UPDATE: Some of the information and assertions in this post have been disputed by Jared Diamond here. In 1995, Jared Diamond wrote an article for Discover magazine that began: In just a few centuries, the people of Easter Island wiped out their forest, drove their plants and animals to extinction, and saw their complex society spiral…Continue Reading…
The only way I can make sense of today’s NYT column by David Brooks is that somebody in the GOP must have scared the hell out of him. Think about it. In July, Brooks wrote that the Republican Party may no longer be a normal party. Over the past few years, it has been infected by…Continue Reading…
Reuters reports on the latest bone-headed idea from PETA: People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, no stranger to attention-grabbing campaigns featuring nude women, plans to launch a pornography website in the name of animal rights. The nonprofit organization, whose controversial campaigns draw criticism from women’s rights groups, said it hopes to raise awareness of…Continue Reading…
First of all, Bill Clinton knew how to win the big prize (twice). He also knew how to let his adversaries beat themselves. (Think Gingrich.) True, Clinton was his own worst enemy, as the Monica episode demonstrated. But there’s no disputing his “intellectual and tactical nimbleness,” which Joe Klein wrote about in this 2003 Time…Continue Reading…
During a debate last week for Republican presidential candidates and in interviews after it, Representative Michele Bachmann called the vaccine to prevent cervical cancer “dangerous.” Medical experts fired back quickly. Her statements were false, they said, emphasizing that the vaccine is safe and can save lives. Mrs. Bachmann was soon on the defensive, acknowledging that she was not a doctor or a scientist But…Continue Reading…
Democrats have good reason to fear this horror sequel. James Fallows lists all the gory reasons why. I’m already having flashbacks to the angry shouting matches Nader’s nihilism triggered between editors (including myself) at Audubon magazine, where I worked at the time of the 2000 election.
Sorry for the inconvenience. My blog host is no dream. Evidently they’ve had major server issues today.
Do your web habits and political leanings make for an online diet that reinforce your biases? Probably not, if you’re a regular reader of this blog. 🙂 Well, actually, such intellectual cocooning is something we all need to watch out for, as I discuss in my latest post for the Yale Forum on Climate Change…Continue Reading…
What it doesn’t need is Al Gore, which is kinda the subtext of the quotes from prominent academics and pundits in this USA Today piece by Dan Vergano, who elicits feedback on the recent Climate Reality event. This snippet caught my eye: Gore trying to change public opinion over climate change puts the political cart in front of…Continue Reading…
A weekend WSJ excerpt from Daniel Yergin’s highly anticipated new book (published later this week) takes direct aim at the peak oil argument. We’ve heard this song before, Yergin says: This is actually the fifth time in modern history that we’ve seen widespread fear that the world was running out of oil. The first was…Continue Reading…