Lessons in Humility (Part Three)

Disasters that are mainly our own fault should certainly result in humility, if not plenty of humiliation. Regrettably, the all too usual response to many man-made disasters is denial, with or without a frantic search... Read More

Lessons in Humility (Part Two)

Lessons in humility ought to be learned from disasters, especially those that involve the possibility or certainty of killing us. Given the history and habits of Homo sapiens, amazingly enough some of these disasters are... Read More

Lessons in Humility (Part One)

I was going to name this article "Disaster, Part One" but on careful, that is, embarrassed consideration, I decided that I should rename. After all, there’s nothing like disaster to make us humans feel humble,... Read More

Never a Magic Bullet The Personal and Public Dimensions of Gun Ownership and Gun Violence

My father, a volunteer police officer, kept a .44 Magnum under lock and key in the drawer beside his bed. This is the gun made famous by Clint Eastwood in the Dirty Harry films, along... Read More

Death & Data What should the punishment be for a crimethat’s often benign in nature and consequence?

This past January Aaron Swartz, a brilliant young computer programmer and activist, committed suicide after apparently being harassed for over a year by federal prosecutors. Swartz, the twenty-six-year-old who helped develop the social news site... Read More