Usually Christopher Hitchens is a bit heavy-worded even for me, but I’m right there with him on this one. Run Al… run!

Reprinted with permission from the July issue of the Ester Republic.

Remember when researchers told us that Big Mac sandwiches caused cancer? I was reminded of this recently when passing through the big-box retail district – I spied for the first time a sign in front of one of the many new construction sites bearing the familiar golden arches and the slogan “Here We Grow Again.” Now I don’t know about the rest of you, but let me tell you it is a relief to know that when I’m hungry and stuck on that side of town, so far away from the McDonalds’ on College (0.9 miles away), Airport (2.2 miles), or Geist (3.5 miles), that my choice will never again be limited to Carl’s Jr. (more…)

You might be surprised to hear that most scholars of social organization think that marriageis evolving itself out of existence, or at least out of its social relevance, replaced by things like cohabitation, civil unions and any number of other imaginable secular and non-secular configurations of households. Now maybe this is just a red herring meant to distract us from how relatively slow the academic community has been to join this important yet contentious social discussion (Think of same-sex marriage as the climate change of the social sciences). But can we really sum up all the emotion and debate over this evolving ‘institution of marriage’ into what is really no more than a disagreement over the definition of terms? Yes and No.

The No: Lots of people want to define marriage, but is there or has there ever really been a universal definition? (more…)

Rather than spend time exploring the political discrimination and the asinine statements made today by almost-ex-US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, I thought it appropriate to instead spend some time on something and someone Americans should be proud of. The US Tennis Association honored Althea Gibson today, at their opening ceremony of the US Open. 50 years ago, she was the first African American woman to win the US Open (then called the US Nationals). She broke into tennis only three years after Jackie Robinson broke baseball’s color barrier, and she won, and won, and won – 17 championship titles in all.

Althea’s story is inspiring, and her influence on the sport undeniable. But her story, indeed our country’s story, does not begin and end with her court statistics. (more…)