Weekend Reads

Try not to be the Bad Guy in the story: What it means to be ‘on the wrong side of history’

The Real Reason Why Conservatives Like Ross Douthat Oppose The Gay Marriage Ruling

Marriage is, bit by bit, becoming more about a partnership between equals who choose each other for the purpose of love and happiness. Which means it’s becoming less about giving men control over women’s lives.

How people convince themselves that the Confederate flag represents freedom, not slavery

This “Confederately correct” orthodoxy that the South fought for independence, not slavery, rankled a few southern realists, including the editors of the Richmond-based Southern Punch in 1864:

A prayer in a sanctuary

We will be told, in the aftermath of this act of terrorism, that it was the work of a lone individual — an aberration resulting from the aberrant behavior of a single disturbed man. But that claim is not credible. It requires us to ignore what we have seen and known for generations.

Are all atheists simply angry, or just the ones to whom you're listening?

The idea of the angry atheist is a myth.

I'm a liberal professor, and my liberal students terrify me

NASA and Verizon plan to monitor US drone network from phone towers

That $500,000 project is now underway at Nasa’s Ames Research Center in the heart of Silicon Valley. Nasa is planning the first tests of an air traffic control system for drones there this summer, with Verizon scheduled to introduce a concept for using cell coverage for data, navigation, surveillance and tracking of drones by 2017.

How Comedians Became Public Intellectuals

Don’t swallow Jade Helm conspiracy theories

But it seems to me beyond argument that in the philosophical struggle for the soul of conservatism, [Timothy McVeigh] lost the battle and won the war. Much of what now passes for conservatism proceeds from extremes of government loathing that would have stunned Ronald Reagan himself.

We're in the Process of Decimating 1 in 6 Species on Earth

The result is alarming: One out of every six species could face extinction if global warming continues on its current path. The picture is less dire if we manage to curb climate change, dropping to only 5.2 percent of species if warming is kept within the internationally-agreed upon target of 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

If Black People Lived As Long As White People, Election Results Would Be Very Different

According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 8.5 million black people died during that 35-year period. But if the mortality rates had been comparable, an additional 2.7 million black people would have been alive, and of those, an estimated 1 million would have cast votes in the 2004 election.