EricHoefler.com

Let me get this straight …
When it comes to economics, the general position of the current Republican party seems to be this: if most of the money flow ends up going to the top 1 percent of the population, that’s good and evidence of a healthy “free market”; if some of the money flow ends [...]

I wanted to share a few resources that I’ve found helpful related to this debate in the hope that they will help others, regardless of their position. Before I do that, I want to briefly re-cap why I believe that we need health insurance reform.
Common Ground
From what I’ve seen so far, most rational, compassionate people [...]

First, I want to re-emphasize something: this debate is about health insurance reform, not health care reform … despite the sloppy language surrounding the issue. Therefore, any talk about “government take-over of health care” is off-base from the beginning. The only controversial thing being considered currently is the creation of a government-run public health insurance [...]

A friend of mine posted a link to an article about the public option in the health care debate, along with this comment: “Keep it up, America…this health care fiasco can still be defeated…there’s still hope of Obama having a one-term/Jimmy Carter Presidency, too…”
I’ve known that he opposes insurance reform for a while now, but [...]

Sean Carroll, writing for the Discover blog Cosmic Variance in a post called "The Grid of Disputation," makes an excellent point about cultural arguments and provides a helpful grid. Here is the most salient quote, for me:
If you want to play a constructive role in an ongoing cultural conversation, the sizable majority of your disputational [...]

This could also be titled: “The Post Where I Get Myself into Lots of Trouble”
So, I’m confused, but I am genuinely trying to understand. I hope that some people will bother to read this whole thing, trust that my intentions are what I say they are, and help me out by sharing their thoughts and [...]

Joss Whedon was recently honored with the Outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award in Cultural Humanism at Harvard University. Part of his acceptance speech is below (link).

If you know me, you know that I’ve been a long-time admirer of Whedon as a creator, thinker, and activist as well as a fan of his work, particularly Firefly/Serenity and [...]

His vision is inspiring, as is his message: "We will lose our economy right after we’ve lost our morality."

Cory Doctorow spoke at the O’Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing Conference1 recently and warned against allowing platforms to determine whether or not publishers would use DRM on digital works.
Ultimately, Doctorow argues against DRM altogether, and this speech is a concise and convincing presentation of that argument. His message for publishers in particular is that, [...]

Celtx has just released version 2.0.1. The 2.0 release added a number of features, including the Celtx Studios online component and the ability to add extensions. This latest version fixes a few bugs [release notes].

Celtx makes it easy to format scripts for screenplays, stage plays, AV scripts, audio plays, and even comic books. Big [...]

I’ve been reading Joseph Ellis’s Founding Brothers, a book that’s been on my shelf for a while, and I’m fascinated by the echoes between the struggles this nation faced in its early years and the ones it faces now.
In chapter one, Ellis explains that America was founded in the conflict between the opposing principles of [...]

If you don’t already know about the “#amazonfail” controversy that occurred over the weekend, these sources will get you caught up:

Neil Gaiman’s explanation of his involvement
Two possible explanations for the problem: thing one and thing two
Publisher’s Weekly summary and Amazon’s first official response

From these, it should also be clear why all of this matters: Amazon [...]