The 2016 election has been marked by contention and wild twists and turns. It has also been marked by a myriad of debates, in which candidates do their best to attack their opponents and set themselves apart from the pack. In this respect, these debates are not much different from the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates which
READ MOREAbout a decade ago I became interested in the Myers-Briggs personality test. For those unfamiliar, the test is essentially a psychological profile examination designed to categorize people into one of 16 distinct personality “types.” It takes about 10 minutes to complete. The test was created by Katharine Cook Briggs and her daughter Isabella Briggs Myers
READ MOREI admit it. I went online trying to find people spewing venom about Treasury Secretary Jack Lew’s decision to replace Andrew Jackson’s image on the $20 with that of Harriet Tubman. Alas, I’m having a hard time finding any. Oh, I’m sure there will be a few people that will find fault in the decision.
READ MOREIt’s an interesting phrase that we’ve all heard at one point or another in life, “Don’t you talk back to me!” Usually when we’re young and just starting to figure things out for ourselves, questioning everything and not accepting any answer without a deserved explanation as to why. Yes, it can get annoying dealing with
READ MOREWe tend to think of Victorian-era America as an oppressive environment for women—and in many ways it was. But it’s worth pointing out that during this period it was not unusual for governments to take great measures to protect the social position and respectability of women. In his book Crime and Punishment in American History,
READ MOREIn a recent Slate podcast, a caller posed the following question: “My question is about when professional athletes call the owner of the franchise Mr. (last name). It seems odd to me that grown men would call their boss Mr. Something when they could just call him by either his first name or his full
READ MOREAs you may have heard, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew just announced his decision to put Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill. Regardless of your view on the change, one has to admit that Tubman was a remarkable woman. Because Tubman could not read or write, her story was first officially recorded in 1869 by Sarah
READ MOREWhen it comes to an emphasis on the individual, Americans lead the pack. That’s according to a Pew Research report which compared American and European sentiments on various democratic principles. Interestingly, Alexis de Tocqueville described this same tendency toward individualism nearly 200 years ago in his work Democracy in America. Individualism, Tocqueville observed, is a
READ MOREIt seems no amount of time passes without a headline about some couple (usually believers in the free-range-parenting movement) getting arrested and having their children taken away for perceived neglect. The case of Danielle and Alexander Meitiv of Maryland received national media attention for an incident in December of 2014 in which they allowed their
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