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Blog 3 Columns

  • So Cool! Iceland’s Tradition is to Give BOOKS for Christmas

    So Cool! Iceland’s Tradition is to Give BOOKS for Christmas1

    Are you among those who tell people, “Just get me books for Christmas”? If so, then maybe Iceland is the place for you. According to a decades-old tradition, books are the standard Christmas gift in Iceland. As NPR reports: “The culture of giving books as presents is very deeply rooted in how families perceive Christmas

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  • Minnesota Teacher: “We’re Powerless to Discipline”

    Minnesota Teacher: “We’re Powerless to Discipline”0

    • December 16, 2015

    In Minnesota, the Saint Paul Public Schools district is in a state of chaos. Earlier this month, a high school student assaulted a teacher and left him with a traumatic brain injury. Last year, nine teachers at a middle school quit within the first three months because the students were “out of control.” Reports of

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  • Here Are Some REAL Ways to Avoid Massive College Debt

    Here Are Some REAL Ways to Avoid Massive College Debt0

    Yesterday, the Huffington Post put out a lousy article titled “This Will Make You Feel Better About Looming College Bills.” It offered a fairly ho-hum collection of advice that probably should not make students or parents feel any better about paying for college. The advice ranged from “Odds are, your child will likely get some

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  • A gun ban isn’t happening.

    A gun ban isn’t happening.0

    For those in favor of keeping the 2nd Amendment, a new poll from ABC News/Washington Post has determined that you are in the majority and the trend line is on your side.  What’s incredible is the change in public opinion since 1994. Love them or hate them, one has to admit that the pro-gun crowd

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  • “Sentimentality”: Is It Screwing Up Education?

    “Sentimentality”: Is It Screwing Up Education?0

    Modern society is infected with sentimentality—“the cult of feeling”—and it’s screwing up our education system. That’s the thesis of British cultural commentator Theodore Dalrymple in his book Spoilt Rotten: The Toxic Cult of Sentimentality. According to Dalrymple, sentimentality has its roots in Romanticism and a Rousseauian view of children as having been born in a

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  • ‘Hands up, don’t shoot’: A biggest lie of 2015

    ‘Hands up, don’t shoot’: A biggest lie of 20150

    The Washington Post has published its annual list of the “biggest Pinocchios of the year” for 2015.  The list is almost entirely composed of politicians of all stripes telling whoppers. No surprise there. What was surprising was the inclusion of the phrase “Hands up, don’t shoot” which was spawned after Michael Brown of Ferguson, MO

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  • Yikes! One-Third of Americans Can’t Name ANY First Amendment Rights

    Yikes! One-Third of Americans Can’t Name ANY First Amendment Rights0

    On December 15, 1791, the first 10 amendments to the Constitution were ratified, giving Americans their famed Bill of Rights. Sadly, many Americans don’t even know the freedoms they are guaranteed in the first and most famous amendment. According to the 2015 State of the First Amendment survey: “When asked to name the five specific

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  • The Root of War

    The Root of War0

    Samuel Eliot Morison was the Jonathan Trumbull Professor of American History at Harvard when World War II broke out. He went to President Roosevelt and asked if there would be an opportunity to write the history of the war while the combatants were alive and before “the ships were broken up and the sailors had

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  • The Natural Condition of Humankind

    The Natural Condition of Humankind0

    In The Sword of Imagination, Russell Kirk has a beautiful line about the natural condition of man. It is a strong reminder that while our civilization seems strong and our freedoms are cherished, they must always be nourished and cultivated in each generation. Here’s the line: “Order, justice, and freedom are garden plants; the natural

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