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Nike Boycott Over Kaepernick Ads Demonstrates Yearning for Patriotism 0
- September 5, 2018
The National Football League just can’t escape the ugly politics of 2018. One of the world’s largest sports apparel companies is now embracing the man who started it all, and fans aren’t happy about it. Nike is jumping in to champion Colin Kaepernick, the man who launched the now-frequent national anthem protests, and is making
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Is ‘Monkey This Up’ A Racial Slur?0
- Politics
- September 5, 2018
Activists are calling a gubernatorial candidate racist for using the term “monkey this up.” The press is spreading these charges while failing to reveal that others have used this phrase in the same way: as a synonym for “mess things up.” After winning the Republican primary for governor of Florida, Congressman Ron DeSantis was asked
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If Middle Eastern Nations Are Stabilizing, Then Why Do the Refugees Keep Coming?0
- Culture
- September 5, 2018
Over the past five years, a quiet humanitarian crisis has been erupting in South America. Beginning in 2009, but especially since 2015, almost four million people, or one in 10, have left Venezuela. Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro’s regime are behind this steady and sure collapse of the Venezuelan economy and society. Yet as criticism
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A Backward View: Older Books and the Culture of the Now 0
- Culture
- September 5, 2018
For almost twenty years, I have written book reviews for a weekly newspaper in Western North Carolina. In general, reviewers take an interest only in new books. This makes some sense, as older books have already received their accolades or their slings and arrows. A few critics—Nick Hornby in his collection of reviews Ten Years
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Why There’s So Much Inconsistency in School Shooting Data 0
- Education
- September 4, 2018
How many school shootings happen in the U.S. in a single school year? The answer is surprisingly hard to figure out. In April, the U.S. Department of Education released a report on the 2015-2016 school year, stating that “nearly 240 schools (0.2 percent of all schools) reported at least 1 incident involving a school-related shooting.”
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Mayor Suggests Fine-Free Libraries So ‘Everyone Can Afford to Check Out a Book’0
- Culture
- September 4, 2018
Early this spring I experienced something that has probably only happened to me once before: I had an overdue library book. Given that I was the girl in college who felt frantically behind on her homework if she wasn’t a week ahead in her assignments, this was a bit distressing. But, I gritted my teeth
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