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Countdown: Our Most Read Stories of 2016 (50-26)0
- Culture
- December 29, 2016
The end of another year is always a great opportunity to look back and reflect. But as many have already noted, 2016 is not the happiest year to look back and reflect upon. In spite of the year’s challenges, we at Intellectual Takeout are thankful for the opportunities we had to discuss the ideas and
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NPR: Gun Homicides in Chicago Reach ‘Startling Number’0
- Culture
- December 29, 2016
Demarco Webster Jr. didn’t like going outdoors, his father said. Sadly, it’s not hard to see why. In October, the 14-year-old was gunned down while trying to help his father, who was moving, tie a mattress onto a vehicle. Webster was one of more than 700 homicides in Chicago this year, NPR reported Wednesday,
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America’s Corrupt Aristocracy 0
- Culture
- December 29, 2016
After the deaths of George Michael and Carrie Fisher, a Daily Beast headline declared, “We have lost our Prince and Princess.” It is a declaration that says a lot about our culture. The first thing to take note of about such a headline is that it indicates that these two celebrities were seen as members of some
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Shakespeare the Scapegoat: Sacrificing the Bard on an Altar of Ignorance 0
- Culture
- December 29, 2016
In the aftermath of Trump’s shocking victory, the English Department at the Ivy League University of Pennsylvania called a meeting of its students to discuss the election. This might seem a little odd in itself. What, one wonders, has the election to do with the studying of literature at college? One might see how the
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Why I Rent a Tiny Apartment Rather than Buy a Big Home 0
- Culture
- December 28, 2016
For one hundred plus years, Americans have been told that owning a home embodies the ideal, an essential life goal. After the housing crash of 2008, that unquestioned ideal is no more. What precisely is wrong with renting? And what is wrong with renting something small? These days, I live in Atlanta, Georgia. A few
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The Reason Barack Obama Failed 0
- Economics
- December 28, 2016
No presidency in my lifetime was greeted with such enthusiasm and unhinged hope as that of Barack Obama. At the start of his first term, a cult-like following had already developed among the intellectual and media elite. It was the dawn of a new age, marked by exuberant anticipation of justice, fairness, equality, peace, and
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