The Trippi Story
GQ: Joe Trippi’s Wild Ride An amazing story. Everything you saw on The West Wing was true — and more….
rss2email
I had a couple hours the other day, so wrote a new version of my script, rss2email. If you use…
Trippi Dumps Dean
Joe Trippi, the man who brought Howard Dean from a relatively-unknown Governor to the frontrunner in the Democratic Presidential primary,…
The Media vs. The Facts
The media has continued to insist on things that are absolutely not true. The Internet has uncovered the truth with documented evidence every time.
Freedom of Speech, or The DeCSS Haiku
Seth Schoen: The History of the DeCSS Haiku I wrote the DeCSS Haiku because I was angry at the attempts…
Why Raise Children?
Raising children is a painful, messy, and unrewarding activity. Libertopians aren’t going to raise children unless they get paid.
Aaron Swartz: The Interview
Like Dan Benjamin, Matt Haughey, and Jeffrey Zeldman (all of whose websites are far more attractive than mine), I’ve gone…
Visiting Libertopia: The Magical Power of Property
This is part of my series on the problems with libertarianism. This piece only applies to those libertarians who believe…
Liberate Libertarianism
Seth Finkelstein, in his essay Libertarianism Makes You Stupid, proposed a series of “Dispatches from Libertopia” as a way of…
Shorter State of the Union
America is good. Families are good. Gay people are bad. Goodness is good. Tax cuts are good. Renew the PATRIOT Act.
Unintelligent Design
Eveolution doesn’t explain everything, but intelligent design doesn’t explain why things keep dying off. Let’s compromise: maybe our creator just wasn’t too bright.
TV Update: Monk back, 24 bad, American Beauty great, Zim good
I’ve updated my TV reviews again. See what I think of Invader Zim.
Suspected Terrorist
The Clinton-Gore Plan to Stop Al-Qaeda: Would 9-11 have happened?
Would things be any different had Gore been President? Wouldn’t 9-11 have still happened? Perhaps not, according to mainstream media…
Bush Fear
Conservatives use fear to keep the populace complacent and submissive so they can stay in power. “You might want some…
Shorter George Lakoff: The Framing of Politics
George Lakoff, in his book Moral Politics, explains how the way we frame the debate seals the outcome. Conservatives appeal…
C-SPAN Crossfire
Surprisingly, my favorite news network has turned out to be C-SPAN. It has a relaxed, subdued tone that underlies the…
Jefferson: Nature Wants Information to Be Free
Since many have said that my view of copyright and patent law is childish and held merely because I grew…
Shorter Paul O’Neill
Fmr. Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill was on 60 Minutes tonight, along with the author of a new book which pieces…
Cat in the Hat: Harmful to Minors?
Louis Menand on the Dr. Suess’s Cat in the Hat: [T]his is a story about a woman who leaves two…
Counterpoint: Downloading Isn’t Stealing
The New York Times Upfront asked me to contribute a short piece to a point/counterpoint they were having on downloading….
Apple’s Secret Strategy: TV for Everyone
What’s the unifying theme behind Apple’s diverse product offerings? I’ve finally figured it out: They want to let everyone make…
Unspeakable Things
Paul Graham has written a fascinating article on What You Can’t Say — those ideas which are so heretical that…
Is it moral to plead the Fifth?
Hypothetical: Let’s say you’ve committed a crime and, for whatever reason, don’t want to be convicted for it. (Maybe you…
Plea for Help
So it’s a new year, and I’m wondering what to do. Sure, I’ve got projects I want to work on,…
Aaron Swartz (me@aaronsw.com)