Remember the Flypaper Theory of the war in Iraq? You know “fight them over there so we don’t have to fight them over here,” get all the world’s jihadis concentrated in one convenient place? Well, Kevin Drum notices, not so much.

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Baylen has a prediction.

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In the course of a response to Meghan O’Rourke’s review of yet one more book bemoaning the “hook-up culture,” Ross Douthat writes: A less self-contradictory line of argument is suggested by her remark about “explorative sex lives,” which points toward what you might call the Julian Sanchez theory – which is that “interesting and varied […]

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Ed Feser’s central thesis in this piece up at TCS Daily—that Hayek’s thought may provide the best basis for a “fusionist” coalition between libertarians and conservatives, but remains in tension with tenets cherished by both—actually seems plausible enough on the whole. You’d be forgiven for not noticing, though, as over the course of a very […]

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Two articles this week cite the disappointment with Silicon Valley’s grandest grand pubas with the public school system’s “factory model” and the power of teachers’ unions. Futurist Alvin Toffler kicks off an “interview at Edutopia with a properly dramatic tone: You’ve been writing about our educational system for decades. What’s the most pressing need in […]

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Almost 30 years ago, Robert Nozick wrote that Israel’s kibbutzes provided “the acid test for voluntary socialism,” and concluded that the results to date had not provided a ringing endorsement. Well, hate to say I told you so, but according to The Guardian, the oldest and best-known kibbutz in Israel has just decided to go […]

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Wired reports on a new study, due to be published in the journal Aggression and Violent Behavior, debunking the purported link between pixelated carnage and real-world mayhem, which not a few culture warriors seem to regard as having been established beyond any reasonable doubt. Ars Technica has more.

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In response to today’s Supreme Court ruling in Philip Morris v. Mayola, which threw out a $79 million punitive damage award against the tobacco giant (now going by Altria), both Chris Hayes at The Nation and Scott Lemieux at TAPped note a split between the court’s conservative justices: Alito and Roberts joined the majority, while […]

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Via Catallarchy:

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I suggested the other day that I think it’s stupid and misguided to treat criticism of religious ideas and doctrines—even harsh, sarcastic, mocking criticism—as a form of “bigotry” akin to racism. I think Atrios nailed this pretty well last week, and even before I read his captivating and deft The Elementary Particles, I had a […]

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