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Turn Me On, Dead Man
What do the Beatles, the Virgin Mary, Jesus, Patricia Arquette and Michael Keaton all have in common? In September 1969, as I began ninth grade, a rumor circulated that the Beatles’ Paul McCartney was...
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The Political Brain
A recent brain-imaging study shows that our political predilections are a product of unconscious confirmation bias The human understanding when it has once adopted an opinion … draws all things else to...
View ArticleMixing Science and Politics (and Economics)
So many of you have taken the time to respond to my blogs thoughtfully that I feel I should comment in kind. In looking through the many comments, however, I see that most of what I would say has...
View ArticlePaleolithic Politics
Has there ever been a time when the political process has been so bipartisan and divisive? Yes, actually, one has only to recall the rancorousness of the Bush-Gore or Bush-Kerry campaigns, harken back...
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When Science Doesn’t Support Beliefs
Then ideology needs to give way Ever since college I have been a libertarian—socially liberal and fiscally conservative. I believe in individual liberty and personal responsibility. I also believe in...
View ArticleGiving the Devil His Due
Why Freedom of Inquiry in Science and Politics is Inviolable This article appeared in the Journal of Criminal Justice in May 2017. In the 1990s I undertook an extensive analysis of the Holocaust and...
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Outlawing War
Why “outcasting” works better than violence After binge-watching the 18-hour PBS documentary series The Vietnam War, by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, I was left emotionally emptied and ethically...
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The Fallacy of Excluded Exceptions
Why the singular of “data” is not “anecdote” This column was first published in the November 2018 issue of Scientific American. For a documentary on horror movies that seem cursed, I was recently asked...
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