Author: Freddie

Conor’s new piece for AFF on Andrew Breitbart and the conservative/Hollywood divide. I think his analysis is exactly right.

when people can’t take any dubious argument, shoehorn in a “death of traditional media” angle, and call it a day. That whole line of inquisition is becoming a meaningless, non-falsifiable feint. Incidentally, the studio...

The Grey Monk by William Blake I die, I die!” the Mother said, “My children die for lack of bread. What more has the merciless Tyrant said?” The Monk sat down on the stony...

A lot of people have written that health insurance isn’t really insurance, and that we don’t think of it as insurance. And they’re right! How health insurance works and how we think of it...

Here’s a little counterfactual for you. Suppose the CEO of a retail chain that is predominantly patronized by cultural conservatives published an op/ed in which he announced his support for abortion rights. Then suppose...

It’s been my contention, for some time, that a lot of the anti-Microsoft sentiment from certain fans of Apple isn’t actually based on good-faith considerations of Microsoft’s products and services but out of simple...

I think I’ve nailed down what bothers me about a lot of the defenses of the town hall protesters by, let’s say, more sophisticated, politically engaged and connected conservative pundits: I read, and all...

We’ve all heard the arguments against the arguments that the Web is making us stupid. (Nobody actually makes a crude form argument remotely that simplistic, but moving on.) Certainly, I’m not going to attempt...

When I say that we have a moral obligation to provide people with adequate health care when their employment or financial situation prevents them from having it, I am usually told that “no one...

Tyler Cowen has graciously responded to my recent post in an email. With his permission, I am printing it below. In the interest of accurately representing him, I’m going to post the full email....

Your power rankings, while cute, should never, ever be treated as big news on your website. When one team passes another in an artificial competition that neither knew they were participating in, this is...

Or, perhaps, we need a more delicate, more nuanced and more intelligently considered use of language when we talk about autism and in particular those who are autistic and high-functioning. So: I don’t have...

I take it that some of my fellow liberals and progressives like Ross’s new column more than his other recent columns, particularly his now notorious Texas vs. California column. I’m with them, incidentally, and...

La Belle Dame sans Merci by John Keats Ballad I. O WHAT can ail thee, knight-at-arms, Alone and palely loitering? The sedge has wither’d from the lake, And no birds sing. II. O what...

1. If baryons and electrons and some other of the subatomic particles are only a small percentage of the stuff that constitutes the universe, why is it that they are the only thing that...

Jamelle Bouie, of the United States of Jamerica fame, to the ranks as a member of the League of Ordinary Gentlemen.

Will Wilkinson has done yeoman’s work in his recent posts regarding income inequality, and in articulating some of my own dissatisfaction with certain liberal narratives regarding income inequality. A key graf: If we find...

(Freddie would like to remind you that the views expressed in the poem are the views of the poet and not necessarily the same as his own.) Once in Awhile a Protest Poem by...

Because conservatism is the ideological inclination much more inclined towards purges of the unfaithful message discipline, reformist conservatives, when given the opportunity, flog orthodox messages with a little extra zeal; thus, this broadside which...

John mines a few laughs and a salient point from a story about the attempt to regulate yoga. And, it’s true, that story’s pretty funny, and I think John is on the right track...