“Future Shock vs. Rationalia” by Todd Seavey on SpliceToday

Despite the endless temptation people from Alvin Toffler and Newt Gingrich to Neil deGrasse Tyson and Alex Jones feel to predict the future, political pundits should probably avoid that game, I write in today’s column.

“The Great Space Racism” by Todd Seavey on SpliceToday

From Star Trek’s Khan to Buck Rogers’ Kane to the Simpsons’ Kang, a lineage of racism has given us some fine science fiction, as I explain in today’s column.

“Spock Is Evil: He Killed Two Star Trek Worlds” by Todd Seavey on SpliceToday

There is only one way to make sense of what J.J. Abrams did to the original Star Trek timeline and what he did to the “Kelvin timeline” from the current films: As I explain in today’s column, it really was all part of Spock’s evil plan.

“Independence Day: Revisions” by Todd Seavey on SpliceToday

The pattern I’ve noted of Roland Emmerich’s film projects warning us that space aliens may be tied to climate change continues, even in a little bit of the spectacular-yet-slightly-bland Independence Day: Resurgence, as I write in today’s column.

“Brexit Until You Wrecks It” by Todd Seavey on SpliceToday

Prior to my final week of daily columns on SpliceToday, I pause to write a celebration of Brexit.

“Network of Empaths” by Todd Seavey on SpliceToday

We would do well to stop denying the fact that the sociopaths and jerks tend to get on top in politics, media, business, and social life -- but in the long run, empaths may have a built-in advantage, I write.

“Doomed Gatekeepers” by Todd Seavey on SpliceToday

For all its flaws, the twenty-first century is clearly an era in which no small handful of celebrities, politicians, or moguls can hope to maintain its monopoly on power for long, thank goodness, as I write in today’s column, optimistic even as new details on Michael Jackson’s crimes and politicians’ lies come to light.

“Wrong from the Beginning” by Todd Seavey on SpliceToday

I find that unlike conservatives and liberals, who usually started out that way, nearly every libertarian has an origin story, as I say in today’s column.

“Don't Burn It All Down” by Todd Seavey on SpliceToday

From psycho gunmen to Trump fans and the alt-right, we are surrounded by nihilists, I fear in today’s column.

“Bourne to Lose, Destined to Fail” by Todd Seavey on SpliceToday

More government, clamor the frightened masses when things like Orlando happen, but arming yourself and running away from the government -- the way Jason Bourne does -- is probably the more rational course of action, you must at some point admit, as I suggest in today’s column.

“Goofballs and Their Media” by Todd Seavey on SpliceToday

People will say dumb things, whether it’s Gersh Kuntzman fearing the experience of firing an AR-15 or NPR being baffled about why Venezuela’s economy is dying, but in today’s column I say I still prefer stupid squabbling to the impulse to censor.

“Bernie Sanders Would Sell Well” by Todd Seavey on SpliceToday

In today’s column, I note that Bernie Sanders would fare better in the diverse world of the marketplace, given all the supporters he has, than he will in the winner-take-all nasty world of democratic politics that he irrationally promotes.

“More Trans Than Transhuman” by Todd Seavey on SpliceToday

I’ve been saying for a decade on this blog that the final battle may be between jihadists and transgender cyborgs, and I revisit that notion in today’s column in the wake of Orlando.

“Some Johnson in Your Mitt” by Todd Seavey on SpliceToday

If there must be an establishment -- and there will be one of some sort or another -- and it looks anything like Mitt Romney, I say in today’s column: be pleased by the strategic opportunity presented if he and others like him vote for Gary Johnson.

DC Comics’ New 52 and Rebirth: A Corporate Theory

For what it's worth, one disturbingly simple way to explain half the strange DC Comics Universe events of the past five years might be to assume that harried comics writer Geoff Johns was told by a studio exec, "We want to have a Wonder Woman reveal in the movie, prefigured in the comics, about one of her relatives being evil. Just make it so that her father is an evil god or the evil New God or one of the evil New Gods or that she has an evil sister or an evil duplicate from Themyscira or an evil duplicate from another universe or an evil daughter from another universe or an evil brother or her duplicate from the other universe has an evil son or her duplicate from Themyscira has an evil son or the son is the evil New God or the son is Luthor's child or is a duplicate of Luthor."

To which Johns said, "Uhhh."

And the executive said, "You have to do all that."

And they did. They actually, literally did. All of it. All the rest may be mere side effects.

And then Johns went insane, like Chinese scholars asked to adhere to contradictory edicts during the Cultural Revolution. And later, when there was a tiny shift in the corporate power structure, he decided to kill several characters and depict two of director Zack Snyder's favorite characters as cruel gods toying with the cosmos.

“Separating Hitchens Frum Taunton” by Todd Seavey on SpliceToday

Give religion an inch, I write in today’s column, it takes your brain.

“Utopia 500 vs. Dada 100” by Todd Seavey on SpliceToday

With the Armory a few blocks from me filled with films of people defecating and vomiting in the name of art right now, it is an apt time to mark the 500th anniversary of the novel Utopia and the 100th anniversary of the Dadaist art movement, as I do in today’s column.

“Economies of Scale” by Todd Seavey on SpliceToday

I note in today’s column (in which I link Reason’s interview with me) that John Tamny’s new book Who Needs the Fed? concludes the institution’s not only useless but arguably already largely irrelevant.

“Anarconfusion” by Todd Seavey on SpliceToday

In today’s column, I worry that a label like anarchist + transhumanist + primitivist may just = nuts.

“Feminism: Apocalypse” by Todd Seavey on SpliceToday

I lament in today’s column that the addled Rose McGowan has launched a feminist attack on X-Men: Apocalypse over a poster of a villain attacking Jennifer Lawrence.

“Milo Paradoxes” by Todd Seavey on SpliceToday

How fans of Milo Yiannopoulos and authoritarian Donald Trump can find such figures more libertarian than actual Libertarians is beyond me, I admit in today’s column.

“Absolute Beginners: Radicalism, from Bowie to broadsides” by Todd Seavey on SpliceToday

A new book describes the late Bowie as a proto-libertarian, and I can’t help seeing that as fitting into my own odd worldview, of course, as I write in today’s column.

“The French Revolution: Kristol picks a presidential candidate” by Todd Seavey on SpliceToday

The real winner in Bill Kristol’s decision to back David French of National Review for president is plainly Libertarian Gary Johnson, I write.