Feeding Mind, Pursuing Truth
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Bud Light, Nike, and Searching for Common Sense4
“Stupid is as stupid does.” That saying, popularized by the 1994 movie Forrest Gump, has been around a good while. The expression means that a person’s intelligence can be judged by his actions. Someone can have a law degree from Yale, but if he drives his car at 35 mph on an acceleration ramp while
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Edgar Guest: Remembering ‘The People’s Poet’0
- Literature
- April 12, 2023
Poetry is not my strong suit, I’m no good at writing verse. My prose may be no better, but at least I could do worse. Oh my gosh, I’m a poet and don’t know it! If it hadn’t been for a couple good English teachers in high school, I might have never read more than
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No College Mandates’ Lucia Sinatra Defends Informed Consent1
- Education
- April 11, 2023
In the view of attorney Lucia Sinatra, allowing college students to have informed consent and the ability to choose or reject COVID-19 vaccination—without fear of losing their educational path—is a simple right of a free people. That’s one reason why she co-founded No College Mandates, an advocacy group fighting for students’ right to make their
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‘Little Platoons’: The Family Will Win4
In my younger years, my mother bought a recording of the musical South Pacific. We kids played it so often that we learned most of the songs by heart. This past week, one of the songs, “Cockeyed Optimist,” as sung by Mitzi Gaynor, kept popping into my head. Here are a few lines: I have
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Being Emotional Is Not an Argument0
Discourse, especially in schools, is miserable these days. As Randall Smith, the Scanlan Professor of Theology at the University of St. Thomas in Houston, argues, there are only three options when it comes to uncomfortable topics, “Non-judgmentalism, furious indignation, or ironic detachment.” How he describes his experiences teaching at the college level goes a long way
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How to Debate: What Lieutenant Columbo Teaches About Arguing2
- Philosophy
- April 10, 2023
At age 14, I was introduced to a debate tactic I never forgot. Called the “Columbo Tactic,” this strategy allowed me to challenge any view I found even remotely illogical, all the while keeping me from having to meticulously, painstakingly articulate my own position. I first heard about this debate method in Gregory Koukl’s Tactics:
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California LGBT Activists Call for Taking Children From Parents3
In California, “stranger danger” may be about to acquire a whole new meaning. Forget warning kids. It’s the parents in California who will need to be terrified of strangers if a new bill passes. Snuck into AB 665, legislation ostensibly about extending mental health care to lower-income California youths, is a provision that effectively would
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Fight or Flight? Some Thoughts for Easter5
The long Gospel readings in my church on Palm Sunday offer an unflattering portrait of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus. Judas sells out his master for 30 pieces of silver and leaves the Last Supper to put his betrayal into action. Later that evening in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus asks three of his followers
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ChatGPT: The Modern Oracle1
- Science
- April 7, 2023
“All men by nature desire to know,” says Aristotle at the beginning of his Metaphysics. This is a natural, healthy, even virtuous, longing in the human heart. But it can also get us into trouble when that desire is corrupted. ChatGPT and similar AI technologies are powerful information tools, but their use does not come
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