Robert de Neufville
Contributor, Big Think
I lecture and write about politics and philosophy. I hold degrees in politics from Harvard and Berkeley, and have studied complex systems at the Santa Fe Institute. Other interests include theoretical physics, cognitive science, evolutionary biology, and the game of Go. You can find me on Twitter at @rdeneufville.
Itawamba Agricultural High School would rather cancel the prom than let a lesbian couple attend. More than a month ago, Constance McMillen, an 18-year-old senior at the Mississippi school, asked […]
It’s not clear if the Democrats have the votes to get health care reform through Congress. Earlier versions of the bill have already passed both the House and the Senate—and, […]
Bloggers are talking today about a striking chart comparing the foods we should be eating with the foods the government subsidizes. The chart, originally published in 2007 by the Physicians […]
The recession has been hard on most of us. A Brookings study found that American households lost $13 trillion of wealth—that’s more than $40,000/person and about 15% of our net […]
February’s employment numbers were better than expected. Economists had worried that the massive snowstorm that hit the eastern seaboard would depress employment more. As it was the economy still lost […]
White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel does not have a reputation for being a very nice guy. President Obama’s fixer—or “Rahmbo” as he’s known—was of course at the center […]
America, we often hear, doesn’t make things any more. The drop in manufacturing is sometimes blamed on free trade agreements and is seen as part of our long-term economic decline. […]
“The object of torture is torture.” As George Orwell wrote in 1984, torture is not a means to an end, it is an end in itself. As I’ve argued, there’s […]
I am one of the millions of Americans who have had trouble getting health care. After I left grad school I tried to get coverage with Anthem Blue Cross. A […]
On Tuesday, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said that the financial crisis that triggered our current recession was “by far the greatest financial crisis, globally, ever.” That’s right, even […]
On Monday, Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) announced that although he strongly supports the so-called public option, he wouldn’t vote to add it to the health care bill by way of […]
After a long delay, the Department of Justice’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) released its report on whether the Bush administration lawyers who wrote the notorious memos justifying the use […]
“We may have democracy,” Justice Louis Brandeis once said, “or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both.” Justice Brandeis thought that […]
Last Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” former Vice President Dick Cheney told Jonathan Karl that he was “a big supporter of waterboarding.” It’s a remarkable admission, because waterboarding is—as acceptable […]
Terrorism is not an ideology. What makes something a terrorist act is not the political cause that motivates it or the background of the people involved. Terrorism is a particular […]
The huge snowstorms that hit the mid-Atlantic states may have done more than just close roads and schools. They may also have had a chilling effect on climate change legislation […]
When Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the so-called “underwear bomber,” was arrested for trying to blow up a plane headed for Detroit on Christmas Day, the Obama administration was quickly attacked for […]
When the most recent jobs report came out a week ago, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) office circulated a striking chart showing the number of jobs the American […]
Americans have had enough. According to a new Washington Post/ABC News poll, two-thirds of Americans describe themselves as either “dissatisfied” or “angry” with the government. That’s the largest number since […]
Super Bowl ads, as a rule, invoke broad stereotypes in the name of cheap laughs. The men are mostly hen-pecked idiots, and the women, shrewish, air-headed skanks. Pam and Tim […]
In December, The New Republic put together an amusing collection of quotations from conservatives predicting that different social programs would mean the end of the American way of life. There’s […]
On Thursday, Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) placed a “blanket hold” on all of President Obama’s nominees, effectively preventing the Senate from voting on any of them. In a statement, Shelby’s […]
President Obama’s poll numbers slipped dramatically over his first year in office. Since last February, the percent of Americans who say they approve of his performance has fallen twenty points. […]
President Obama won office in part on the strength of his promise to be a “post-partisan” president. But Obama’s attempts to reach out to the other party—as admirable as they […]
The conventional wisdom is that Republican Scott Brown’s upset victory in the special election to fill Ted Kennedy’s vacant Senate seat was a referendum on health care reform. In a […]
Over the course of 2009, the Dow Jones industrial index grew a healthy 17%. The Nasdaq grew a remarkable 41%. Over the same period the average compensation—the total cost of […]
In politics, people usually see what they want to see. The truth is, President Obama would probably be attacked by the Right for reading a list of Republican talking points. […]
Ben Bernanke will probably be confirmed to a second term as Chairman of the Federal Reserve in the next few days. But opposition to his nomination has emerged on both […]
Last weekend, a group calling itself the All-American Basketball Alliance announced plans to form a professional whites-only basketball league. According to a statement—released for some reason just before Martin Luther […]
With his election to the Senate in a staunchly Democratic state, Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) has quickly become the Republican Party’s presumptive new savior. Even though he is just assuming […]