Sara Robinson, who has spent years thinking and writing in places like Orcinus, Our Future, Group News Blog, Salon, Grist, the New Republic and New York Magazine (as well as S&R, now that I think about it), has finally struck out on her on her own and debuted Future Imperfect. And just in time. Sara has devoted a great deal of energy
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The four stages of critical thinking: Critical thinking is something you make yourself do. Critical thinking is something you do automatically. Critical thinking is something you can’t stop doing. Critical thinking is who you are. Hopefully you’re on the spectrum somewhere, preferably at four or working your way to it. I noted this because I’ve been thinking about Facebook memes.
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Is Abby Wambach a xenophobe? I doubt it. But her remarks on foreign-born players were clumsy at best. On Wednesday night Abby Wambach, the greatest striker in women’s soccer history, played her final match, an uninspired 1-0 loss to China that was in no way the sort of send-off she deserved. While the game lacked fireworks, her appearance earlier in
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If you think Barack Obama is a socialist, you simply don’t know what the word means. That’s likely because you’re lazy and willing to trust those who would manipulate you for their own cynical ends, and who really could not care less about your well being. Obama is demonstrably to the right of Nixon (aside from the racist Southern strategy) and
Read moreWould the GOP have deported Yogi Berra? Item 1: Yogi died last week. He was an American icon of the first order and a legendary practitioner of the national pastime. Wikipedia sums his career up nicely. An 18-time All-Star and 10-time World Series champion as a player, Berra had a career batting average of .285, while compiling 358 home runs and
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Walter Palmer, the dentist who killed Cecil the Lion, says he did nothing illegal and that he’s going back to work. I don’t think Dr. Palmer understands the issue. He doesn’t grasp why people are so upset. He thinks we’re all mad because we mistakenly believe that he broke the law. No, Walter, we know you acted legally. We live in
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We all love freedom and the Constitution. But is it really that simple? I’m a huge fan of a good debate. And by “debate” I don’t mean the sort of ginned-up scream-lie-and-spinfests we have come to associate with the term in the past few decades. No, I mean spirited, intelligent, thoughtful exchanges between parties with honest, good-faith disagreements. Lucky me, I tripped across
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We love symbolic victories in the culture wars. But what is Obama doing while we’re distracted? Selling us out, just like Ronnie did. I used to argue that Ronald Reagan was playing the religious right like a wore-out banjo. Sorta. The big social issue of the day, of course, was abortion, and Ronnie did a lot of talking about how
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When I was in graduate school at Iowa State in the late 1980s I hit a period, during my second year, where a little homesickness set in. So I did something to remind myself of the place and people I was missing: I bought a Confederate flag and affixed it to my desk in the office, which I shared with
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For our founding fathers, “people” was a euphemism” that meant “rich white men.” Sadly, the same is true for many of our current leaders.
Read morePeople keep telling me I have to be realistic. But step one of being a realist is acknowledging reality. I have been pretty vocal in my criticism of Barack Obama over the past seven years. I have reamed the modern day Vichy Democratic party every chance I have gotten. I have stomped on Bill Clinton and Al Gore, the architects of the
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Honoring those who died in service doesn’t mean forgiving those who put them in harm’s way. Today America honors its war dead, those who gave their lives in the service of freedom – not only ours, but in many cases they died to save innocent people in far-flung corners of the globe. This isn’t idle rhetoric, either. Ponder what the
Read morePaging Matthew Grimm. Bernie is in. And I’m in for Bernie. One of the first things I thought was that the campaign needs a song. Maybe two. It needs an artist, one of us. There are many candidates. Jason Isbell comes to mind. So does Jeffrey Dean Foster. And maybe Paul Lewis. Or The Lost Patrol or The Blueflowers. Or
Read moreNo, seriously. 391 members of the American Political Science Association’s Presidents & Executive Politics section, the premier organization of experts of the American presidency, were invited to complete the online survey, which was administered by Brandon Rottinghaus of the University of Houston and Justin S. Vaughn of Boise State University. Obama ranked 18th overall in the final tally.
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Wow. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-E. Coli) really stepped in it this time, didn’t he? In case you’ve been off-planet, The formerly pro-business GOPper opined the other day that restaurants shouldn’t have to force employees to wash their hands after visiting the rest room. Just have them put a sign saying that they don’t require it and let the market decide.
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lullaby pit 