Audio-Visual Accountability

Political pundits moan that video cameras on the campaign trail stifle candidates from saying much of anything, for fear a gaffe will ruin their careers. That happened to George Allen. At a campaign stop in 2006, the former Senator (R-VA) was caught on tape repeatedly...

Dumbed-Down Nation

As pundits and politicians argue about what the GOP midterm election sweep means, there are growing and disturbing signs that America increasingly is moving (and voting) to retreat from our nation’s commitment to scientific research and knowledge. We’re “dumbing...

Negotiating with Nutjobs

In the witty 1966 classic cult film King of Hearts, a British soldier shows up in a French village run by lunatics after they’d escaped from the local insane asylum as the German Army retreated. Given the number of electoral victories by crazies in the mid-term...
GOP Magic Act

GOP Magic Act

Republicans now find themselves in the dilemma of a car-chasing dog that finally catches one. What does he do with it? The rhetoric of the “Republican revolution” that swept the party to victory in the recent elections is long on generalities–smaller...