Reading my favorite blogger today, Ta-Nehisi Coates, I came across one of his trademark posts. That is, a completely articulate and self-aware (yet always humble) evaluation of himself in the context of society. This time it was about his racial identity. He’s been reading a lot about the Civil War and Reconstruction, which happens to […]
A couple days ago, I found myself listening to an interview with Michelle Rhee, Chancellor of DC public schools, on the Diane Rehm Show. The interview was recorded in December (I’m a little backed up with my podcasts) just about the same time President Obama was naming Arne Duncan as his education secretary. Michelle Rhee […]
“This is really all we’ve got, this increase, this matter of life loving itself; everything else we have has to come from this.” Somewhere over the middle of the Atlantic Ocean this Memorial Day, Ian McEwan cemented himself as my favorite novelist. The Child in Time was the sort of novel that opens you up […]
Exactly seven years ago, I was sitting on the field in Boston College’s Alumni Stadium listening to Nicholas Burns (at the time, he was Ambassador to NATO) tell us how we had to grab life by the horns, live without regrets, etc and so on. No offense to Amb. Burns, but it was quite possibly […]
Jon Stewart was great last night, proving that he can be as hard on Obama as he was on Bush.
A couple days ago, I tried to make the case for conservatism (in the traditional sense of the word) as an important element to a responsible political sphere. Specifically, I admire the instinct to question authority, not take things at face value, recognize our humility, maintain a healthy level of doubt about the world around […]
I have a few different groups of friends coming to Boston over the course of the summer, and since I won’t always be around to give them the guided VIP tour, I thought I’d throw some suggestions up on the blog (why not, right?) so that I can refer back to it as needed. I’m […]
I lovelovelove Michael Pollan. Botany of Desire was such a unique book, and Omnivore’s Dilemma might as well be my bible. In Defense of Food doesn’t live up to his other works–it reads more like an appendix to Omnivore’s Dilemma–but it was an engaging little philosophy of how to eat. As Pollan sums it up: […]
Today, Maine’s governor signed gay marriage into law, which now leaves New Hampshire and Rhode Island as the only two New England states that haven’t legalized gay marriage. New Hampshire’s legislature is close to passing such a bill, and Rhode Island, while lagging behind, is at least debating the topic in their legislature. I don’t […]
This was a question posed to today’s Berkman Tuesday Luncheon Series speaker, Liz Losh during her talk on the Obama administration’s use of social media and its pitfalls (video will be posted in the next day or two at cyber.law.harvard.edu). This particular question was a little off topic (she was speaking mostly about the challenges […]