Blog 3 Columns

How Country Music Speaks for Everyday Americans 0
- Entertainment, Culture
- August 22, 2023
Taylor Swift may be the hottest ticket this summer, but her listeners don’t share her country roots. That space has been captured by a series of anthems singing the blue-collar blues, songs that are a lot closer to—and a lot more correct—about what is bugging everyday Americans. American music has always been an echo chamber
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Sex Is a Community Matter 6
- Family, Culture
- August 21, 2023
It’s been more than 60 years since the sexual revolution of the 1960s swept across the nation removing sexual barriers and changing beliefs around sex. These days, most people have accepted the idea that what two consenting adults do sexually is their own business, and the idea that sex is for forming families through the
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A Tale of Two Houses 1
- Education, Religion
- August 21, 2023
Jake Meador’s article in The Atlantic* about the decline in American church attendance gave me a different perspective on some thoughts I’ve been mulling over about the other great non-profit American institution: higher education. Meador begins with the question, “What if the problem isn’t that churches are asking too much of their members, but that they
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Farmer and Former Factory Worker Finds Overnight Fame with Viral Country Ballad 5
- Culture, Entertainment
- August 18, 2023
Last week, Oliver Anthony was a blue-collar worker from Farmville, Virginia, living on a 90-acre farm with his three dogs, a man unknown to the world. Today, his song “Rich Men North of Richmond” is at the top of the global music charts. A backyard recording of his “blue collar anthem,” as it’s been dubbed,
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Why Are Some US Street Lights Turning Purple?0
- Education
- August 18, 2023
I saw it for the first time in Wichita, Kansas. My coworker was driving a shuttle carrying myself and a few students from a guest speaker event, and I noticed something strange—a purple street light. I initially brushed this off as some weird mishap, but as we drove on I noticed dozens of purple street
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Friday Comic: Vive la Différence 0
- Entertainment
- August 18, 2023
Credit: OwenComics (store) Twitter: @owenbroadcast Instagram: @owenbroadcast Save this article to favorites
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A Case for the Lost Art of Memorization 4
- Education
- August 17, 2023
Memorization and recitation became part of my life through a club I was part of in middle and high school. With the club, I had the opportunity to recite patriotic speeches and poems along with chapters from the Bible in front of an audience of veterans, law enforcement officers, and first responders just about every
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Liberalism Is Broken and Canada Proves It 1
- Culture, Philosophy, Politics
- August 17, 2023
Liberalism is broken. This is a big kick-sand-in-my-face claim. And extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Canada’s embrace of euthanasia supplies that evidence. Let’s unpack this. First, what is “liberalism”? Its meaning shifts depending on whether one is speaking of economics or politics or ethics. Edmund Fawcett’s excellent Liberalism: The Life of an Idea, surveys scores of
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Stop the Grandstanding in Women’s Soccer 9
- Culture
- August 16, 2023
Upon learning that the U.S. Women’s National Team (USWNT) was knocked out of the Women’s World Cup after a 5-4 loss to Sweden, I was not very sympathetic toward the team. It was particularly fitting that Megan Rapinoe, the team’s sour-faced forward and chief political activist, missed an important goal kick near the end of
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How Country Music Speaks for Everyday Americans 0