[UPDATE: This post is now endorsed by Vint Cerf. I can die happy.] [NOTE: If you are more technical-minded, you may prefer my recent presentation to a group of local I.T. professionals, Net Neutrality: A Sorta-Technical Overview.] [UPDATE: In 2021, … Continue reading
Fact-checking is a decadent industry. Mainstream fact-checkers at the Washington Post and PolitiFact rate politicians’ claims on multi-point scales ranging from “Pants On Fire” to “The Geppetto Checkmark.” To manage these multi-point scales, fact-checkers must resort to subjective measurements of “relevant … Continue reading
SPOILER ALERT: At the end of this article, we will reveal that Republicans have in fact blocked only 8 Obama nominees. The golden rule of infographics: the vaguer the source cited, the falser the claim. Today, Senate Democrats under Sen. … Continue reading
The Just War Theory is a framework for analyzing the exceptional cases where war — that is, the deliberate use of potentially deadly force on a mass scale against a legitimate, sovereign authority — might possibly be something other than … Continue reading
Last night, I was having some discussions about the future of the GOP (I mentioned these in my post yesterday), and I was asked whether we need to give up on abortion, moot it as an issue, and focus on … Continue reading
First things first: I was wrong. Nate Silver was right. The Democrats did, indeed, have a turnout miracle. Final exit polling shows the Democrats with a D+6 advantage on election night, essentially matching their D+7 result in 2008, and burying … Continue reading
I had planned to spend tonight, the last night before the election, finally talking about Minnesota’s Voter ID Amendment, explaining why requiring photographic identification is a wise policy and why the arguments against the amendment are (as I was planning … Continue reading
This piece was published on Facebook on Sunday, November 4, 2012. It is reposted with permission from the author. My response is here. There is a particular kind of violence in this world that has always bothered me. It hides … Continue reading
In my recent (and surprisingly popular) post about the weirdly good polls the Democrats have been seeing recently, I suggested that the polls might be suffering from an unidentified systemic source of bias. I promised a followup discussing the implications … Continue reading
Very nearly everyone is confused about how the Ryan Medicare reform works. It’s not just you. Two-thirds of the people who are getting paid to talk about it in the news media have no idea what the plan is. I … Continue reading