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Can the Virtue of Simple Living be Rediscoverd in a Postmodern World?0
- Culture
- November 29, 2016
The good life is the simple life. Among philosophical ideas about how we should live, this one is a hardy perennial; from Socrates to Thoreau, from the Buddha to Wendell Berry, thinkers have been peddling it for more than two millennia. And it still has plenty of adherents. Magazines such as Real Simple call out
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Christians Face Surge of Intolerance, Discrimination 0
- Culture
- November 29, 2016
In 2011, I served as Representative of the OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) for combating racism, xenophobia, and intolerance and discrimination against Christians and members of other religions. There were two other representatives for combating anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. “Other religions” meant all religions other than Judaism and Islam.The OSCE is the largest
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Wealthy Designers Refuse Service to Melania Trump 0
- Culture
- November 29, 2016
People magazine recently reported news that a number of prominent fashion designers have refused to work with Melania Trump because they do not approve of her, or more likely, her husband’s politics and language. Given Donald Trump’s often offensive way of speaking about, well, almost everything, that is understandable. Thus, they conclude, if you design
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Journalist Cites Bogus Climate Stat in Speech on ‘Fake News’0
- Politics
- November 29, 2016
At a recent awards ceremony, CNN’s Christiane Amanpour denounced what she described as a “tsunami of fake news, aka lies” that occurred during the 2016 U.S. presidential election cycle. Amanpour, a British-Iranian journalist and former host of ABC’s This Week, made the remarks during a speech she gave after receiving the Burton Benjamin Memorial
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Louisa May Alcott’s Insightful Advice for Young Women 0
- Culture
- November 29, 2016
Google’s Doodle greeted me this morning with the reminder that November 29th is Louisa May Alcott’s birthday. Alcott, the famed author from the late 1800s, was a bit of a mover and shaker in society, particularly in her roles as an abolitionist and feminist. Yet Ms. Alcott’s feminism wasn’t quite the categorization we consider it
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Is it Time to Give Teachers More Autonomy in the Classroom?0
- Education
- November 29, 2016
In a recent article for The Atlantic, author and teacher Timothy Walker ponders the question of what happens when Finnish teachers are placed in American classrooms. Long the poster child of modern western education success stories, the Finnish education system attributes part of its success to more recess and greater teacher autonomy. It is this
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