Rational Argument

Circumcision helps prevent HIV infection. Why would AIDS-ravaged San Francisco even think of banning this proven, safe procedure?

For the U.S. to have world-class high-speed trains, the government will have to subsidize them. The investment would be small compared to the billions lavished on highways and airports.

Claiming that our inbred propensity to war can be prevented by aggressively reducing the birth rate is a de facto declaration of war on the world's poor.

It's not insufficient schooling or a shortage of scientists. It's a lack of job opportunities. Americans need the reasonable hope that spending their youth preparing to do science will provide a satisfactory career.

When it comes to new treatment guidelines for breast cancer, back pain and other maladies, it's the narrative presentation that matters.

Armed with mobile phones and the Internet, trusted networks of family and friends spread the news of electoral fraud and escalating tensions in Iran, transfixing the world with photos and videos of demonstrations against the regime.

You don't always need a standardized test to know a school is in trouble. Just look in the boys' john.

Why it's time to minimize use of the LSAT in law school admissions.

Compromised crime laboratories are a national scandal that can't be set straight until the labs are independent of law enforcement.

Hyperbolic attack ads from advocacy groups have diminished the popular esteem of the U.S. Supreme Court in the past, so as the campaign to place Sonia Sotomayor fires up, a little restraint is in order.

It's not sexy enough to make a Grey's Anatomy episode, but better primary health care would save a lot of money — and lives.

Why a low-cost program to educate employees about company ownership could produce huge financial benefits for the country.

The route to a law that will help keep kids out of adult prisons.

How likely is it that you will receive treatment the medical literature says is best? Flip a coin. Evidence-based health care can improve those odds, save lives and cut health care costs dramatically.

How do we protect the markets from their own overexuberance? By signaling that future failures won't get government bailouts.

Only a fool would support expanded domestic exploration — offshore or elsewhere — under the Bush administration's dysfunctional energy policies. Here's how those policies need to change for America to responsibly find the energy it needs.

Authoritative research shows exactly how to fix public schools. What we need are leaders with the guts to put it into practice.

If we taxed corporations on the profit they report to shareholders, they'd lose the incentive to buy billion-dollar tax breaks from Congress.

How America can retake the high moral ground and defend against terrorism.