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Iran: Do we need or want a deal at this point?
After both of our previous attempts failed largely because Iran has proven completely unable to stop firing missiles for no seemingly sane reason, it appears to be a good time to reconsider our options. Before we begin, I should come clean: Throughout the conflict with Iran I have consistently advocated to make an even less…
Academia, the publishing industry, Jason Arday, bullshit artists, and the 80s cult classic About Last Night
Some of us know the type. Like Bernie Litgo in the movie adapted from David Mamet’s play, they spin wild tales for our amusement, but in academia and publishing, fact is supposed to be far more important than fiction, and processes are said to be in place to ensure only facts get published. In the…
Rosie the three-legged dragon and the munchkin invasion, part one
If Rosie thought her human servants were strange, they were nothing compared to the smaller, far more energetic and unruly versions that invaded her lair from time to time. These little ones, she could make no sense of at all. If Rosie the Three-legged Dragon thought her human servants were strange, they were nothing compared…
The problem of plenty, the genius of Henry James, and the sad truth that we’re all Isabel Archer now
If young people today face a problem totally unique to their generation, it’s one of plenty itself. Simply put, they have too many choices about everything and anything in life, but not enough money or time to possibly have or do it all. The 19th century novelist Henry James once claimed his works were centered…
Springsteen’s “Cynthia” and those dreams that never come true
Most of us have encountered someone on a regular basis – in class, at work, on the train, on the bus, working at a store, wherever – that brightened our day somehow, prompting us to imagine what they might be like should we ever actually meet, but the pleasure is mostly in the imagining. “Cynthia”…
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Confessions of a Conservative Atheist 