A simple 2×2 matrix can explain why the House of Representatives has found it harder and harder to get anything done.
Authors: Carolyn Silverman, Ronald Brownstein | Source: Bloomberg (December 17, 2025) | Subject: Politics & Public Policy
Forty-two percent of Americans say that humans were created in their present form within the past 10,000 years — a percentage that hasn’t changed much since 1982, when Gallup started polling views on evolution.
Several lines of evidence, from the fossil record, comparative anatomy, and genetics, tell another story. But you don’t have to read all the research to find signs of our evolutionary history — … [ Read more ]
Sources: Vox, YouTube (March 17, 2016) | Subjects: Health & Medicine, Math & Science
One of the most important [Shaolin] teachings is the “five hindrances of self-mastery.” These are the core mental states that prevent us from seeing clearly, making smart decisions, achieving our goals and living a happier, more harmonious life.
Author: Shi Heng Yi | Source: CNBC (June 17, 2020) | Subjects: Excerpts, Personal Improvement, Psychology | Behavior
Most of us have heard of Abraham Maslow and his hierarchy of needs, but Maslow doesn’t have a monopoly on self-actualization. A look at the work of Carl Rogers.
Authors: Carl Rogers, Matt Davis | Source: Big Think (September 17, 2019) | Subjects: Articles & Links, Excerpts, Psychology | Behavior
What is the essential dividing line between human beings around the world? The one between the haves and the have-nots? East and west, rural and urban, secular and religious? Or maybe globalists and nationalists – a split purported to explain Putin, Brexit and the rise of Trump? These divisions are all significant, but none provide a consistent way of understanding differences observed from antiquity to … [ Read more ]
Author: Michele Gelfand | Source: The Guardian (September 17, 2018) | Subjects: Culture, Excerpts, Politics & Public Policy, Psychology | Behavior
In 2009, I helped sketch out a marketing campaign for an internet personality and blogger named Tucker Max. With a very limited advertising budget available for the independent movie he had written and produced, we had few options for getting the word out.
Maybe it was crazy but my thinking was that one of the best ways to get young men to go see a movie … [ Read more ]
Author: Ryan Holiday | Source: Observer (February 17, 2017) | Subjects: Articles & Links, Excerpts, Politics & Public Policy, Psychology | Behavior
Since the election of Donald Trump, there’s been no shortage of theories as to why America’s social contract no longer seems to work—why the United States feels so divided and dysfunctional. Some have focused on how hyper-partisanship has dismantled traditional checks and balances on public decision-making, how Barack Obama’s rise to power exacerbated the racist tendencies of embittered reactionaries, and how former churchgoers have embraced … [ Read more ]
Author: Jonathan Kay | Source: The Atlantic (July 17, 2017) | Subjects: Articles & Links, Excerpts, International, Politics & Public Policy, Taxation
In my cover story in the December issue of the magazine, on how the United States should prepare for the possibility of a more truculent and repressive China, I mention the concept of the “Thucydides Trap.” The article describes the implications:
This concept was popularized by the Harvard political scientist [and my one-time professor as an undergraduate] Graham Allison. Its premise is that through the 2,500
Author: James Fallows | Source: The Atlantic (December 17, 2016) | Subjects: Articles & Links, Excerpts, Politics & Public Policy, Trump
Corporate Democrats have never advanced their interests—and at least Republicans offer a persuasive story about why they are getting screwed.
Author: Kirk Noden | Source: The Nation (November 17, 2016) | Subjects: America, Articles & Links, Economics | Economy, Excerpts, Politics & Public Policy
Freedom is fragile, and when demagogues speak, and others start following them, it is wise to pay attention.
[…]
The political party system, and parliamentary government more generally, were regarded as corrupt and oligarchic. Such an environment was fertile ground for a “mob mentality,” in which outsiders — Jews, Roma, Slavs, gays, “cosmopolitan intellectuals” — could be scapegoated and a savior could be craved: “The mob always … [ Read more ]
Author: Jeffrey C. Isaac | Source: The Washington Post (December 17, 2016) | Subjects: Excerpts, Politics & Public Policy