Thomas Jefferson was one of the architects of the American system. He wrote the Declaration of Independence (with a tip of the hat to John Locke), helped shape the Constitution, and was a virtual wellspring of the ideas on which the foundation of the United States was laid. While his knowledge of history and government
READ MORELast fall, university president Dr. Everett Piper made headlines when he warned students that college was not intended to be a day care, but “a place where you will quickly learn that you need to grow up.” The realization that many of today’s university students have not grown up has caught on with the general
READ MORELast summer my family joined a CSA (short for Community Supported Agriculture). We buy a share of a farm’s output over the season, pay up front, and receive a box of fruits and vegetables every week throughout the spring, summer and early fall. Part of our share includes picking a certain amount of fruits and
READ MOREBy now you’ve likely seen the video of the Phillips brothers pranking their sister into thinking that the nation was under attack by zombies. As USA Today describes it: “After their younger sister Millicent had her wisdom teeth removed, brothers Cabot, Hudson and Barrett Phillips convinced her that a zombie outbreak had hit their city.
READ MORE“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,
READ MOREIt’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
READ MOREThe 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
READ MOREFor 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
READ MORE1) “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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