Blog 3 Columns

Research Reveals Teenagers Actually Love the Bard 0
- Culture
- April 22, 2019
When you think of inner-city teenagers, what springs to mind? For many, it’s hoodies, video games — and probably hating Shakespeare. But my research proves that this stereotype is far from the truth. Shakespeare holds a contested place in the English national curriculum as the only compulsory writer to be studied between the ages of
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Red Flag Gun Laws Are a Page out of Dystopian Science Fiction Novels 0
- Politics
- April 22, 2019
Red flag gun laws are suddenly popular in America. Colorado recently became the fifteenth state to pass such a law. The law, the tenth such passed since the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida, will allow authorities to seize the private property—firearms—of someone deemed a risk to himself or others after successfully petitioning
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A Legal Immigrant’s Lament 0
- Economics
- April 22, 2019
In the late 1940s, my father, Kenneth Billingsley, a veteran of World War II, was working in a mine in the northern reaches of Manitoba. So through no fault of my own, I was born a long way north of the border. Despite childhood stints in Alliance, Ohio, and Detroit, Michigan, when I sought to
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Why Easter Is Called Easter, and Other Little-Known Facts About the Holiday 0
- Culture
- April 19, 2019
(This story was originally published by Intellectual Takeout on April 13, 2017.) On April 21, Christians will be celebrating Easter, the day on which the resurrection of Jesus is said to have taken place. The date of celebration changes from year to year. The reason for this variation is that Easter always falls on the
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Larger Schools May Be Driving Teen Suicide Rates Higher 0
- Culture
- April 19, 2019
Recent headlines have been screaming out a familiar story: teen suicide rates are increasing. Suicide was the second leading cause of death for teens in 2016, and the teen suicide rate jumped 70 percent over the previous ten years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There are many reasons one could find
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A Good Friday Remembrance from the Heart of the Holocaust 0
- Culture
- April 19, 2019
(This story was originally published by Intellectual Takeout on March 29, 2018.) That the most important weekend in Christendom is fraught with busyness is hard to deny. New clothes, chocolate bunnies, egg hunts, and time with family make it easy to slip past the Easter holiday without reflecting on its meaning. If such is your
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The Loss of Notre Dame Reawakens the Heart of the West 0
- Culture
- April 18, 2019
The emotional outpouring prompted by news of the fire at Notre Dame de Paris has been extraordinary. It has been marked by both depth and breadth, prompting myriad expressions of concern for the fate of Paris’ venerable cathedral and affecting Catholics and non-Catholics, those who live in France and those who don’t, those who have
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Bernie’s Example to America: Pull Yourself up by Your Bootstraps!0
- Economics
- April 18, 2019
On Monday, Bernie Sanders released ten years of tax returns, and it turns out he and his wife are millionaires. Thanks especially to revenues from book royalties, Sanders is now, as CNN put it, “in the category of the super-rich.” Or, as some might say, he’s part of “the 1%.” After years of denouncing “millionaires
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Attorney General Says Mueller Found No Collusion, but 10 Instances of Possible Obstruction 0
- Politics
- April 18, 2019
Special counsel Robert Mueller’s report highlights 10 episodes that could be construed as obstruction of justice, although his investigation found no underlying conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Russian government to affect the outcome of the 2016 presidential election. Attorney General William Barr held a press conference Thursday morning to lay out the conclusions
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Research Reveals Teenagers Actually Love the Bard 0