Author: Adam Lee

While I don’t believe there’s anything like a law that good and evil have to be in balance, the headlines of the past few months seem to give that impression. Even as the countries of the West shed their theocratic past and progresses toward a brighter and more secular future, there’s never been a blacker…

Last week, Ireland held a referendum on whether to legalize same-sex marriage, and the good guys won a landslide victory: Some 62% of the Irish Republic’s electorate voted in favour of gay marriage. The result means that a republic once dominated by the Catholic church ignored the instructions of its cardinals and bishops. The huge…

Atlas Shrugged, part III, chapter I Dagny and John Galt set off on their tour of the valley. They drop Quentin Daniels off at Midas Mulligan’s house (“the only one built two stories high, an odd combination of fortress and pleasure resort, with stout granite walls and broad, open terraces”), then drive on: Abruptly, behind…

I’m on vacation this week in New England. Yesterday I visited the Touro Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island – the oldest Jewish synagogue in North America, dating back to the colonial era. It was founded by Jews fleeing a long history of persecution in Europe: first the Alhambra Decree expelling them from Spain, then the…

The Pew Research Center has released a huge new survey of the American religious landscape, showing how the demographics have shifted from 2007 to 2014. And the lede is very, very good for us: [A] major new survey of more than 35,000 Americans by the Pew Research Center finds that the percentage of adults (ages…

In a bid to give women scientists other than Marie Curie the recognition they’re too often denied, science editor Melissa Vaught asked for contributions to a Twitter hashtag, #BeyondMarieCurie, listing women with noteworthy achievements in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Here’s the first version of the list: [View the story “#BeyondMarieCurie: Women in STEM &…

Atlas Shrugged, part III, chapter I Just as Dagny and John Galt prepare to set out, they have a visitor: They were finishing breakfast when she saw Mulligan’s car stopping in front of the house. The driver leaped out, raced up the path and rushed into the room, not pausing to ring or knock. It…

In the wake of the protests and riots that convulsed Baltimore after the death of Freddie Gray, there was unexpected and welcome news: state’s attorney Marilyn Mosby moved quickly to indict the police officers who let him die in their custody. I was surprised and pleased to see that she threw the book at them,…

This article was originally published on AlterNet. If there’s anywhere in the U.S. where you’d expect aggressively conservative, domineering religion to be a relic of the past, it’s tolerant and culturally liberal Massachusetts. But even in that blue enclave, the theocratic impulse is still surprisingly powerful. We found this out when a student group at…

I’m traveling all over the place in the next few months. If you’d like to come out and see me, here’s what’s on the agenda: • First of all, the week of May 18-22, I’m going on a road trip swing through New England. This is a purely personal vacation, with no conferences or speaking…