The Times of London recently reported this protest at Oxford University: How do you respond when placard-waving students occupy your 15th-century quadrangle and refuse to leave until you sell the college’s shares in oil companies? As this is Oxford, naturally you present them with a philosophical dilemma. Two students at St John’s College wrote to Andrew Parker,
READ MOREAmerica’s obesity problem is often described with the word “epidemic,” and that is hardly an exaggeration. The statistics are staggering. Today, around one out of three American adults is obese, and one out of six children and adolescents are obese. Obesity related illnesses are a major cause of death. Information about Americans’ struggles with weight
READ MOREBernie Sanders declares with piety, “Healthcare is a human right.” His statement may sound reasonable, because when we think about someone without healthcare what comes to mind is pain, suffering, and the loss of hope and dignity. Bernie is correct that no one in a country as prosperous as ours should be without some form
READ MOREValentine’s Day: The holiday that men fear and women adore. Recently, I was speaking with my brother about Valentine’s Day. He recounted that several years ago he suggested to his wife of 40 years that they ignore Valentine’s Day, telling her that the day “was for the young and they were old.” I will leave
READ MOREIn a night of high emotion, President Donald Trump used his third State of the Union address to tout the “great American comeback” during his first three years in office. Before the night was over, Trump had staged the surprise reunion of a soldier deployed to Afghanistan with his family and announced a scholarship for
READ MOREIt is impossible to watch the critically acclaimed Oscar-nominated “Marriage Story” without bearing in mind that America no longer takes marriage very seriously. The plaudits showered on the film seem like no accident. A melodramatic tale about two bicoastal (New York and Los Angeles) artists going through a painful separation, “Marriage Story” has been praised
READ MOREI’m a bit of a softy. Thus, when it comes to passing out awards for the best behaved or the most exemplary performance in the weekly preschool class I teach, it’s hard to say no to the many eyes which plead with me for a sticker. It’s easy to set the bar low in my
READ MOREEditor’s note: The Costs of Wars project was started in 2011 to assess the long-term consequences of the post-9/11 wars. Project co-director Neta C. Crawford, professor and chair of political science at Boston University, explains the major implications of the Iraq War for the federal budget. Even if the U.S. administration decided to leave – or was
READ MOREIn January, a New York man viciously assaulted his girlfriend and threatened her with a knife. The assailant was charged only with a misdemeanor and released without bail under a new bail reform law that went into effect in 2020. According to The New York Times, the new law “requires defendants to be released without cash bail on a long
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