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John Leo is a columnist and editor of MindingTheCampus.com and a former contributing editor at U.S. News and World Report.
Mr. Leo is a former associate editor fo Commonwealth magazine, a former book editor of the sociology magazine Society, and a former deputy commissioner of New York City's Environmental Protection Administration.
He launched the "Press Clips" column in The Village Voice.
His popular "Ralph & Wanda" dialogues -- imaginary conversations between a liberal feminist and her conservative masculinist husband -- began in Time magazine and later were featured in McCall's. Many of them are included in his book of humor How the Russians Invented Baseball and Other Essays of Enlightenment (1989).
He lives with his wife and daughter in Manhattan
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John Leo (Aug 13, 2006)
This is a farewell column. After 18 years of punditry, it's time to work on other projects, including a book.
Now that I'm leaving, I should acknowledge that writing a... more
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John Leo (Aug 07, 2006)
Remember when the city of Berkeley, Calif., declared itself a "nuclear-free zone"? Cynics snickered, but the plain fact is that no nuclear weapon has gone off in... more
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John Leo (Jul 31, 2006)
Just when you think the debate over embryonic stem cells can't get any more degraded, an outfit called the Campaign to Defend the Constitution comes along and proves you... more
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John Leo (Jul 17, 2006)
Brittany McComb's microphone went dead at her high school commencement because school officials thought she was talking too much about religion. This was during her... more
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John Leo (Jul 09, 2006)
Another baseball season has reached its midpoint, the All-Star break. This means it is surely time for all Americans to cast aside normal English and spend the week talking... more
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John Leo (Jul 03, 2006)
How do you get your opinions on Page One of The Washington Post? Do you phone the editor and say, "Here's what I think ..." No. You type up your thoughts and label... more
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John Leo (Jun 26, 2006)
The South was once famous for "massive resistance." Now officeholders and civic leaders of the North and West are in the game too, this time to push... more
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John Leo (Jun 18, 2006)
The governor of Maryland fired one of his appointees to the Washington Metro transit authority board for stating a negative opinion of homosexuality on a cable TV talk show.... more
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John Leo (Jun 11, 2006)
Writing in Rolling Stone, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. assures us that the 2004 presidential election was stolen. This popular conspiracy theory has attracted many Democrats, from... more
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John Leo (Jun 04, 2006)
Peter Beinart thinks the left needs more anti-totalitarian liberals like Harry Truman and Scoop Jackson, and fewer anti-imperialist liberals (think moveon.org, Michael Moore... more
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John Leo (May 30, 2006)
Many people believe that the American Civil Liberties Union no longer cares much about free-speech cases. Now, the organization is thinking of curbing the speech of its own... more
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John Leo (May 21, 2006)
Sen. John McCain had a rough week in New York City, facing protesters who resented his speeches at Columbia University's Class Day and the New School for Social Research... more
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John Leo (May 14, 2006)
Tom Hanks thinks Christians shouldn't become irate about "The Da Vinci Code." He says it's just a story, "loaded with all sorts of hooey and fun kind of... more
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John Leo (May 08, 2006)
One of the bloggers suggests that 2006 may be the year of the Lou Dobbs voter. The blogger, the Influence Peddler, is no fan. He considers Dobbs a demagogue, but he wonders... more
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John Leo (May 01, 2006)
It's time for this column to announce its Sheldon Award, given annually to the university president who does the most to look the other way when free speech is under assault... more
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John Leo (Apr 23, 2006)
Last week was a tough one for Stephen Reinhardt, the most liberal judge on the most liberal federal circuit (9th). The Supreme Court agreed to hear the state of California's... more
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John Leo (Apr 17, 2006)
In a surprising editorial, The Washington Post deviated from the conventional anti-Bush media position on two counts. It said President Bush was right to declassify parts of... more
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John Leo (Apr 10, 2006)
Mr. Answer Man, why is it that many people don't like the idea of Katie Couric becoming the new Dan Rather? Is it because, after all those father figures, it's jarring to get... more
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John Leo (Apr 03, 2006)
In his 1995 book "The Revolt of the Elites and the Betrayal of Democracy," the late Christopher Lasch argued that America's political and cultural elites had opened... more
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John Leo (Mar 26, 2006)
The controversy over gay adoptions in Massachusetts is an issue that can be framed two ways. In the conventional liberal narrative, this is a simple issue of bias: The... more
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John Leo (Mar 19, 2006)
Like many news junkies, I’ve noticed that stories putting Muslims in a bad light tend to be sketchy and underreported. A minor example is the comment - “the... more
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John Leo (Mar 13, 2006)
Rachel Corrie, a young American woman accidentally flattened by an Israeli bulldozer during a protest in Gaza three years ago, is a hero to Palestinians and the... more
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John Leo (Mar 05, 2006)
Law professor Eugene Volokh calls it “censorship envy.” Muslims in Europe want the same sort of censorship that many nations now offer to other aggrieved groups.... more
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John Leo (Feb 27, 2006)
“Hull loss,” a term used by the airlines, means a plane crash in ordinary English. “A pluralistic plan” is a hiring quota and “semantic... more
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John Leo (Feb 20, 2006)
Mickey Kaus at Kausfiles.com says that the gay-cowboy movie Brokeback Mountain has the same marketing strategy as Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11. Both, he says, have been... more
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John Leo (Feb 12, 2006)
Is the biggest issue in the cartoon controversy free expression, sensitivity or fear? One vote here for none of the above. The key question may be this: Are Muslims in... more
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John Leo (Feb 06, 2006)
One of the first things I wrote after getting this job as a columnist was a defense of Muslim sensibilities in the Salman Rushdie case. That was in 1989. Rushdie, already a... more
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John Leo (Jan 30, 2006)
Liberals wage many battles, but have you heard which one is the major struggle now? Brace yourselves; it’s the campaign “against the established media and... more
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John Leo (Jan 23, 2006)
Of course Oprah took the side of veracity-challenged author James Frey, author of “A Million Little Pieces. She is in the feelings business, and you don’t succeed... more
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John Leo (Jan 16, 2006)
Consider the narrative line for Samuel Alito’s life. It’s perfect. He comes from a white ethnic community that valued family, tradition, patriotism and the... more
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John Leo (Jan 09, 2006)
Did New Orleans blacks die at a higher rate than whites in the wake of Hurricane Katrina? On the evidence so far, the answer is no. Of the 1,100 bodies recovered in Louisiana... more