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How ‘Woke’ Are You on World Poverty?0
- Economics
- February 6, 2019
By now you have probably heard the exhortation “stay woke.” To be woke means a person is “an informed, questioning, self-educating individual” who “look[s] past the provided narrative.” Yet, most among the self-proclaimed woke are still fast asleep. They may have a facile way of imparting narratives about issues, but those narratives are often based
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13 Fact Checks on the State of the Union Address0
- Politics
- February 6, 2019
President Donald Trump spoke for about one hour and 20 minutes Tuesday night in his second State of the Union address, interrupted–by Fox News Channel’s count—102 times by applause. Trump punctuated his speech by saluting the stories of Americans in the gallery: former prison inmates, World War II soldiers, a Holocaust survivor and a
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Ted Bundy and the Banality of Evil0
- Culture
- February 5, 2019
A Facebook friend recently asked why people have an interest in serial killers. It’s a valid question and I don’t think she was posing it rhetorically. There must be a reason why audiences are drawn to shows like Netflix’s new four-part docu-series Conversations With A Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes. It’s quite an emotionally draining commitment
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If Global Warming Is Killing Us, Why Is Global Life Expectancy Increasing?0
- Politics
- February 5, 2019
According to a recent report from the Centers for Disease Control (“Mortality in the United States, 2017“), “Life expectancy for the U.S. population declined to 78.6 years in 2017.” If accurate, a decline in life expectancy is a cause for concern because, since the mid nineteenth century, we’ve come to expect life expectancy in Europe
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I’m the 0.0001%: My Confession0
- Economics
- February 5, 2019
Income inequality in the US celebrated its 50th birthday last year. Having declined steadily after World War II, 1968 began a 50-year winning streak. Few are cheering, though, because concentrations of wealth are dangerous. People controlling huge amounts of money can use their buying power to push us all around. Hence billionaires like Mark Zuckerberg,
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Five Famous Shakespeare Quotes You’re Probably Taking Out of Context0
- Culture
- February 5, 2019
Shakespeare is often quoted in a way that makes him sound like his works were incredibly serious and philosophical. While it is true that Shakespeare interacts with deep and compelling themes, and some of his plays do have a very somber tone, it’s interesting to see how many of his oft-quoted lines actually appear in
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Are Plastic Straws the New Smoking?0
- Culture
- February 5, 2019
Plastic straw bans are taking America by storm. Local governments across the country are jumping on the band wagon. Last week, the Washington Post shadowed a health inspector visiting D.C. restaurants to see if they were complying with the city’s new ban. The most revealing quote in the article came from Julie Lawson, director of
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Why Does the Federal Government Fail So Miserably Most of the Time?0
- Economics
- February 4, 2019
6.5 M people with active social security numbers are 112 or older. When I spotted this headline in the Washington Times, and misinterpreted it, my heart took a bounce. First came astonishment and joy. With that many men and women living to be 112 or older, and surely many more living at least
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The Rise and Fall of the American Girl Doll Company?0
- Culture
- February 4, 2019
The other day the American Girl doll store at Minnesota’s Mall of America announced it would be closing its doors. It’s been years since I walked through the store looking for gifts for some young relatives; nevertheless, I still felt a twinge of sadness over the news. Even more disheartening, however, was the reason why
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