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What’s So Wrong With Using Plain Ol’ English?0
- Culture
- December 16, 2019
First-rate writers and teachers tell us over and over that good writing should be clear and concise, that it should aim to be understood, and that it should avoid using artifice and pomp in an attempt to sound intelligent. Unfortunately, academics ignore this all the time, as evidenced by the following joke about the philosopher
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Star Wars Actor: Ignoring Trolls Is a Sign of Mental Strength0
- Culture
- December 16, 2019
Star Wars actor John Boyega is apologizing for comments he made in a recent interview in which he suggested it takes mental strength to brush off the comments of social media trolls. The controversy began when, in an interview with Variety, the Star Wars actor responded to a question about the dark side of fan engagement,
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Do We Treat Children Worse Than Dogs?0
- Culture
- December 16, 2019
At a recent hearing on Paid Family Leave before the House Oversight and Reform Committee, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., thought herself brave and appropriate to harangue the only free-market witness – one out of seven – there. In a typical AOC fashion, she went on a rant about how the free market treated “women and people who
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‘One Child Nation’0
- Family
- December 16, 2019
For those interested in the horrific, on-the-ground realities of a totalitarian government engaging in population control and social engineering on a massive scale, the documentary One Child Nation on Amazon Prime Video is required viewing. Both of the documentary’s directors (Nanfu Wang and Jialing Zhang) were born under the one-child-policy in the 1980s. After emigrating to the
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No-Hassle Holidays: A Fun and Easy Way to Give Gifts1
- Culture
- December 13, 2019
Christmas, like Superman, is approaching “faster than a speeding bullet,” and some of us suddenly find ourselves in need of last-minute gifts. Maybe we forgot to buy Aunt Sarah a present. Maybe we just remembered that we are the Secret Santa for Joe at the office party. Or maybe we goofed up big time and
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Lack of Assimilation Is Economically Harming Latino Immigrants and Society0
- Culture
- December 13, 2019
Early in 2019, a firestorm of criticism descended upon veteran journalist Tom Brokaw because he said on NBC’s Meet the Press that Hispanics “should work harder at assimilation” and shouldn’t isolate themselves “in their communities.” NBC condemned his comments as “inaccurate and inappropriate,” media outlets ran articles and editorials calling them racist and factually wrong, and Brokaw apologized. Contrary to the blowback against Brokaw, scholarly sources
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Huge Baseball Contracts Come With Record Breaking Taxes0
- Economics
- December 13, 2019
In the past week, several record-breaking contracts were signed by Major League Baseball players. Stephen Strasburg, the 2019 World Series MVP, was first, re-signing with the Washington Nationals on a seven-year, $245 million deal. That was a record for the largest contract ever for a pitcher, both in terms of total value and in annual average
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Christmas Predators, Parasites, or Magi?0
- Culture
- December 13, 2019
A couple of years ago there was quite a kerfuffle about the holiday duet, “Baby, its Cold Outside.” This song, from 1944, features a dialogue which some people might describe as a man trying to talk a woman into staying longer at his place on a snowy night. The criticism said the song was really about a
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Boris Johnson and Brexit Win in a Landslide0
- International
- December 13, 2019
In the United Kingdom’s general election, the Conservative Party has reclaimed a working majority by an even larger margin than most predictions and opinion polls expected, as reported by The Guardian. While pre-election polls consistently gave an edge to the Conservatives, or “Tories,” ever since the former Mayor of London Boris Johnson became Prime Minister, the official
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