728 x 90

Blog 3 Columns

  • Yes, We’re Getting Dumber. But Why?

    Yes, We’re Getting Dumber. But Why?0

    This morning brought the news that long time economist Thomas Sowell is retiring from his position as a syndicated columnist. Curious, I flipped through an archive of his many columns and stumbled on one entitled Education: Then and Now, written in early 2006. One paragraph in particular caught my eye. Like many of the older

    READ MORE
  • Why I Rent a Tiny Apartment Rather than Buy a Big Home

    Why I Rent a Tiny Apartment Rather than Buy a Big Home0

    For one hundred plus years, Americans have been told that owning a home embodies the ideal, an essential life goal. After the housing crash of 2008, that unquestioned ideal is no more. What precisely is wrong with renting? And what is wrong with renting something small? These days, I live in Atlanta, Georgia. A few

    READ MORE
  • The Reason Barack Obama Failed

    The Reason Barack Obama Failed0

    No presidency in my lifetime was greeted with such enthusiasm and unhinged hope as that of Barack Obama. At the start of his first term, a cult-like following had already developed among the intellectual and media elite. It was the dawn of a new age, marked by exuberant anticipation of justice, fairness, equality, peace, and

    READ MORE
  • The Most Influential Scientist You Never Heard Of (Probably)

    The Most Influential Scientist You Never Heard Of (Probably)0

    Gaze at Alexander Von Humboldt’s 1814 self-portrait and you peer into the eyes of a man who sought to see and understand everything. By this point in his life, at age 45, Humboldt had tutored himself in every branch of science, spent more than five years on a 6,000 mile scientific trek through South America,

    READ MORE
  • Queen Elizabeth’s Savvy Response to a Sultan Who Demanded Homage

    Queen Elizabeth’s Savvy Response to a Sultan Who Demanded Homage2

    In late September 1579, Queen Elizabeth received a satin bag that contained a parchment sprinkled with gold dust. It was a message from Murad III, sultan of the Ottoman Empire, composed in Arabic script. (A second letter written in Latin was also presented to the queen.) It was the first communication between an English monarch

    READ MORE
  • Hanging Out at the Park May Soon be a Crime

    Hanging Out at the Park May Soon be a Crime0

    Have you ever noticed that it seems increasingly easy for good, upstanding citizens to be labeled as criminals? For example, your fruitcake making grandmother is guilty of a federal crime if she sells her Christmas specialty in “a serving size other than 1 ½ oz.” Your crunchy mama friend who makes her own unpasteurized eggnog

    READ MORE
© Copyright Intellectual Takeout 2024