Football and a nation of wusses
The trend in American society in recent years towards risk-aversion and excessive safety-first concerns are undermining an American institution known for toughness: football.
I was nearly knocked over by last week’s news that, ...
San Francisco bans fast-food toys, introduces “Crappy Meals”
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10cPC version of Huck Finn removes the word “nigger”
New South Books plans to publish a new, PC-sanitized edition of Mark Twain’s classic The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, reports Publishers Weekly. It replaces the word “nigger” with “slave”, and makes similar edits to other words deemed offensive. This ...
Shield bill is a threat to free speech
In an op-ed in today’s New York Times, University of Chicago law professor Geoffrey Stone sounds a warning over the threat to free speech posed by the so-called Shield bill. The bill has been introduced in response to the Wikileaks disclosures, and would amend to Espionage Act of 1917 to ...
27 million reasons to cheer: more babies and immigrants keep population rising
Guest Post by Alex Standish
In 2010 there were 27 million more Americans than in 2000. This is a good sign. It shows that America is still a vibrant, dynamic society, even if the rate of growth (9.7 percent) ...
This is a crisis of the state as well as the market
Some good books were written in the immediate aftermath of the financial crash in 2008 and 2009 – but those authors who spent more time reflecting before writing offer us the best insights.
The latest spiked review ...
Merry Christmas and Best Wishes for 2011!
I’d like to thank everyone for reading and commenting on The American Situation since its launch in March. Here’s hoping you enjoy the holiday season to the full, and that you take it to the next level in 2011.
I’ll be back on January 3rd.
2010’s best articles
There were many excellent articles published during the course of 2010. It is hard to choose the best, but here are my top 10 (in alphabetical order by the author’s last name). I’m not saying I agree with everything in these articles, but they were definitely thought-provoking and addressed important issues of ...
2010’s Heroes and Zeroes
Today’s spiked reviews the year 2010 with a series of articles.
In the lead article, “A year of intellectual rebels and misanthropic moaners,” spiked readers and writers name their heroes and zeroes of the year. Here are mine:
HERO: Diane Ravitch, whose bestselling book The Death and Life of the Great American School ...
This week’s articles of note
“Person of the Year 2010: Mark Zuckerberg,” Time, by Lev Grossman
“Left out,” The American Interest, by Francis Fukuyama
“The President and the passions: has Obama misunderstood the psychology of politics?” The New York Times Magazine, by Mark Lilla
“How a different America responded to the Great Depression,” Pew Research ...
ABOUT SEAN COLLINS
I write about American current affairs for Spiked, the online magazine. I am a native New Yorker, and I divide my time between New York City and upstate New York.
In addition to articles for Spiked, The Australian and other publications, I contributed an essay, "BDS: Demonizing Israel, Destroying Free Speech," for the book Unsafe Space: The Crisis of Free Speech on Campus (2016). I also wrote a chapter on New York City's economy for the book London After Recession: A Fictitious Capital? (2012).
My writings have been cited in American Conservative, Arts & Letters Daily, the Financial Times, Fox News, the Huffington Post, the New York Daily News, the New York Post, the New York Times, Real Clear Politics, and the Times of London, among other media.
For more about The American Situation site, go here.
