Long before the world learned of fascism in the 1920s and 1930s, countries controlled their borders. They did so in different ways, but ultimately it was to protect their own national interests, including their economic strength, culture, ethnicity, religion, security, etc. When it comes to the term ‘fascism’, George Orwell’s comments about the word’s use
READ MOREBy now you’ve probably had enough time to digest the news from the 2016 Iowa caucuses. From here until New Hampshire, the pundits will be offering their deep insights while the partisans will be attempting to read the tea leaves in favor of their candidates. As we look back at the 2008 campaign season, it’s
READ MOREIn his book The Enemies of Reason, scientist Richard Dawkins proudly proclaimed, “Science replaces private prejudice with publicly verifiable evidence.” His sentiment expresses the modern intellectual ideal of reasoning freed from the trappings of any prejudices or biases. The problem is: no such thing exists. The word “prejudice” literally means to have judged something beforehand. Prejudices
READ MOREBritish scientists are leading the way into a murky future of genetically-modified human beings. The Seattle Times reports that Britain has allowed its scientists to begin altering the DNA of human embryos. Scientists will be conducting “gene-editing experiments” on embryos. Gene editing involves repairing or replacing certain parts of the genetic code in a “biological
READ MOREEvery week we get requests from readers to share something with the audience or to ask the audience a question. Depending on the material or the question, occasionally we’ll act on it. If we don’t, it doesn’t mean we won’t, we’re probably just behind in our writing. Shortly after we shared stories about Martin Luther
READ MOREA number of years ago when I first started college, I sheepishly broached my English professor with a thesis for my freshman research paper: the revival of one-room schools in America. Her wholehearted approval and my subsequent research brought the realization that such an idea wasn’t as far-fetched as I’d first thought. Apparently, others in
READ MOREGetting kids to clean up after themselves is a rather unpleasant, ongoing struggle for many parents today. If one’s kids are messy, it’s typically assumed that it’s because of a lack of parental will, i.e., that the parents’ failed to discipline their children. I wouldn’t want to let parents completely off the hook here, but
READ MOREThe startling statistic of the day comes from a New York Post article written by Naomi Schaefer Riley. Riley highlights a new study from the University of Michigan which discovered that the number of young people age 20-24 with driver’s licenses had dropped from 91.8% to 76.7% in the last 30 years. Puzzling over the
READ MORELate last week, scores of British media outlets were obsessing over a new report which found that their students “are the most illiterate in the developed world with many students graduating with only a basic grasp of English and maths.” In looking at the report from the OECD (the organization responsible for the international PISA
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