Mark Olmsted

When I came up with the idea of a "low self-esteem engine" I wasn't even thinking of anyone in particular, I just thought it made for a funny pun.  But Rick Santorum does strike me as coming basically from the Eric Cantor school of former nerds. The 98-pound weakling who...

Much has been made of whether "the right to privacy" is in the Constitution. It's not, explicitly. Who cares? When is America going to stop fetishizing a document written by rich white men 230 years ago who owned slaves and didn't think woman were worthy of the vote?

Of course...

The Mayor Confronts the Protestors

We are both horrified and appreciative of Mayor Bloomberg's clearing of Zuccotti Park. Here at the New York Times, we are most comfortable being uncomfortable: our editorial page lives in that milquetoast wishy-washy place of mild liberalism, somewhat like the guest at a Manhattan dinner...

Hank WIlliams Jr. gets a chance to show he's not afraid to play golf with an Italian-American, at Rick Perry's private golf course, "Neck Red."

Mitch McConnell lied.

The biggest priority of the men who pull the strings of the Republican party is not to make Obama a "one-term President." It is to guarantee precisely the opposite.

This of what the Republicans have accomplished in the last four years, and what it means for the...

The president is about to fall into a trap.

The Republicans know that if they reject all of the president's coming proposals, it could backfire. Being perceived as completely unwilling to pass any jobs legislation could run the risk of their being run out of office in November.

What...

Warren Buffett made a persuasive case yesterday in the New York Times for raising taxes on the rich. His suggestion prompts this one from me: why don't the rich who agree with him go ahead and voluntarily pay more taxes?

Buffett says he paid almost $7,000,000 in income...

We moved to the house on West Richie Parkway just before the assassination of JFK, which was one of my very first memories. (I was a year younger than Caroline, who was the age of my sister Sandra.). I remember my parents transfixed by the television, my mother in tears...

I, for one, think the what's happening in England is a preview of what's going to be happening here. You can't ask millions of your citizens who grew up with one set of expectations about the future to adjust to a new set of far lower expectations without some major...

Hooray for Dan Savage. In a long profile in the New York Times magazine he challenges the assumption that his commitment to his husband is a commitment to monogamy. It turns out (like the majority of gay men I know in long-term relationships) he has an agreement with...

We all have belief systems -- religious, political, spiritual. Up to a certain point, they provide an indispensable architecture that allows us to operate in the world. Past a certain point, they function as cataracts, narrowing our worldview into an increasingly constricted tunnel vision. Instead of a ramshackle Victorian full...

Let's imagine Republicans got every single thing they wanted. What exactly, does the society they hope to create look like? What is their vision of an American utopia?

Clearly, they want a system that compensates risk-takers and "job-creators" even if it also rewards those who inherit or speculate their...

When I speak to groups of recovering addicts I start with this: "The disease of addiction is like a parasite that can access every part of your brain. That means it can match you physiologically, mentally, and emotionally. That's why when it's just you against the disease, you have at...

I watch a lot of news, and one thing that strikes me is how rarely the pundits attempt to factor in the unexpected. And yet we know from the past that what we fail to see coming invariably determines what ends up happening after. A few examples of huge game-changers...

So this is how things are:

People work. They get paid. They put their money in banks. These are called deposits.

Other people manage the money of the bank. These are called bankers. They pay themselves very well. They tend to think of the money as belonging to the bank,...

Anthony Weiner is not a pig. Anthony Weiner is a perfectly healthy and fairly typical man.

Men have evolved over millions of years to put their sperm in as many welcoming receptacles as possible. It is the smartest move for us genetically; that why male promiscuity is natural in the...

It's happened to everyone, and most of us are guilty of it as well: insincerity. The friend you'll call "next week" when you know you won't; the potential employer who insists "we'll be in touch" and isn't; the romantic liaison whose number you take knowing you'll never use it. If...

Oh Republicans. You can be so dumb.

None of the candidates for President seem to get it. The reason there was such a Trump bump is not because of any of his policy proposals, but because of the directness of his delivery. This is why Chris Christie is so popular....

How appropriate that our national pastime should be the perfect metaphor for how economic times have changed.

The American dream is based on the expectation that you will move from one base to another in a lifetime. If you start off working poor (1st base), you will at least...