Kind: Reads

Murder rates didn’t soar only in cities during the pandemic. Homicide rates in rural America rose 25% in 2020, the largest rural increase since the CDC began tracking such data in 1999. Small-town sheriffs and prosecutors are overwhelmed with homicide cases.

The chorus of technologists who believe AI models may not be far off from achieving consciousness is getting bolder.

An assassination attempt against Brett Kavanaugh reveals the price of American vitriol

It was a criminal conspiracy

A hot-headed coder is accused of exposing the agency’s hacking arsenal. Did he betray his country because he was pissed off at his colleagues? Patrick Radden Keefe reports on the investigation.

Conservatism and libertarianism are incompatible because they aim at fundamentally divergent political ends.

The limitations of preparedness.

David McCormick loses to Dr. Oz as the donor class’s post-Trump pivot fails.

As American gun culture moves from defense to defiance, it puts our democracy at risk.

Too often the case against common-sense gun reforms rests on outdated claims and mistaken arguments.