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Ezra Klein

Being alone can kill you, even if you like it

Last updated Wednesday, April 10, 2013 - 9:58am

Feeling lonely won’t kill you. Actually being alone might.

A new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences finds that after adjusting for demographic factors and underlying health, self-reported feelings of lonesomeness have no significant connection to mortality among the elderly, but actual social isolation increases the likelihood of death by a stunning 26 percent.

Public-health researchers have long known there’s a connection between loneliness, social isolation and mortality. What they didn’t know was whether loneliness was the emotional mechanism through which actually being alone affected health, or whether the feelings of loneliness and the effects of social isolation were somehow independent.

Depression, Health, Mental Health, Solitude, Well-being Read more Comments

Chalk up another loss for filibuster reform

Ezra Klein The Washington Post

Last updated Friday, January 25, 2013 - 12:26pm

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell have come to a deal on filibuster reform. The deal is this: The filibuster will not be reformed. But the way the Senate moves to consider new legislation and most nominees will be.

Opinion, Column, National Commentary Read more Comments

In this July 23, 2012 file photo, James E. Holmes appears in Arapahoe County District Court in Centennial, Colo. Holmes was being held on suspicion of first-degree murder, and facing additional counts of aggravated assault and weapons violations stemming from a mass shooting in a movie theater in Aurora, Colo., that killed 12 and injured dozens of others. (AP Photo/Denver Post, RJ Sangosti, Pool, File)

A dozen facts about mass shootings in the U.S.

Ezra Klein The Washington Post

Last updated Friday, December 14, 2012 - 5:51pm

WASHINGTON - When we first collected much of this data, it was after the Aurora, Colo., shootings in July, and the air was thick with calls to avoid “politicizing” the tragedy. That is code, essentially, for “don’t talk about reforming our gun control laws.”

Opinion, Crime, Guns, School shooting Read more Comments

Watch debate with sound off to see who's winning

Ezra Klein The Washington Post

Last updated Monday, October 15, 2012 - 2:37pm

WASHINGTON - As with last week’s vice presidential debate, the public and pundits alike registered snap judgments about the first presidential debate. It’s conventional wisdom that the best way to see who’s winning a debate is to watch with the sound off. That way you can focus on body language, physical comfort and the intangibles that supposedly decide who triumphed.

Debate, National Read more Comments

Is a flawed health care reform bill better than no bill at all?

Ezra Klein The Washington Post

Last updated Tuesday, November 10, 2009 - 5:21pm

Marcia Angell, a single-payer supporter and former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine, says she doesn't believe the House health-care reform bill is better than nothing. Instead, she writes in the Huffington Post, it "throws more money into a dysfunctional and unsustainable system, with only a few improvements at the edges, and it augments the central role of the investor-owned insurance industry." The fact that we need to do something does not mean we need to do this. "I would rather see us do nothing now," Angell concludes, "and have a better chance of trying again later and then doing it right."

Opinion, Column, National Commentary Read more Comments