When the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a Washington D.C. gun ban was unconstitutional, that was surprising. Less surprising is a Chicago man challenging the court to take the ruling (D.C. vs. Heller), which applies to federal territories, and expand it to cover all states and cities. On the surface, the issue is about the Second Amendment right to own a gun. The discussion has been fierce by both gun-rights and gun-control advocates. But there’s a suspicious equivocation going on, one that clouds the philosophical heart of the matter, between defense and gun ownership.

In light of the outpouring of support towards victims of the earthquakes in Haiti and Chile, it is comforting to consider the human capacity for compassion and generosity. But if you’ll forgive the narcissism that comes with me quoting myself, compassion is only as meaningful as its consistent practice. Whether it’s Johnny Weir and his fox fur or the GOP filibustering a bill that would extend unemployment benefits to the jobless, that silver lining in the human condition comes with a cloud. After finally watching that most excellent documentary The Cove, the cloud is surely an angry black thing with thunder and lighting aplenty.

I love manifestos — sleek, sometimes sexy statements of principles that distill fuel for a philosophical treatise into something that goes down smooth — neat, without rocks. In an age of verbosity and endless information delivered across multiple media, we certainly need manifestos to lay down the foundation.

We repeatedly hear from Republicans and libertarians about “free markets.” Despite the deregulation ushered in by Reagan and continued through Bush 1, Clinton, and Bush 2 — and what is deregulation if not a “freeing” of markets? — the catastrophic near-failure of the economy hasn’t been enough to get rid of the more virulent strains of this ideology. But what happens when market challenges are confused with political challenges?