Feed: Politeia - AggScore: 78.6
Summary: Politeia | Big Think
America today is at crossroads. The threat of a major terrorist attack is very real, but it may be the least of our worries. We are on the verge of a global environmental crisis; our system of industrial agriculture may be unsustainable; the world’s fisheries are in danger of collapse. We are fighting two costly wars, neither of which seem likely to end soon. Health care costs are spiraling out of control. Our national debt is now the highest it has been as a percentage of GNP since World War II. And at the same time, we face important fights over abortion, same-sex marriage, and civil liberties.
How we handle these crises will determine the course the world takes in the coming years. Politeia serves as a guide to 21st-century politics as played for the highest possible stakes.
Americans Are Driving Less
Americans don’t drive as much as they used to. The Department of Transportation estimates that Americans drove 2.9 trillion miles in the year from April 2011 to March 2012. That’s still a lot of vehicle miles—more than 9,300 miles per person. But that number is down about 3% from its peak at the ...
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Date Published: May 26, 2012 - 12:13 pm
Is Congress Becoming Less Literate?
Congress is apparently now speaking at a 10th grade level. The Sunlight Foundation recently analyzed the Congressional Record and found that the average member of Congress speaks at 10.6 grade reading level on the standard Flesch-Kincaid scale. That’s down almost a full grade level from 2005 ...
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Date Published: May 22, 2012 - 7:00 am
The Political Attack on Political Science
Last week the House voted 218-208 to block the National Science Foundation from funding political science research. No other type of research would be blocked by the NSF budget amendment. The NSF could still continue funding research in sociology, anthropology, and economics. The amendment would ...
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Date Published: May 14, 2012 - 9:18 pm
Obama Comes Out for Same-Sex Marriage
On Wednesday, President Obama became the first sitting president to support marriage equality for gays and lesbians. The president’s support does nothing to alter the moral case for marriage equality. While Obama said he personally supported same-sex marriage, he didn't say he thought states should ...
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Date Published: May 10, 2012 - 9:33 pm
How Romney Got the Bailout Wrong
In an interview in Ohio on Monday, Mitt Romney said he would “take a lot of credit” for the fact that the U.S. auto industry has rebounded. That’s a remarkable statement. In fact, it’s an outrageous statement. When the auto manufacturers were bailed out in late 2008, Mitt Romney was out of ...
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Date Published: May 09, 2012 - 1:10 pm
The Torture Lie Refuted
Torture doesn’t work. There has never been much reason to believe that it does. Now Reuters reports that a three-year investigation by Democrats on the Senate Intelligence committee confirms what we already knew: there's little evidence that our so-called “enhanced interrogation” techniques ...
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Date Published: Apr 28, 2012 - 2:32 pm
Why the Experts Get Everything Wrong
Being an expert means never having to say you’re sorry. If it turns out you’re wrong about something—about, say, whether Iraq had weapons of mass destruction or whether there was a housing bubble—that’s okay. As an expert you must have had good reasons for being wrong. Anyone who got right what you ...
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Date Published: Apr 21, 2012 - 12:37 pm
Election Notes: Can Romney Beat Obama?
When Rick Santorum dropped out of the race for the Republican nomination, it removed the last real obstacle standing between Mitt Romney and the nomination. The race has really been over for a while. Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul remain in the race, but Romney has more than three times more delegates ...
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Date Published: Apr 12, 2012 - 11:46 am
Obamacare Isn't Radical
Earlier this week I argued that the Affordable Care Act should be ruled constitutional. There are genuine reasons to be concerned about the scope of Congress’ commerce power, which has been used to justify the federal laws concerning what appear to be non-commercial issues that could easily be ...
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Date Published: Apr 07, 2012 - 12:58 pm
Why Overturning Health Care Reform Would Be a Mistake
President Obama said Monday that overturning the Affordable Care Act would be “an unprecedented, extraordinary step.” But by all accounts oral argument in the Supreme Court went badly for supporters of Obama’s health care law. In one exchange, Justice Anthony Kennedy—who is widely expected to be ...
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Date Published: Apr 04, 2012 - 9:59 am
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