This week’s articles of note
“Renewing U.S. competitiveness and innovation,” Real Clear Markets, by Jim McNerney
“When the starved beast bites back,” The New Republic, by Noam Scheiber
“Equal Pay Day reality check,” The American, by Christina Hoff Sommers
“Nudges gone wrong,” Slate, by Ray Fisman
“How immigration crackdowns backfire,” Reason, by Steve Chapman
Replace Earth Day with Human Achievement Day
I’m against Earth Day, because it elevates nature over humanity; I think it should be the other way around.
Some writers who are skeptical of environmentalism have suggested alternative insights into Earth Day. John Tierney in the New York Times offers seven lessons from the 40 years of experience since the first ...
Centenary of Mark Twain’s death
Yesterday, April 21st, marked 100 years since the death of Mark Twain, the pen name of Samuel Clemens.
“I am not an American,” Twain once said. “I am the American.” Few ...
SEC-Goldman: enough with the conspiracy talk
The SEC’s filing of a civil lawsuit against Goldman Sachs is clearly convenient for the Obama administration and the Democrats, considering that this is a critical period for financial reform legislation. But some critics have gone further and suggested that the timing indicates a conspiracy between the SEC and the administration.
The SEC is an ...
Victory for free speech and human (not animal) rights
In a defense of the First Amendment free-speech rights, the Supreme Court struck down a federal law that banned videos and other depictions of cruel acts against animals.
There are a few areas, such as child pornography, where speech is considered to fall outside of the First Amendment. The law ...
Anti-modernists want volcano air delays to continue
It was bad enough that an Icelandic volcano eruption sent ash into the sky to interrupt European flight travel. The situation was made worse by the risk-averse European aviation authorities who were reluctant to lift the ban, on the basis of “precautionary” or worst-case thinking, as Frank Furedi noted. And ...
Goldman Sachs: villain in a dumbed-down fable
UPDATE: This post has been re-published as an article in spiked (here).
The media is in a frenzy over Goldman Sachs.
On Friday the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged Goldman ...
Chicago’s art and architecture
Chicago has wonderful architecture, public sculpture and art.
The photo above shows “Cloud Gate” by Indian-born British artist Anish Kapoor. Below is a picture of the Jay Pritzker Pavilion, designed by Frank Gehry and ...
This week’s articles of note
“The comeback country,” Newsweek, by Daniel Gross
“Nudge, nudge, wink, wink: behavioral economics – the governing theory of Obama’s nanny state,” Weekly Standard, by Andrew Ferguson
“On closing the culture gap,” Seed, by Paul Ehrlich
“Everything is contagious: has a plague of social illness struck mankind?” Slate, by Dave Johns
Tea Party “revelations”: will liberals stop obsessing now?
Today is “Tax Day”, April 15th, the deadline for filing federal income taxes. Predictably, the Tea Party organized gatherings in Washington, D.C. and other cities to protest excessive taxation and spending.
And so it was perfect timing for the New York Times to publish the findings of its poll about ...
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.
