Author: John Horner
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POINT/COUNTERPOINT: President Obama’s ‘Housing Bill of Rights’
LEFT: Think before we say ‘never’ By JOHN HORNER Before Julius Caesar was killed at the hands of his fellow senators, there was the murder of Tiberius. In Tiberius’ day, every Roman citizen who owned land had to serve in the army. Conscription could be long, so many soldiers had to leave their farms in…
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HORNER: Still the land of opportunity?
Since a certain presidential hopeful has brought it up, let’s ask: Is U.S. the land of opportunity? This is a tricky question because it depends not only upon how one measures “opportunity” and the cultural trends that affect that subtle sociological measure, but also upon our changing conception of opportunity. Sociologists track “opportunity” in terms…
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HORNER: The connection between basic science and application
My colleagues used to live in fear of William Proxmire. During the 1970s and ’80s, Sen. Proxmire (D-Wis.) would give his Golden Fleece Award to whatever government program he considered the most wasteful, and colleagues in my area of research — basic research in psychology — were frequent targets. To be fair, Proxmire targeted numerous…
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HORNER: Keeping politics out of politics
If you like political page turners, I recommend you download an Internet publication by my colleague, Robert Loevy, titled Confessions of a Reapportionment Commissioner — 2011. It isn’t as steamy as, say, Primary Colors, but if you want a tutorial on how politics in Colorado (or, indeed, anywhere in the U.S.) works in the 21st…
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HORNER: Two economic metaphors will faceoff during election year
Well, it is 2012 and depending on your persuasion it is either the end of the world or just another major election year. With all due respect to the Mayans, if 2012 is anything like last few years in terms of political rhetoric, it is going to be difficult to tell the difference. As the…
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HORNER: Horses have always captivated the imagination of mankind
If it takes 13 falls to make a horseman, I’m way over my limit. I’ve fallen off more horses than most people have probably been on. The last time I fell was off a big, 17-hand stallion. That was 35 years ago, and I haven’t been back on a horse since. My trouble with horses…
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HORNER: A party with no ideologies
I’ve been thinking about starting a political party. I’d call it the Pragmatic Party. I know it sounds like a rock band, but it really harkens back to the idea of pragmatism articulated by that quintessential American philosopher, William James. Put bluntly, pragmatism says that the test of an idea is in how it works.…
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HORNER: Being wrong is part of scientific investigation
It’s easy to see that science is a valuable tool for understanding our world. Most modern technological advancements are based upon scientific knowledge—the computer upon which I type this column and the internet over which I communicate it would not be possible without science. What is harder to understand is how science actually works to…
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HORNER: Conservative hearts bleed for the rich
This week, the Super Panel on debt reduction was supposed to release its recommendation for budget balancing in the hopes of sparing us another threatened default or governmental shutdown. Automatic across-the-board cuts will take place if Congress and the President fail to reduce the deficit. But already, Congressional Republicans are on record as opposing any…
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HORNER: Democracy works because we all feel part of a flawed process
In a little less than a year we will have gone through yet another election cycle. So now might be an opportune moment to stop and reflect on whether democracy actually works. I’m not asking a specific or temporal question about whether our particular brand of government and goofy Electoral College is still functional. I’ll…