In Praise of Folly

I haven't been posting as much because of a busy semester and now three in one day. I couldn't help myself. So John Corzine is runni...

The very group that helped get us into our current financial collapse wants to make sure the status quo is maintained: http://dyn.politico.c...

In recent years, any economic expansion is met by calls for tax cuts. Bush used that long lost surplus of 2000 to, what else, cut taxes. Sta...

A new book has just come out, Wannabe U: Inside the Corporate University (University of Chicago Press): www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/10/...

Conservatives seem to be tap dancing at the edge of sanity these days, apoplectic over the minutest details of any Obama plan but ecstatic o...

Critiques of political correctness generally come from the right. However, I think it is important to acknowledge the ways in which an overe...

Good article in Salon on the healthcare debate: http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2009/09/24/healthcare/print.html . While the public con...

Democrats have been shooting themselves in the foot for years – from the ineffective campaigns of Gore and Kerry to the obsequious Congressi...

An article on Salon yesterday perfectly captures the essence of my problem with technology: http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2009/08/15/twit...

I just rented this extraordinary film on Netflix and recommend it to anyone who loves film. Waltz with Bashir (2008) follows writer and dir...

This blog is primarily a space where I offer cultural critique, but today I thought I would offer a short list of the funniest books I have ...

While the blogosphere and emags have been decrying the nature of conservative discourse on the healthcare “debate,” the mainstream media has...

“This is morning in America in the Internet age. After six to eight hours of network deprivation — also known as sleep — people are increasi...

A new today poll from USA Today shows the potential perils in one of the underlying tenets of neoliberalism ( http://www.usatoday.com/news/...

On the McLaughlin Group this morning ( http://www.mclaughlin.com/ ), a microcosm of the problems with the current healthcare debate came int...

An interesting article in the New York Times this week looked at New York City schools under Mayor Bloomberg’s control: http://www.nytimes....

A couple of friends of mine were talking about loneliness and technology the other night. One argued that she felt lonely all the time and t...

Malcolm Gladwell has made a career out of looking at culture in unique, often heterodox, ways. Among his most famous works are The Tipping P...

In the film LA Story , there is a scene where Steve Martin skates through LACMA, one of the art museums in town. His friend videotapes the a...

Ever get bored of competing with friends over jobs, salaries, cars, size of homes, lawns, kids achievements, vacation destinations and gener...

Ok, probably in bad taste, but this has to be one of the weirdest stories I've read in a while. A woman in Texas, after a breakup, goes ...

Republicans, conservative talk radio and even abortion foes have come together to rejuvenate a brilliant idea from none other than the Bush ...

The New York Times provides further evidence of the absurdity that has become our economy today: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/31/business/...

(500) Days of Summer may very well become the Singles, Swingers, Empire Records (kind of) or Reality Bites of its moment. It is that rare ...

I am currently reading an advanced copy of a book on the Iraq War and humiliation for a review that should come out in the next few weeks. I...

Whenever a popular book is turned into a movie, fans tend to debate the choices made, the actors who will play their favorite characters, wh...

In the run-up to the election, after the media decided Obama was “Black enough” to be called a Black candidate for president and absurd them...

When Bush won the election in 2000, the consensus was that he should be bipartisan in his approach to governance. He, of course, did the opp...

George Lakoff has been writing for several years about the importance of framing and metaphors in political discourse ( http://berkeley.edu/...

A recent study by University of Chicago economists Bertrand and Morse looked at the opportunity costs of payday lending and whether more inf...

Soderberg’s latest, The Girlfriend Experience (2009), continues his trend of intermingling small and large projects. Coming on the heals of...

In some ways, it was a heartbreaking weekend for the old timers – with Tom Watson blowing it on the 18th hole of the British Open ( http://w...