Misfortunes of Imaginary Beings

I saw Dr. B today for the last time: He says I'm fine, and don't need to take antibiotics anymore. In fact, the ones I've been t...

Jon Stewart on the Democrats' "supermajority." The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c Democratic Super Majority...

Gene Lyons on the warmongering of Beltway pundits . TV news anchors gravely pronounce upon the "Iranian threat," as if a nation wh...

Notes on The Evolution of God , by Robert Wright , Part III: The Invention of Christianity These days, proclaiming oneself a Christian can p...

Connie Casey recalls the early days of the National Book Critics Circle -- a time when the Mercury News had a (gulp) 12-page stand-alone boo...

Steve Coll on the "ink spot" strategy in Afghanistan . To try to take and control the entire land mass of Afghanistan in the prese...

Paul Krugman on the lack of urgency on climate change . The larger reason we’re ignoring climate change is that Al Gore was right: This trut...

Notes on The Evolution of God , by Robert Wright , Part II: The Emergence of Abrahamic Monotheism When I was a sophomore in college, I was i...

Frank Rich on Obama and Afghanistan (and Vietnam) . Though he came to the presidency declaring Afghanistan a “war of necessity,” circumstanc...

Paul Krugman on the next fight in Congress . The campaign against saving the planet rests mainly on lies. Thus, last week Glenn Beck — who s...