Blog 3 Columns

Why Mike Rowe’s Newest Show Is an Antidote to Our Toxic Culture 0
- Culture
- May 10, 2018
Edmund Burke famously said in his Reflections on the Revolution in France: “To be attached to the subdivision, to love the little platoon we belong to in society, is the first principle (the germ as it were) of public affections.” Burke’s assertion was a challenge to the French radicals’ promotion of the idea that citizens
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The Secret to Teaching Children Self-Control Is Letting Them See It in Others 0
- Culture
- May 10, 2018
Is self-control something you can acquire, like a new language or a taste for opera? Or is it one of those things you either have or don’t, like fashion sense or a knack for telling a good joke? Psychologist Walter Mischel’s famous results from the “marshmallow test” seem to suggest self-control is relatively stable and
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How a 1934 New York Graduation Exam Shows How Far Academic Standards Have Fallen 0
- Education
- May 10, 2018
Today’s education system has a myriad of advantages that earlier generations never would have dreamed about. Smartboards. Tablets. Advanced science labs. Massive libraries. These perks are wonderful and suggest that our schools are giving children a much better education than they would have had at an earlier time. But what if all these advancements are
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Chesterton: Dogma is Inescapable in Education 0
- Education
- May 10, 2018
As you might imagine, the section of G. K. Chesterton’s What’s Wrong with the World that is devoted to the “mistake about the child” has something to do with the education of the child. Actually, he thought that more than one mistake was being made, but all mistakes were traceable to any aspect of education
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Character, Not Control, Is the Antidote to Evil 0
- Culture
- May 10, 2018
Humans are dangerous creatures capable of great evil. This inescapable truth bombards us every time we turn on the news. The weight of this knowledge bears down on every human soul, and with every tragedy, we are starkly reminded of it. We cry out for someone to save us from our inherent capacity for evil.
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The GOP’s Food Stamp Proposal Would Blow the Cost Savings on Bureaucracy 0
- Economics
- May 9, 2018
The Republicans have so forgotten how to control spending, even when they try something conservative it is not really conservative. Consider the House GOP’s proposed reforms to the food stamp program in the upcoming farm bill. The GOP wants to put work requirements on a small share of food stamp (“SNAP”) recipients. The Congressional Budget
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Learning Greek and Latin Will Be Key to Renewing the West 1
- Education
- May 9, 2018
Last week, various headlines proclaimed that there’s a “cut-off age” of 17 or 18 if you want to learn a new language. The headlines were generated by a new study published by MIT researchers, and based on analysis of a grammar quiz they gave to 670,000 people. The researchers found that people “remain very skilled at
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Biomolecular Engineers Say They Have Developed a Cure for Hangovers 0
- Culture
- May 9, 2018
“Civilization begins with distillation,” said William Faulkner, a writer and drinker. Although our thirst for alcohol dates back to the Stone Age, nobody has figured out a good way to deal with the ensuing hangover after getting drunk. As a chemical engineering professor and wine enthusiast, I felt I needed to find a solution. As
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Ayn Rand and Ludwig von Mises Once Had Dinner Together, and It Can Teach Us a Lot About Intellectual 0
- Economics
- May 9, 2018
At the International Society for Individual Liberty’s Conference, Milton Friedman once gave a speech titled “Say ‘No’ to Intolerance” (you can find the transcription here) where he criticized the sectarianism of a part of the libertarian movement. To illustrate his point, he told an anecdote, which can be found in Barbara Branden’s biography of Ayn
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Why Mike Rowe’s Newest Show Is an Antidote to Our Toxic Culture 0