Blog 3 Columns

Study Suggests Lack of Reading Driving Contentious Society 0
- Culture
- May 8, 2017
It’s a commonly accepted fact that reading offers far more cognitive benefits than watching television. This is largely because television is a more “passive” activity, while reading goes deeper, encouraging greater thought and fostering verbal communication. But a recent study out of Kensington University in London suggests that the advantage of choosing reading over television
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Public Schools Shouldn’t Be Teaching ‘Values’0
- Education
- May 8, 2017
America’s public schools are getting worse, and part of the reason why is that they have taken on too much responsibility. This point was made by the famous historian Jacques Barzun in his preface to his 1983 book Teacher in America: “There [in public schools], instead of initiatives to develop native intelligence and give it
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Oregon Man Fined $500 for Questioning Traffic Light Timing 0
- Politics
- May 8, 2017
If Galileo or da Vinci, the famed Italian polymaths, lived in modern day Oregon, they might well be the targets of a lengthy and expensive inquisition by the Oregon State Board of Examiners for Engineering and Land Surveying for the unlicensed practice of engineering for engaging in mathematical criticism. That is because neither became state-licensed
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Emma Watson just won the first ‘Gender-Neutral’ acting award. What does that mean?0
- Culture
- May 8, 2017
In case you missed it, Emma Watson made history Sunday, winning MTV’s first gender-neutral acting award. So what does that mean? Unless I’m missing something, it appears that MTV just lumped male and female actors into a single category, giving out a single award for the best acting performance. That doesn’t seem like that big
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What’s So Bad about the Empire?0
- Culture
- May 5, 2017
Everyone familiar with Star Wars knows that the Empire is bad, and the Rebellion is good. But, why? Seriously. What makes life under Emperor Palpatine so unbearable, and what would make life under the New Republic so much better, for the ordinary citizens of the galaxy? The movies offer surprisingly little information as to what’s actually
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This Is Why Government Shouldn’t Be Involved in Health Care 0
- May 5, 2017
The Republican-controlled House vote to “repeal Obamacare” – if that is what this was – was a stunning mess. Did they get it right? The answer is obviously no, and that’s inevitable. Just imagine a bill that sets out to reorganize any industry that is currently mostly market driven, such as shirts, software, groceries, or
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The U.S. Has the Fattest Poor People in the World. Why?0
- Culture
- May 5, 2017
Recent reports show that the United States is one of the most obese nations in the world—the only G-8 nation to crack the top 20 of the most overweight countries in the world. For children and low-income people the problem is particularly acute. A 2015 report commission by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
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Physician: Raising Happy Kids Shouldn’t Be the Main Goal 0
- Culture
- May 5, 2017
In the years when I spent a good deal of time sitting beside the piano, coaching kids of all ages to count, to curve their fingers, and to phrase their music properly, I heard a common refrain over and over. That refrain was often uttered by the parent of the child, and went something like
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Moral Outrage as Compensation for Guilt: An Explanation for 21st Century Campus Violence 0
- Culture
- May 5, 2017
The worst American campus violence since my college days at the University of Michigan in the late 60s and early 70s begs the question: Why? It’s not just the violence at places like Berkeley and Middlebury, but also students’ increasingly aggressive demands to keep conservative speakers away, create safe spaces, publish trigger warnings, and protect
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Study Suggests Lack of Reading Driving Contentious Society 0