Marc Adler

A Conservative Utopia

Larry David’s sarcastic op-ed about the tax deal reminds me of one of my favorite moments in Curb Your Enthusiasm. While chatting about politics with someone, he asks, what’s so great about Lincoln’s preserving the Union? Why do we need the south? Let them secede. With the recent fervor from the right about states’ rights, particularly in relation to healthcare reform, and... (posted by Marc 1 year 155 days ago.)

The New Food Safety Bill and the Power of Targeted Fear

The Senate's bi-partisan approval of overhauling the food safety system by granting the F.D.A. authority to implement stronger regulation, increased inspections and recall powers is great news and a testament to the persuasive powers of targeted fear. Many people don't fully appreciate how corrupt, poorly regulated and dangerous the industry currently is, which is why I... (posted by Marc 1 year 176 days ago.)

Why Raising Nazism in the Context of the Tea Party is Not Unwarranted

Generally speaking, any time someone brings Nazism into a political debate he has essentially terminated the conversation. When liberals wielded posters of Bush sporting a Hitler mustache at anti-war protests, just as when Tea Party activists do the same to Obama at anti-health care reform rallies, it becomes hard to take their message seriously. Nevertheless, Noam Chomsky's... (posted by Marc 1 year 178 days ago.)

FOX News Logic Knows No Bounds, Even When It Comes to National Security

The recent uproar from the right over the T.S.A.'s tight security measures should come as no surprise, staggering as it may seem. When conservative commentators started calling Afghanistan "Obama's Vietnam" at the very beginning of his presidency, well before he even drew up his war strategy, it became clear to me that there's nothing he can do to avoid hypocritical and vicious... (posted by Marc 1 year 183 days ago.)

From Dark Matter to Moby Dick: “All Deified Nature Absolutely Paints Like the Harlot”

While reading a recent New York Times article about NASA's quest to confirm that dark matter underlies everything in nature, I couldn't help but recall the chapter in Moby Dick called "The Whiteness of the Whale." The Times article explains that Sam Ting, a celebrated scientist and winner of a Nobel, will launch a device known as the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer into... (posted by Marc 1 year 185 days ago.)

A Rebuttal to the Charge that Climate Experts Conspire to Raise Research Money with Hyperbole

Last week, The New York Times published an article on the state of global warming science that prompted climate experts at realclimate.org to proclaim, "That's how science journalism should be!" The reporter, Justin Gillis, spent months researching the material, and his presentation is scrupulous and chilling. He concludes that the new, tentative consensus among... (posted by Marc 1 year 187 days ago.)