Whet Moser

Giant teddy bears, giant dolls, and other ways of expressing seventeen million dollars worth of Christmas goodies in terrifyingly nightmarish fashion. Read more

John Boehner's Plan B to avert the fiscal cliff got nixed by his own party raising the question of what, if anything, he could get the members he leads to agree to. He could also try to swing some Democrats his way—but that would violate the edict established by his predecessor, Dennis Hastert, which Boehner has made, at his peril, even stronger. Read more

Are fewer people being killed in America because there's less violence, or because we're better at saving the wounded? It's really, really hard to say, because we're much better at measuring death than life. Read more

In the wake of unimaginable tragedy, we often think that it's beyond explanation. But what if we could use reason not just to explain it, but to attack its underlying causes? Research into psychopathy at the University of Wisconsin—the result of unprecedented access to the state's incarcerated population—is giving us insight into the psychopathic mind, and early but promising strategies to deal with it, and perhaps heal it. Read more

In the wake of the Winnetka school shootings, people from all over pushed legendary columnist Mike Royko to continue his decades-long crusade for gun control, but at that point even the tough writer was worn out by the NRA. Read more

Since 2000, the Democratic Party has essentially dropped gun control as an issue, at least on the national level, in fear of the NRA. But are they actually afraid of the NRA, or just their own misinterpretation of the data and the politics? Read more