Labyrinthine Zoning Rules Restricted Homeless Shelters During the Pandemic
As COVID-19 spread across the country, complex rules around land use and building permits made housing the poor and vulnerable effectively impossible.
July 2022
The Metaverse Is Already Here
How is virtual reality remaking our world?
Features
50 Years Later, the Motive Behind Watergate Remains Clouded
Despite the abundance of transcripts, FBI reports, and memoirs from those involved, we still know more about the cover-up than we do about the infamous political scandal.
Zap Comix Were Never for Kids
Disreputable and censored comix improbably brought the art form from the gutter to the museums.
Interview
Jared Polis Wants To Leave You Alone
Colorado's governor on parenting, partisanship, and sensible pandemic responses
Topics
You're Wrong About Disinformation
People believe and say things that aren't true all of the time, of course. But efforts by public officials to combat them may well make things worse, not better.
Data Scraping Is Not a Crime
South Carolina's NAACP and ACLU are challenging the state's ban on automated data collection.
Landmark Shark Attack
Government officials have declared an Oxford home's shark roof sculpture a protected landmark, against the wishes of the current owner of the house.
Self-Defense Is Sexy
In America, social change often comes after a politician or government goes too heavily on offense against individuals wishing merely to stand their ground and assert their rights.
Gay Weddings Return to The Supreme Court
Can a web designer be compelled under the First Amendment to host wedding pictures?
Kids Can Learn Without Instruction
"It may be the case that [some American] children give up control of their attention when it's always managed by an adult," say some experts.
Medieval Geopolitics Help Explain Modern Russia and Ukraine
The events of 2022 can be seen as another chapter in a very long story: Ukraine looking westward and seeking freedom while Russia slides deeper into autocracy.
Obamacare and SCOTUS, 10 Years Later
Even Obamacare's fiercest advocates say it has not lived up to its goals.
Biden Ignores His Own Role in Inflation
Stimulus checks, government spending, and Putin’s invasion of Ukraine are only part of the problem.
Legalizing Pot Requires GOP Support
With its unnecessarily complicated and contentious provisions, the MORE Act received only three Republican votes in April.
L.A.'s Eternal Eviction Moratorium
Now that the pandemic is fading and much of the available rent relief has been spent, L.A.'s eviction moratorium seems like pure regulatory inertia.
Christopher Alexander's Utopian Blueprint
There is telling people how to live, and there is maximizing people's ability to live the lives they want.
Books
Former New York Times Reporter Denies in New Book That Hugo Chávez Was a Socialist
A new book vividly portrays human beings coping with daily existence in a disintegrating society but offers an incoherent analysis of what went wrong.
In The Listeners, Brian Hochman Details History of Eavesdropping
Wiretapping and eavesdropping used to be the norm. Perhaps privacy was always an illusion after all.
Secret City Recounts the Gay History of D.C.
In his new book, James Kirchick focuses on homosexuals' relationship with national politics during a time when gays were banned from working for the federal government.
Reviews
Review: The Dropout
Hulu's limited TV series on Elizabeth Holmes shows how regulators failed to catch massive, dangerous medical fraud.
Review: Winning Time
The absurdly enjoyable TV drama shows how managers transformed the NBA in the 1980s.
Review: SKIMS
If you've detected increased sexiness in the atmosphere, you can thank Kim Kardashian and her lingerie brand SKIMS.
Review: Gran Turismo 7
The video game serves as a fun reminder that free trade, not protectionism, makes us all better off.
Review: Junk Science and the American Criminal Justice System
M. Chris Fabricant's new book details how flawed techniques have led to numerous wrongful convictions.
Review: Apollo 10 1/2
The new movie offers a funny nod both to NASA's glitch-prone engineering and its can-do spirit
Review: My History Can Beat Up Your Politics
The political podcast uses relevant history to contextualize controversial current events.
ETC.
Fadi Elsalameen on Using Bitcoin To Fight Corruption in Palestine
How bitcoin can help Palestinians bypass the Palestinian Authority's control over their finances
Brickbats: July 2022
News of politicians, police, and bureaucrats behaving badly from around the world.
