Blog 3 Columns

Why Republicans Shouldn’t Get So Excited About Tax Cuts 0
- Economics
- December 21, 2017
There is a lot of hyperbolic rhetoric flying around about the $1.5 trillion tax package Congressional Republicans delivered on this week. Democratic leaders decried the legislation, declaring it “the end of the world… Armageddon.” (I’m not joking, those are the actual words used by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who should probably consider retiring.) Republicans, meanwhile,
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Philosophy Prof Argues Human Nature Doesn’t Exist. Commits Logical Fallacy 0
- Philosophy
- December 21, 2017
In this new article for Aeon, Ronnie de Sousa, professor emeritus of philosophy at the University of Toronto, argues that the facts of evolution entail that “there is no such thing as human nature.” Instead, what we are is what we make of ourselves by our individual and collective choices. There is no prior “human
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National Review Errs on Tax Cuts 0
- Economics
- December 21, 2017
National Review’s Ramesh Ponnuru has a new article, “The Tax Cut Doesn’t ‘Tilt Toward the Middle Class.” The piece apparently responds to commentary by Veronique de Rugy and me about the effects of the GOP tax plan. Ramesh says: According to the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT), households making between $20,000 and $30,000 pay 0.7
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Higher Education’s Effort to ‘Reeducate’ Men is Getting a Tad Creepy (and Counter-Productive)0
- Culture
- December 21, 2017
In recent years, Americans have been having two parallel conversations about the problems with men in our society. On the one hand, there is the conversation on college campuses and in the media about how men have created a poisonous environment—that they are privileged and sexist; they don’t treat women well; and they are frequently
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H.G. Wells vs. George Orwell: Their debate whether science is humanity’s best hope 0
- Philosophy
- December 21, 2017
In the midst of contemporary science’s stunning discoveries and innovations – for example, 2017 alone brought the editing of a human embryo’s genes, the location of an eighth continent under the ocean and the ability to reuse a spacecraft’s rocket boosters – it’s easy to forget that there’s an ongoing debate over science’s capacity to
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Amir Khan Receiving Death Threats Because He Posted a Christmas Tree on Instagram 0
- Culture
- December 21, 2017
Via the International Business Times: The Christmas tree controversy is refusing to let go of Amir Khan. After being at the centre of a debate triggered when he displayed his love for his three-year-old daughter by putting up a surprise Christmas tree, the boxer has now received scary death threats. The huge debate began soon
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A Holiday in Siberia: A Child’s Story of Survival in a Soviet Concentration Camp 0
- History
- December 21, 2017
By the time Marysa Dac was seven years old she had spent Christmas in at least four different countries. This happened not because her father was a businessman (though he had been) or a diplomat (he was not) but because her family had the misfortune to be living in eastern Poland when it was annexed
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Why People Fall for Fake History 1
- History
- December 20, 2017
Students of the modern education system usually receive some version of the following historical tale of the West, aptly summarized by scholar David Bentley Hart: “Once upon a time… Western humanity was the cosseted and incurious ward of Mother Church; during this, the age of faith, culture stagnated, science languished, wars of religion were routinely
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Why Manliness is Disappearing 0
- Entertainment
- December 20, 2017
Women, minorities, and other so-called marginalized groups have multiple champions. All well and good, even inevitable, I suppose. Picture right now in your mind’s eye: Hillary Clinton, Ellen DeGeneres, Elton John, Black Lives Matter. Hey, even the redone Caitlyn Jenner. Yet no one has spoken for the average American male in a very long time,
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Why Republicans Shouldn’t Get So Excited About Tax Cuts 0