History’s Long Road to Tyranny: Tocqueville and the End of Equality
Devon, PA. I have just finished teaching Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America with my freshmen students. In a way I have not witnessed...
A City upon a Hill
Conservatives are awfully fond of referring to America as a “city upon a hill;” it would be a wonderful thing if they actually made...
The New Lisbon?
In the wake of a series of catastrophes in the course of recent years - the financial crisis and the Great Recession; the Gulf...
On Competitiveness
“Competitiveness” is the new “proactive” – the word, to paraphrase The Simpsons, that dumb people are using to sound important. Or, more precisely, it’s the word that ostensibly smart people are using to try to cover up really dumb thinking.
Bradley Manning, and my Biggest Disappointment in Obama (Yet)
Wichita, KS
Let me make two things clear: first, all things considered, I still think Barack Obama has been, and remains, a pretty decent president--certainly...
California Splitter
These days I care more about the results of local sporting events than I do national or out-of-state elections, but I was pleased that...
Theses on Unions, Wisconsin, and Other Things
Wichita, KS
So last night, the Republicans in the Wisconsin state senate passed the bill which Governor Scott Walker has made the cornerstone of his...
A Tale of One City
It was the best of times; It was the worst of times.
Charles Dickens begins A Tale of Two Cities with a paradox, but one...
Are You Free?
What would Sam Adams, Patrick Henry, James Madison, and Thomas Jefferson say if they were transported to our day?
The Signs You Don’t See
Those who benefit most from collective bargaining limits in Wisconsin can’t speak as loudly as those who oppose such legislation.