Did free COVID care create the problems the right always warns us about? — Everybody knows that the American healthcare system differs from what you’ll find in pretty much any other industrialized nation. People on the left will tell you that this is because we are a crueler country than most others — we’re happy to let you go bankrupt from your cancer care…

The worst part of our cascading crises is its soul-sapping nature — It seems pretty self-evident that the United States faces a cascading set of crises. The COVID pandemic is still roiling, killing hundreds of people every day and hampering many other lives with its long-term effects. Most of the Republican Party has decided to follow the lead of Donald Trump by…

We only care about countries that are scary or white — It’s right next door. It’s the region of origin for almost 19% of the American population. It’s the home to our #3 trading partner. And we don’t seem to know or care much about it. Why is Latin America, a region of more than 600 million people that is right…

Today’s GOP is good at only one thing: petty cruelty — Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ most recent little stunt didn’t work out very well for him — or did it? DeSantis recently arranged for 50 Venezuelan migrants to be flown from Florida to Martha’s Vineyard, of all places. The migrants were misled about where they were going and this relocation made…

I grew up playing tennis from about 7th grade onward. It became an obsession in early high school, as I simultaneously realized that even though I wasn’t very good at the sports my dad wanted to play, I wasn’t bad at this one. I remember coveting a neon-colored Andre Agassi…

Why Republicans are content to sit back and let the Democrats run the country — When our political system is working well, the two political parties compete to run the government. The one that wins tries to pass legislation, solve the country’s problems, and make the big decisions. After all, why else would you want to win elections? But for the last half-decade, at least…

Monarchies are dumb, but so is the way we do things — I’m probably one of the people least interested in the outpouring of emotion over Queen Elizabeth’s death. I routinely fell asleep when my wife and I tried to watch The Crown. Like, who could possibly care about these people, their weird ceremonies, and their stifling manners? Back in the 1990s…

It’s not memorization of facts, it’s the way we think. — It’s long been established that Americans don’t know much about history. Usually, this is expressed in terms of Americans’ factual ignorance. Every few years, there’s a poll that comes out with distressing results, showing that half of Americans don’t know that the Civil War came after the Revolution or that…

I used to really enjoy football. It was something I could talk about with my dad, and it’s a relaxing way to spend a Saturday or Sunday afternoon. It calls to mind a certain set of experiences — crisp fall air, drowsy afternoons in front of the TV, participating in…