The Week: Most Recent from Dana Liebelson

How UFO believers make our government more transparent

The Week — Thu, 16 May 2013 07:37:00 -0400

There is a group of people in America that may be more committed to prying documents from the government than just about anyone else: People who believe that Unidentified Flying Objects are real.

UFO believers have been dutifully trying to prove the existence of alien life forms for decades, largely by submitting countless Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. These requests are so exhaustive, they've actually spawned new laws for how government decides to give up its other (more mundane) secrets.

"There are individuals who file FOIA requests every single time a new report of a UFO comes...

7 states trying to gut sex ed and promote abstinence

The Week — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 07:56:00 -0400

Most teenagers attending public school in the United States take some kind of sexual education class. But that doesn't mean classes in Knoxville and New York City are going to have much of anything in common. In some states, the prevailing cultural norms are all about signing virginity pledges, wearing promise rings, and bringing fathers to purity balls. Elsewhere in America, schools teach students how to put condoms on bananas, identify sexually transmitted diseases, and explore same-sex relationships.

Indeed, the education that an American student receives is largely dependent on the whims of...

Why do so many states still have anti-sodomy laws?

The Week — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 11:33:00 -0400

A federal appeals court recently struck down Virginia's surviving sodomy law, which banned certain consensual sex acts for both gay and straight couples. Now, Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli is asking the court to hear the case again, a request that is drawing a strong backlash from the LGBT community.

Cuccinelli isn't the only lawmaker who supports legislating consensual sexual behavior: 13 other states have sodomy laws on the books. And even though the Supreme Court ruled a decade ago that such laws are an unconstitutional invasion of privacy, they are still...

Everything you need to know about commercial space travel

The Week — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 12:10:00 -0400

Looking at NASA's shrinking budget and retired shuttle fleet, it's tempting to think that America no longer has the cash to conquer the last great frontier. But in fact, U.S. companies are aggressively and successfully launching into private space travel — with NASA's blessing. The commercial company SpaceX successfully docked a cargo spacecraft on the International Space Station on March 3, and private passengers could be headed to full orbit as early as 2015.

Here's everything you need to know about the future of commercial space travel, with input from an MIT engineering professor...

4 signs that DOMA is doomed

The Week — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 07:34:00 -0500

With the Supreme Court deliberating on gay marriage for the very first time — through Proposition 8, an extremely high-profile case in California — it's easy to forget that the justices have another important task on their hands: Figuring out what to do with same-sex couples who are already wed.

It's been nearly two decades since Bill Clinton signed the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which prevents a married same-sex couple from receiving the same federal benefits as Mike and Leslie next door. Back when Clinton signed the controversial law, there wasn't a single married gay couple...

The growing undercover effort to get God into biology class

The Week — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 07:12:00 -0500

Imagine an American public school where science textbooks were obligated to debunk Charles Darwin; where students could deny global warming and still get an A, and where college professors could tell Biology 101 students that the world was born on the back of a giant turtle. Sounds a little backwards for 2013, right?

Frighteningly, these are all real scenarios that could occur under new education bills proposed this year. But the language in most of these bills is so obtuse that you might not even know if you live in one of the six states considering them (Montana, Colorado...

VIDEO: Meet your friendly neighborhood burrito-delivering, tiger-saving drones

The Week — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 11:50:00 -0500

Largely thanks to President Obama's controversial use of deadly drones to fight terrorism in foreign countries, unmanned aerial vehicles have quite a bad rap. Just last weekend, U.S. drones killed 17 people in Pakistan, and the president's nomination of John Brennan to head the CIA all but ensures that these stealth attacks will continue. But just because drone technology appears most often in the news as part of a lethal counter-terrorism strategy (or as a potential tool for the government to spy on you) doesn't mean you should run screaming in the other direction every time you hear the word...

4 weird effects of going over the fiscal cliff

The Week — Sun, 30 Dec 2012 16:30:00 -0500

On Friday, President Obama said he was "modestly optimistic" that the House and Senate will stop the U.S. economy from plummeting off the fiscal cliff. Failing that, Obama is asking Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to put forward a bill that will stop tax hikes on the middle class and protect extended unemployment benefits — "the bare minimum," as Obama puts it. But now negotiations are stalled, and it seems more and more likely that we'll plunge over the cliff.

Getting hit with billions in tax increases and spending cuts isn't the only bad news if Congress fails to broker some...

5 Americana bands that will help you believe in America again

The Week — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 06:19:00 -0500

After last week's tragic shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, you could be forgiven for wanting to give up on America. But as we take time to reflect over the holidays (or, as The Onion puts it, crawl into the fetal position under our desks), maybe it's time to put on some music that will make us feel okay about being Americans again.

These five Americana(ish) bands won't solve gun problems in the United States. But if their songs were broadcast across Capitol Hill, I'd wager it would take the gasoline out of the political firefight so Congress could come back after break and start tackling...