When Josh Hawley debated Sen. Claire McCaskill in the 2018 U.S. Senate contest, he unleashed the usual invective against the incumbent Democrat. He told a Missouri Press Association audience that she was a “radical leftist,” a hopeless “elitist” and a “Hollywood liberal.” Such a pity that he hadn’t yet coined his most recent pejorative, “Epicurean liberal.” Surely it would … [Read more...] about Skeptics Lampoon Hawley: Missouri senator’s manly virtues book delights jesters & satirists
Politics
In age of disinformation, newspaper political endorsements should be embraced, not abandoned
In early October, Alden Global Capital instructed the newspapers it owns to stop endorsing for major political offices after this year. “Unfortunately, as the public discourse has become increasingly acrimonious, common ground has become a no man’s land between the clashing forces of the culture wars,” the company confirmed to the New York Times. Alden bought the … [Read more...] about In age of disinformation, newspaper political endorsements should be embraced, not abandoned
A tangled web of St. Louisans in the Jan. 6 insurrection
Many of the St. Louisans who played roles in fomenting the Jan. 6 insurrection had relationships with one another and with national figures in the chaos at the Capitol that have not been explored. Many haven’t even been previously identified. What follows is an account of some of those roles and relationships. Jim Hoft, the Gateway … [Read more...] about A tangled web of St. Louisans in the Jan. 6 insurrection
Police misconduct biggest single cause of 2,900 wrongful convictions
Police misconduct is a leading cause of wrongful convictions in the United States. Just over 2,900 people have been exonerated in the U.S. since 1989 according to data from the National Registry of Exonerations. That amounts to 25,900 lost years for those stuck behind bars. Over 37% of those cases involve police misconduct, and over half of all exonerations involve … [Read more...] about Police misconduct biggest single cause of 2,900 wrongful convictions
Facebook v. Science
Social media have helped us cocoon ourselves into comfortable ignorance of “the other side” — so goes the prevailing notion of the last few years, since Facebook has been king. A team of researchers at Facebook published an article Thursday that claimed to detail how much the site contributes to political echo chambers or filter-bubbles. Published in the journal Science, … [Read more...] about Facebook v. Science