The legal system, though constituted under the rubric of Justice, can only be an agglomeration of human beings. That is, the foolish, the misguided, the self-interested, the careerist and the idealist — the same admixture found in you and me.…
Why dinosaurs are awesome
Patagotitan — like Paddington Bear — is a creature from South America with a name that identifies where it was found. Patagonia, the region that encompasses the southernmost reaches of Argentina and Chile, is a land so vast and empty …
We need to talk about extreme antinatalism
Promortalism — the belief that death is always preferable to life — is one of these ideas that feels too fringe to attract much of a following. It instinctively feels more like a footnote in a philosophy class, the far …
Post-Trumpism could save America
Just as Elizabeth I would have been disheartened to learn that she had lived during the Age of Shakespeare, I am sure that no living US president, from Jimmy Carter to Joe Biden, wants to be a footnote to Donald …
The nihilism of hiring a hitman
It’s not every day that a close relative describes how they were once the subject of a $10,000 hit job. But this shady chapter of my family’s history came to light over the weekend during a long-distance telephone conversation about …
The darkness of dance
I was a quiet, nervous little girl who didn’t much like the chaos of life. I could escape that, though, in the safety and discipline of the dance studio. With hair scraped back and uniform strict, the daily repetitions of …
How Britain lost British Steel
In 1859, a north Lincolnshire landowner named Rowland Winn discovered that under his land lay a valuable commodity. After digging it up, he sold 500 tons of the stuff to a Barnsley ironmaster — and Scunthorpe’s die was cast. This …
The fall of America’s benevolent empire
Exactly 75 years ago, the foundation stone of the transatlantic relationship was laid. After the Marshall Plan was signed into law by President Harry S. Truman, the US would go on to send billions of dollars in economic assistance to …
‘Tough on crime’ won’t rescue the Tories
“Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime” remains one of Tony Blair’s most memorable slogans — still durable and pithy well after its coinage, 30 years ago. It is archetypal of the Third Way approach, and continues to …
Adderall is not an identity
It’s 2am here in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and I’ve just finished writing 7,500 words of corporate marketing copy. I then turn my attention to this piece. But my attention is glitching. So I do something I haven’t done since I took …
Keep child abusers off the rainbow flag
“Julie Bindel takes to right wing GB News to smear the trans community with the same trope that was used against gay men in the 1980s — that they are all paedophiles. Has she forgotten that made gays a target …
Welcome to Britain’s Hungry Twenties
Last spring, Elsie, a 77-year-old widow asked ITV’s Good Morning Britain to solicit any advice that Boris Johnson might have about coping with poverty. It was duly explained to the then-Prime Minister that Elsie only ate one meal a day …
America’s desperate dysfunction
In his short story A Clean, Well-Lighted Place, Ernest Hemingway describes a deaf old man who likes to sit in the terrace of his favourite cafe late into the evening drinking brandy, much to the frustration of a young waiter …
Elbridge Colby: China is more dangerous than Russia
Since writing Donald Trump’s National Defense Strategy in 2018, Elbridge Colby has become one of the most influential conservative defence thinkers in America. If a Republican wins the presidency in 2024 — whether Trump or DeSantis — he is likely …
Why is my chatbot hitting on me?
It’s always great when your wife calls off a sex strike. This week, Travis Butterworth, who owns an artisan leather shop in Denver, Colorado, was overjoyed to learn that AI company Replika had restored its commercial chatbots’ capacity for “erotic …