Dear Millennials: Once upon a time (in the 1970s), the actor you might know as Steve Martin was a rising star in stand-up comedy.  One of his jokes began with the premise that he would tell you how to earn a million dollars and never pay taxes.  The real laugh in the bit came when Martin would say, “Ok, first ...

With progress in almost anything, there are usually downsides. Manufacturing and power generation produce pollution; automobiles produce pollution and accidents; smart phones produce selfies.  In some cases, it is only common sense (at least to many of us) to try to mitigate the negative results of an otherwise good thing through legal regimes because the owners of industry don’t have a ...

I’ve said it several times, but it is still astonishing to watch Americans use social media to air their fears about agencies like the NSA while ignoring the fact that it’s the social media company itself watching us more intimately than any government agency ever will. In a recent editorial for Newsweek, Senator Whitehouse (D-RI) calls attention to the fact ...

In a recent OpEd in the New York Times, media ethicist Kelly McBride generally stands by the principle that journalists should not pay sources for information; but she also wants pardoxically to propose that sometimes the ends justify the means.  Specifically, she is referring to an initiative (ploy, stunt?) by Wikileaks to crowd fund a “bounty” for a leaker to ...