Highlights of this blog

Whether you're new to the blog and would like to get a general overview, or you're a loyal reader and feel like rummaging through the archives, I recommend clicking on any of these links that jump out at you. These are in reverse-chronological order.

If people are bad at deciding what's best for themselves, is government the solution?

The "acting alone" fallacy

Live-blogging the general-election debates: Obama vs. Romney #1, Biden vs. Ryan, Obama vs. Romney #2, Obama vs. Romney #3, Johnson vs. Stein

Live-blogging most of the Republican presidential primary debates: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10, #11, #12, #13, #14

Thoughts on playing sad songs and easy guitar parts

"Who's in charge — you or your brain?"

The fundamental difference in how liberals and conservatives think of themselves

2 surprising pay gaps

Is it effective to argue that homosexuality "isn't a choice"?

Is throwing a pie in the face of an unsuspecting victim ever a good idea?

Is the death penalty "racist"?

How much of a problem is it that you don't have enough time in your whole life to become "reasonably well-read"?

Scheduling life

The top 10 greatest classical composers of all time

Professor Robert Summers of Cornell Law School

Blogger of the Day (a short series)

The view of computers from 1982 and the view of photography from 1859

What is the atheist / secular humanist / free thought community missing?

Did the journalists who reported on the Koran burning threat understand what they were doing?

How to use "What would I regret the most?" to make life decisions

What were the earliest hints of the internet as we know it?

Unemployed vs. single

Men and women earn more money if they're tall and attractive

Getting it wrong -- language and more

We're all hypocrites.

Influential books — post 1, post 2, post 3

Why politics and policy are less important than music and art

Redistributive tipping

6 ways blogs are better than books

An atheist finds "comfort" in thinking of death.

The 100 best songs of the first decade of the 2000s

Penelope Trunk's Twitter post about miscarriage and abortion

The movie scene I think of every time I hear the "brilliant filmmaker" defense of Roman Polanski

Is "loser" a male noun?

Is it morally wrong to care too much for your children?

How was The State so funny?

Kant's categorical imperative vs. the golden rule

Do the top 1% of Americans pay their fair share of taxes?

Robert Wright's self-contradictory attack on the "new atheists"

The 2 most overused chord progressions in pop music

What news is the American media worst at covering?

17 online dating profile cliches that women should avoid

Abortion rights and quality of life

"What are the simple concepts that have most helped you understand the world?"

Can you give a neurological or evolutionary explanation of love without debunking the whole idea of love?

Joe the Plumber's hate-the-sin-love-the-sinner homophobia

Does music describe things?

Charles Krauthammer on torture and the ticking time bomb hypo

Do women earn less money than men for equal work?

Blogs vs. "continuous eloquence"

Do tobacco taxes unfairly burden the poor?

15 rules of blogging for myself

David Brooks on moral reasoning vs. moral instincts

The problem of evil — post 1, post 2

What Katha Pollitt doesn't get about Ross Douthat's sexual conservatism

Haydn's brilliant blandness

Is economic stimulus an enemy of the environment?

Michel Petrucciani (1962-1999)

Keeping an open mind on the mind-body problem — post 1, post 2, post 3

What's so bad about product placement?

The philosopher paradox

Two kinds of careers

IM on fatalism and time, ideas and plain language

The fake skinny women contest

The top 120 moments on the path to the White House — post 1, post 2, post 3, post 4

Live-blogging the 2008 debates — 1st presidential debate, vice-presidential debate, 2nd presidential debate, 3rd presidential debate

Imogen Heap — Beauty in the breakdown

"Do you see what's happening?"

The 40 greatest grunge songs

Vignette of an unmade argument

How to write a New York Times article to make it seem like women work harder than men

Thank you, Tim Russert (1950-2008)

What are the disadvantages of being male?

Does the death penalty saves lives, and if so, should liberals support it? — post 1, post 2, post 3, post 4

First post




(Photo by me.)