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Blog 3 Columns

  • The State Reemerges in the Time of COVID-19

    The State Reemerges in the Time of COVID-190

    Once upon a time, there was an illusion that the state would disappear. It was the fiction Marxists told each other at bedtime, and it was the lie of the Communists, once they had seized state power. For even as they built up their police apparatus and their archipelago of gulags, they kept promising that

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  • COVID-19 Shut Down the SAT and ACT, but Not the Classic Learning Test

    COVID-19 Shut Down the SAT and ACT, but Not the Classic Learning Test0

    COVID-19 has disrupted student life across the nation, closing schools and leading to major questions about what’s in store for high school juniors and seniors as they take their next steps toward college. The virus canceled many college placement exams that had been slated over the next few months. The ACT has postponed its April

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  • Beyond Raising Chickens: Survival Techniques You Should Try

    Beyond Raising Chickens: Survival Techniques You Should Try0

    Counting one’s chickens before they’re hatched is taking on new meaning in the age of the coronavirus. Baby chicks are the new toilet paper, The New York Times explained over the weekend. Chicken-suppliers have been cleared out as Americans adjust to quarantine and their minds switch to survivalist mode. I can’t say that I blame

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  • A Nation’s True Test Comes After the Crisis

    A Nation’s True Test Comes After the Crisis0

    Perhaps it’s natural and understandable for most people to think that things like “leadership” and “character” are forged and evidenced in response to crisis. It’s quite apparent in the present moment that judgments about public figures are being shaped by how they’re handling the virus pandemic. Around the world, people are generally, if grudgingly, embracing

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  • Teaching Humane Literature in High Schools0

    In many American high schools, the teaching of literature is in the sere and yellow leaf. One reason for this decay is the unsatisfactory quality of many programs of reading; another is the limited knowledge of humane letters possessed by some well-intentioned teachers, uncertain of what books they ought to select for their students to

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  • Stimulus Goodies, Good Souls, and Grifters

    Stimulus Goodies, Good Souls, and Grifters0

    On March 29, I spoke with a loan agent for a bank in a medium-sized city who wishes to remain anonymous. Her desire for anonymity will become clear after you read what she told me. Her bank, like many others, often works with the Small Business Administration (SBA) in making loans. The SBA guarantees a

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  • School’s Out Forever?

    School’s Out Forever?0

    With just about every public school in the country closed at this time, the only way for kids to get an education is at home. Many see this as nothing less than tragic. Writing in Education Week, Stephen Sawchuk claims that schools are an “absolute necessity for the functioning of civic culture, and even more

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  • Plague Humor Is Good for You

    Plague Humor Is Good for You0

    My older sister took great pleasure in telling a younger-me the dark history behind the nursery rhyme, “Ring-around-the-Rosies.” She told me that the cheerful tune was written about the Black Death: the “pocket full of posies,” refers to small bouquets of sweet-smelling herbs the healthy would carry close to their noses in order to protect

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  • Netflix’s Messiah: A Snapshot of Our Times

    Netflix’s Messiah: A Snapshot of Our Times0

    The anticipation for Netflix’s new show Messiah was significant. Media coverage described the show as “controversial,” and The Royal Film Commission of Jordan asked Netflix not to stream it, fearing the show would “infringe… on the sanctity of religion.  However, when Messiah was actually released it quickly fell flat. Reviews were mixed, and the fact that

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