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A New Critique of Peter Singer
A while back, I wrote a piece called “A Critique of Peter Singer“, one of my more popular pieces on moral theory. Since I wrote that piece, I’ve spent more time reading and thinking about Singer, and I...
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Immigration: What Obama Did and Why He Did It
I’ve had a few readers ask me to do a piece explaining US President Barack Obama’s recent executive action on immigration. I’ll aim to explain what Obama did, why Obama did what he did, and whether or...
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How We Should Deal with the Charlie Hebdo Attack
As most of you probably know by now, terrorists in Paris shot up the offices of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo earlier this week, killing 12 people. Charlie Hebdo is known for publishing...
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Should People Have a Right to Have Children?
Many of my blog posts make some pretense of having something to do with a current event or news item. But sometimes I find myself thinking about larger issues of general principle that do not easily...
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Candidate Evaluations: Donald Trump
Donald Trump is running for president. A few people have told me I shouldn’t do an evaluation for Trump, that to write one for him treats him with a level of seriousness he’s not entitled to. But...
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Theresa May’s Wretched Plan to Expel Talented Young People from Britain
UK Home Secretary Theresa May has a new proposal that would force international students at British universities to leave the country immediately after graduating, making it far more difficult for them...
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Bogus Claims and Broken Arguments: The First 2016 GOP Presidential Debate
The pundits are out in force today arguing about which republican candidate performed best in yesterday’s debate. But the pundit definition of “best” is, well, not the best. They evaluate politics...
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Is Birthright Citizenship a Good Policy?
Recently, we’ve been seeing a lot of republican presidential candidates come out against birthright citizenship. Trump, Walker, Jindal, Graham, Christie, Santorum, Paul, Carson, and Cruz are against...
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Do European States Have a Moral Duty to Accept Syrian Refugees?
Europe is in the grip of an important ethical debate concerning the Syrian refugee crisis. 205,000 refugees have entered Greece this year. 69% are Syrian, 18% are Afghan, and the remainder are...
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The Fascist Underpinnings of Anti-Immigration Politics
Throughout the developed world, we’ve seen a resurgence in recent years of anti-immigrant, nationalist politics. Donald “build a wall and make Mexico pay for it” Trump is still leading in national...
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4 Arguments Against Accepting Syrian Refugees and Why They All Fail
Over the past few days, the public debate has turned toward the question of Syrian refugees. I’ve been wandering around the internet, reading the different arguments people have for refusing to accept...
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How the Alt-Right Works
There’s a video of an Alt-Right rally doing the rounds on the web. The Atlantic posted it on YouTube: Most people who share this video are just looking to say “wow, how disgusting is that”. And that’s...
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Trump and May are like Teenagers Playing Chicken in the Parking Lot
A few days ago, President Trump and British Prime Minister Theresa May got together for a pow wow. It went so well, they even held hands. Some people saw this as an occasion to contrast the gruff,...
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4 Reasons Why the European Left Has to Stick Up For Immigrants and the EU
Last week we talked about British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn’s cunning plan to allow Brexit to go forward in the hope that he and his party might take power in 2020 or 2025 and use restored...
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No Easy Answers: Why Vox is an Anti-Intellectual Publication and How it Can...
The other day, I ran across a piece on Vox by Zach Beauchamp entitled “No easy answers: why left-wing economics is not the answer to right wing populism.” This piece captures everything that has always...
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The French Election: A Grim Situation
In ten days, France is having its presidential election. There’s been some drama since the last time we talked about it–the center-right candidate, Francois Fillon, has been wracked by scandal after it...
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The DUP is Not Okay
Not to be discouraged by a hung parliament, British Prime Minister Theresa May now intends to govern with the aid of the DUP, the “Democratic Unionist Party” of Northern Ireland. This is unbelievably...
View ArticleNational Self-Determination is Overrated
I have a new piece out for Current Affairs about the importance of political unions in the 21st century. Here’s the link: https://www.currentaffairs.org/2017/11/national-self-determination-is-overrated...
View ArticleTrump’s First Year Was Really Quite Pedestrian
I’m no great fan of state of the union addresses (as long-time readers are sure to know). They are platitudinous affairs in which presidents tell a long series of anecdotes about particular people they...
View ArticleWhy Immigration Controls Can’t Bring Your Job Back
All over the western world, anti-establishment movements are pushing for immigration controls. They argue that immigrants from developing countries are willing to work for too little and there are too...
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