"A Summer Serenade." America's amazing ability to reinvent us all. National Journal, September 4, 1999
"Boys to Men: The Paradox of Identity and the Culture of Possibility." Gay culture grows up. Los Angeles Times Book Review, October 31, 1999
"Truth Believer." Review of Susan Haack's Manifesto of a Passionate Moderate. Reason, January 1999
"Sui Genocide." Why humans should extinguish themselves. The Economist, December 19, 1998
"Tunnel Vision." The dawn of microgovernment. National Journal, September 19, 1998
"Temperance Kills." Moderate drinking saves lives; why won't public-health folks say so? Slate.com, August 14, 1998
"Death by Mistake." How often do we execute innocents? A story of death and doubt in Florida. National Journal, May 30, 1998
"Guilty of Politics." With the Babbitt case, the ethics police can no longer tell politics from crime. National Journal, March 14, 1998
"Offices and Gentlemen." Speech police invade the workplace. The New Republic, June 23, 1997
"Robert Reich, Quote Doctor." A Washington memoirist puts words in people's mouths. Slate.com, May 30, 1997
"Blow It Up." A radical solution for America's campaign-finance problems. National Journal, March 29, 1997
"For Better or Worse?" The case for gay (and straight) marriage. The New Republic, May 6, 1996
"Short Guys Finish Last." The world's most enduring form of discrimination. The Economist, December 23, 1995
"In Defense of Prejudice." Why prejudice should not be stamped out. Harper's, May 1995
"Poisson: More Is More." Spurious science column: number inflation is destroying the integrity of our digits. The Economist, April 1, 1995
"What Nixon Wrought." In memoriam, the century's worst president. The New Republic, May 16, 1994
"Demosclerosis." Government is calcifying, and the process is not reversible. National Journal, September 5, 1992
"The Golden Fleece." Wool and mohair subsidies: why programs never die. National Journal, May 18, 1991
"Is the Deficit Really So Bad?" Yes, because it breaches a social covenant. The Atlantic, February 1989