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Notes of an American Pessimist
- Culture, Featured, Philosophy, Politics, Western Civilization
- March 13, 2026






A common chorus of if/then statements dominates most contemporary discussions of education reform: If schools had more money, then they would do better at educating kids. If teachers were paid more money, then they would do better at educating kids. If there were more taxpayer support for traditional public schools, then we would have better
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When I hear the phrase “book ban,” the image that comes to mind is something straight out of “Fahrenheit 451” – books torn from private residences, doused in kerosene, and thrown onto a blazing funeral pyre of intellectual tradition, removing all certainty that such works ever existed. Yet when American media uses the phrase “book
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I recently had dinner with two friends, both of whom are successful attorneys involved in Republican politics. Conversation turned to the presidency of George W. Bush. When I mildly pooh-poohed the president’s record on spending, I was brought to task. “W had the best record on discretionary spending of any president since Nixon,” my friend
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If someone told you that public high schools have taken people with political and social power and brought them together, to the exclusion of other people, would you celebrate those schools? Probably not. But that is essentially what a new Atlantic article does in extolling public high schools and attacking school choice. The piece, by English professor Amy Lueck,
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Psychopaths have long captured the imagination. The names of famous psychopaths, such as Jeffrey Dahmer and Ted Bundy, evoke a morbid curiosity. The crimes committed by these men are so vicious, so unfathomably cruel, that it’s impossible to imagine how someone could do such a thing. The severed heads kept as mementos in Bundy’s apartment
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Looking for something to binge-watch while you’re hunkering down at home? Consider checking out the popular TV show “The Good Place.” Over four recently concluded seasons, the series follows the adventures and mishaps of four utterly self-centered characters on their quest to become decent and selfless human beings. The deeper question this philosophy-laced comedy raises
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