Guide to Etiquette, Laws of Physics: Convoluted Apology, Vaguely Offensive Story: Gibbs: Reasonable Statement Bearing no Relation to Anything he Said: Minority Group: Mainstream Group: … Read more
Our cover here was a joke, but perhaps one not too far from the truth. Bono writes today as an op-ed guest columnist in the New York Times about the “rebooting” of Africa, and in his lilting prose, he’s actually pretty right. Development economics is a contentious and irreconcilable field; there are infinitely more questions … Read more
In his April 11 post, “Weighing In: The Great Tax Debate,” Max Novendstern rebuts my most recent argument that it is inappropriate for 73 percent of federal income taxes to be paid by 10 percent of the American population. Since our disagreement is to at least some extent based on our differing conceptions of fairness, … Read more
It’s Relay for Life time again, so I’ve been thinking a bit about how charities raise money and which charities I’d like to support with a college student’s meager donations. More than twice as many Americans participate in Relay each year (3.5 million) than get cancer each year (1.5 million); Relay has become so widespread … Read more
Last week was slavery week on the HPRgument (apparently!). We talked about “intern slavery,” twice, and then American slavery. But what about today? Slavery of course is still a very real problem; in absolute terms, by every estimate, there are more slaves today than there ever were in history, and the trade of human lives is … Read more
My Harvard Independent column for this week addresses the retirement of John Paul Stevens and the issue of picking his successor. Read the original here. If they made posters of Supreme Court Justices, I’d put John Paul Stevens on my bedroom wall. The man is a progressive hero — first and foremost, for his longevity. … Read more
In today’s Harvard Crimson, Daniel Herz-Roiphe has written an unusually articulate, well-argued entry in the perennial “Why Final Clubs Are Still Really Bad” essay contest. I’m glad he focused on gender discrimination and inequality, rather than also trying to tackle racial, hetero-normative, and class-based elitism. Those other forms of discrimination are equally important, but I … Read more