An interesting oped today in The Washington Post explores the effects of sexism in literature. Julianna Baggott offers provocative evidence that men are far more likely than women to achieve literary success, for equivalent efforts. I was especially taken with the research she cites that shows when volunteers think a play is written by a [...]

Every time there is a terrorist incident (or an attempted terrorist incident) in the United States, supporters and critics of more intrusive security measures engage in a form of intellectual dishonesty. Those who advocate greater security measures argue that they can carry out those measures without harming innocents. Those who criticize those measures argue that [...]

Early news reports suggest that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian man who attemped to bring down a Northwest Airlines plane in Detroit, went in search of Al Qaeda masterminds in Yemen. If the reports are accurate, this would mean Abdulmutallab was following a pattern established by several other suicide terrorists and would-be suicide terrorists. Rather than [...]

I was saddened to hear that the venerable Kirkus Reviews is going to close after 76 years. There seem to be mixed feelings about the news in the publishing world. The New York Observer notes, “Kirkus reviewers were a famously grouchy lot who did not give compliments easily, but when they smiled upon something it [...]

Every so often, the FBI releases its crime statistics. When the statistics show that crime rates are going up, I hear a collective sigh of relief as pundits reach for familiar bromides to explain the troubling rise in murder and burglaries: They blame decaying cities, recessions, Republicans for cutting social services, Democrats for being soft [...]

Tiger Woods. Michael Jackson. Brittany Murphy. Why do we care so much when celebrities die, or cheat on their spouses? Why do we read magazine cover story after cover story about people in rigor mortis or in flagrante delicto with whom we share no personal connection? (I love this collage of New York Post cover [...]

I gave a couple of talks and Q&As last week at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. One of the questions that came up was whether we need to increase the store of human compassion in order to better deal with the problem of apathy in the face of genocide. Why has the world sat on [...]

I wrote a column in the Washington Post some time ago exploring the work of Eli Berman and David Laitin, who argued that terrorist groups function much in the manner of exclusive country clubs. (OK, minus the wine and golf. Presumably.) Recent accounts about the five young men from Virginia who were apprehended in Pakistan [...]

The conventional model of terrorism suggests shadowy recruiters are spread around the world in search of young men and women who can be radicalized. In one of the chapters in my upcoming book, I discuss the problem in conceiving of terrorist masterminds as telemarketers who reach out to many people in the hopes that a [...]

There has been a lot of chatter recently about New England Patriots Coach Bill Belichick’s decision to take a chance on a fourth down play — a decision that turned out badly.
You don’t have to be a sports fan to be interested in the larger phenomenon the issue raises. We say we like to win, [...]