Articles 2014
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Turning College into a No-Thought Zone
Bloomberg View, July 14, 2014
Zones that quarantine speech on public college campuses violate both the First Amendment and the mission of higher education.
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No Fireworks on the Fourth of July: Visual Persuasion and Politics
First in a conversation
Cato Unbound, July 07, 2014
Images are so ubiquitous they’ve been called “the lingua franca of politics.”We can no more escape them than we can shed the human characteristics that make visual rhetoric effective. Whether conjured with words or presented in pigments or pixels, images speak to our social, sensory, and emotional natures. Those aspects of human nature aren’t going to disappear just because intelligent, articulate people try to ignore or suppress them. Instead of dismissing, neglecting, or condemning the power of images, therefore, it makes sense to try to understand how they work and what different forms of visual persuasion might tell us about the relation between political audiences and those who seek to influence them. -
Is a Picture Worth 1,000 Polls?
Bloomberg View, June 25, 2014
New research suggests that positive images in the New York Times portend better poll numbers to come. The same is true of photos in the Washington Post, whose recent choices portray the president looking authoritative or family-friendly. Unlike presidential photos carried by Reuters and the Guardian, where positive images hew closely to current public opinion, the images in two U.S. papers seem to predict -- or to influence -- future attitudes.
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Casualty of War
Medium, June 22, 2014
How World War I destroyed the “glamour of battle” and made pacifism glamorous. -
Let's Charge Politicians for Wasting Our Time
Bloomberg View, June 03, 2014
Political robocalls are intrusive and annoying. Here’s a better idea: You should be able to set a charge for calling you.
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The War Between 'Authors' and Writers
Bloomberg View, June 01, 2014
The Authors Guild has for years actively undermined writers' interests while claiming in federal court to speak in our name. Here's why I joined the upstart Authors Alliance, even though I write for money.
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What Does This Mean? “If Russia Gets Gay With Us She’ll Have Some Pretty Muscular Soldiers to Meet”
Slate, May 29, 2014
What a 1903 advertisement for kids’ underwear teaches about history, language, and U.S.-Russia relations. -
Ralph Lauren's Fading Fantasy
Bloomberg View, May 16, 2014
What does a brand built on glamour do when its audience's longings and the images that might embody them change?
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Why It's So Hard to Get a Job
Bloomberg View, May 14, 2014
Two new indices look at hiring patterns: How hard is it to fill a job vacancy? How long does it take, and how hard must employers work, to attract a new employee?
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Mom Doesn't Want You to Be Thoughtful
Bloomberg View, May 07, 2014
When selecting a gift for Mother’s Day, or any other occasion, don’t try to be “thoughtful.” Choose the gift the recipient will like best. Don’t confuse what you know with what she feels.