"Is being gay a choice?" Why the question matters

The reason that it matters whether or not homosexuality is a choice is because of the homosexual recruitment myth. If you believe people can choose to be gay, you believe people can be recruited into homosexuality. From that belief, it's only a short step to believing that homosexuals do recruit people into homosexuality.

Check how much anti-gay rhetoric either implicitly or explicitly rests on the assumption that homosexuality is something that is taught to people, children in particular. The worst of it even goes so far as to claim that this teaching is intentional on the part of the "homosexual agenda".

A bad prediction from the dot-com bust

I'm reading some historical research on the growth of new media. In the wake of the dot-com bust in 2000, critics of the more grandiose claims made about the Internet got a lot more prominent. A financial writer for the New Yorker, one John Cassidy, had this to say not long after the crash:
"[the Internet} was not a disruptive technology that would destroy any company locked into the old way of doing things, such as selling books in stores, printing news on paper, or using people to sell stocks. The bookstores, newspaper companies, and brokerage houses are still in business, and most of them are doing fine"

Given what's happened to all three of those industries in recent times, I find this amusing.