Every year as daylight dwindles and trees go bare, debates arise over the morality of hunting. Hunters see the act of stalking and killing deer, ducks, moose and other quarry as humane, necessary and natural, and thus as ethical. Critics respond that hunting is a cruel and useless act that one should be ashamed to
READ MOREOne of the funniest, but also most painful-to-watch, parts of Planes, Trains, and Automobiles is in the Wichita hotel, when Steve Martin’s character has reached the boiling point with John Candy’s character, and finally unloads on him in a classic rant. At the close of the rant, he says the following: “And by the way,
READ MOREThere are so many “new and improved” ideas in society these days that it’s hard to even bat an eye at them anymore. But every so often one surfaces that still evokes a confused headshake and a “Wait… what?!” response. I had one of these the other day when someone called my attention to a
READ MORESchool has nothing to do with freedom. First, there are state laws mandating that you have either attended school or have learned the very specific kinds of things you’d learn in school. That form of education is not a choice: it is legally compulsory. But schooling is culturally compulsory as well. That’s what Austrian philosopher
READ MOREA number of years ago, my father was assisting in a program for young inner-city children when he was given a particularly rambunctious five-year-old boy as his especial charge for the day. He stayed on the little boy throughout the morning, firmly redirecting his focus and energy countless times. As the program came to a
READ MOREAll parents wish the best for their kids. However, too many parents today think only of material well-being and future “success,” while forgetting moral education or pushing it off on the schools. But according to Aristotle, if children aren’t taught to love the good and hate the bad from a young age, it will be
READ MOREMy outlook for 2017 and beyond is that the U.S. economy will likely see another recession. Yes, the economic picture currently looks wonderful. The Dow and S&P 500 are at record levels. Unemployment is well below 5 percent of the labor force. Inflation is still tame. The U.S. dollar is strong. The U.S. economy has
READ MOREOne of the first big education stories to hit headlines in 2017 was the announcement that New York state will be offering free college to its residents this fall. According to The Washington Post, this offer of governor Andrew Cuomo’s stems from the fact that college is now viewed as a necessity: “‘College is a mandatory
READ MOREIt’s generally believed that, compared with previous human history, technology has advanced exponentially since the Industrial Revolution 200 years ago. But why? That’s a question I’ve frequently wondered about, and one that Lewis Mumford sought to answer in his 1934 classic Technics & Civilization. His answer might be summed up in the phrase coined by
READ MORE