Author: Adam Lee

There was a searing editorial in the Times the other week, dictated by one of the men still being held prisoner at Guantanamo Bay. A hunger strike is spreading among the detainees there, which strikes me as an understandable response of men driven to despair by endless and indefinite imprisonment in a legal black hole.…

Thanks to everyone in the Secular Student Alliance affiliates at Ripon and Oshkosh, who hosted my trip this past week to the great state of Wiscons(in). Aside from a minor air travel-related mishap on the way out (and I only blame US Airways for that), it went very well! I toured the rural wilds of…

Atlas Shrugged, p.34-37 It’s late at night when the first pouring of metal is done, and Hank Rearden is walking home from his mills and reminiscing. He’s reflecting on his past and his climb up the corporate ladder, which gives us a rare opportunity to examine something Rand doesn’t discuss much: her ideas as to…

Last week, New Zealand legalized same-sex marriage, becoming the first country in the Asia-Pacific region to do so. In a video that should wring tears from the hardest heart, the spectators and Parliament burst into applause and cheers when the bill passed, then broke into song (“Pokarekare Ana“, a famous love song in the language…

In the past few weeks, there’s been a barrage of attacks on the so-called New Atheists, accusing them of inciting bigotry against Muslims or of fostering irrational hatred for Islam. This charge has been laid by Murtaza Hussein on Al Jazeera, Nathan Lean on Salon, and Glenn Greenwald on The Guardian, among others. Now, it’s…

Later this week, I’ll be in Wisconsin for two speaking events, courtesy of some local SSA affiliates. If you live in the area, come out and say hi! I’ll be giving the same talk at each one – my speech on objective ethics from a secular viewpoint, “The Science of Morality” – so if you…

In the world of Ayn Rand, square-jawed physical attractiveness is a reliable way to tell the heroes apart from the villains.

Note: This post is SFW; links may not be. Last month in Tunisia, a young activist named Amina Tyler posted a topless photo of herself online, with the phrases “My body belongs to me, it doesn’t represent anyone’s honor” and “Fuck your morals” written across her torso. (Here’s the original photo.) When the Ukrainian feminist…

I wanted to write something yesterday about the terrorist attack on the Boston Marathon, but I was too angry and depressed over it all to jot down something coherent. I still don’t think I have anything profound or helpful to say, especially since we still know nothing about who did this or why. And as…

Last week in Ireland, the official inquest into the death of Savita Halappanavar began with several days of testimony. So far, nothing has altered the basic sequence of events as we know them. Savita arrived at Galway University Hospital in October 2012, 17 weeks pregnant, with ruptured membranes and a dilated cervix, clear signs that…