“Kleptocracy” means “rule by thieves”. People have been complaining for millennia that such is what their government is. How common is such rule? And if it’s that common, can much be done about it? In his classic book The City of God, St. Augustine lamented that the Roman Empire, having been built by force and fraud,
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It’s difficult not to feel a degree of sympathy for those arrested at the “Democracy Spring” demonstration on Capitol Hill. They are, after all, highlighting the gross injustice at the heart of our present political and economic system. Take, for example, the fact that, between 2007 and 2012, the two hundred most politically active corporations
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The Washington Post ran a blaring headline last week: IS PORN IMMORAL? THAT DOESN’T MATTER: IT’S A PUBLIC HEALTH CRISIS. Gail Dines, a professor of sociology at Boston’s Wheelock College, said the science is settled: After 40 years of peer-reviewed research, scholars can say with confidence that porn is an industrial product that shapes how
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For years the people in my neighborhood expressed a reserved politeness toward one another. But last year, that politeness exploded into downright camaraderie. The reason? The city council decided to railroad a project through that the young and old, rich and poor, liberal and conservative commonly despise. P.S. A common enemy unites even the oldest
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1) “If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy. If it were merely challenging, that would be no problem. But I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve (or save) the world and a desire to enjoy (or savor) the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.” 2)
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Skepticism vs. cynicism: the modern day quest for certainty. Cynics are those who distrust most information they hear or see, and even more so when the information challenges their own system of beliefs. Because of this they tend to be intolerant of other people’s ideas. Skepticism, by comparison, is a key part of the critical
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