It’s been a joy watching rallies erupt all across the world. From late February to early March alone, we’ve seen rallies in the Middle East, in Wisconsin, and then here at Harvard: first to preserve federal funding for AmeriCorps; then to renegotiate dining hall workers wages; then to defend “youth jobs” in MA at the … Read more
… if Firefox currently opens to the NY Times but you don’t want to pay the $15 per month that an online subscription will cost. If you choose to search for a replacement, think about what the mini-exodus from the popular news site will mean for journalistic diversity and an informed citizenry. If you choose … Read more
CNN’s John Blake published a fascinating article on white Americans’ position in society. While I found many of its points, like his use of Glenn Beck’s antics, to be stretches and some of them, like his use of extremists like James Edwards (who runs the white supremist blog thepoliticalcesspool), to be quite offensive, the piece … Read more
No, she hasn’t made any formal announcement, and she may yet choose to run. But with the 2010 midterm elections behind us, Sarah Palin has lost her relevance. Recent polls find her popularity at an all-time low, even among Republicans and right-leaning independents. Whereas a few months ago she looked like the wild card of … Read more
Here’s a talk I gave last semester on the subject of “What is Gov 2.0?” It begins a bit slowly; you might want skip to minute 1:30. If you like this talk, you might also enjoy this article I published in Perspective magazine on the same topic: Just as Wikipedia obviated the professional encyclopedia class, empowering amateurs … Read more
Can something good come out of the recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan, one of the worst recorded natural disasters in the country’s history? The Huffington Post’s Nathan Gardels certainly thinks so: But if one can look past the devastation, there is a silver lining. The need to rebuild a large swath of Japan will … Read more
The gaffe has found its way on numerous websites: Michele Bachmann mistakenly confused New Hampshire’s Concord with Massachusetts’, botching history along the way. She is not alone in her personal revisionism: Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi seems to have forgotten much of the injustices towards African Americans in the history of his state. Mike Huckabee, … Read more
Dear Representative King, It is regrettable that instead of working with your party to find an amenable solution to the budget crisis, you have opted to drive a fork into the American community by targeting Muslim Americans for acts committed by a small minority of their community. In calling this series of hearings, not only … Read more
The state of Texas remains a serious contender for the title of “America’s most controversial state.” Lawmakers have introduced legislation repealing some of the current restrictions on gun ownership on public university campuses. If the bill passes, holders of legal concealed carry permits (at least 21 years of age), will be able to carry a concealed weapon … Read more
At the Cancun Climate Change conference in December, the United States and other developed nations announced their support for a $100 billion “Green Climate” fund. A significant fraction of those funds were allocated to support “climate aid” to developing countries. Rich, developed countries tend to be in temperate regions distant from the direct impacts of … Read more