Feeding Mind, Pursuing Truth
Blog 3 Columns
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- Blog 3 Columns
George Orwell’s Review of Mein Kampf0
- Culture
- December 22, 2016
The political upheavals of 2016 have left western elites dumbfounded. After all we’ve done for them, they ask, how could people reject progress? Many people in the developed world are turning toward authoritarianism, closed markets and a renewed nationalism. Can you blame the elites for being shocked? Especially when these same people were so cloistered
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Education in America Before the Education System1
- Education
- December 22, 2016
Before America’s public education system was created around 1840, the vast majority of Americans were illiterate and walked around with dirt on their faces. At least, that seems to be the impression shared by most people today. But it turns out that education, like nature, abhors a vacuum. In the decades after the American Revolution—much
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C.S. Lewis on the Christmas “Racket”0
- Culture
- December 22, 2016
Last month, Gallup rolled out its annual poll regarding how much Americans intend to spend on Christmas gifts. Surprisingly, average spending on gifts was expected to jump $100 from last year’s amount, for a grand total of $830 per person. Such a finding oddly underscores what C.S. Lewis once labeled as “the third thing called
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Why Millions of Millennials Are Living in ‘Bad Faith’0
- Culture
- December 21, 2016
Safe Spaces, trigger warnings, parental coverage of health insurance until age 26 and living at home into one’s thirties…why are we treating young adults like they are infants, folks? Without adversity, Millennials fail to develop perseverance and grit. Will they ever grow up? The French playwright and existential philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980) had an expression
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Trump Says Torture ‘Works’ – But What Does the Science Say?0
- Culture
- December 21, 2016
The US president-elect Donald Trump has on several occasions insisted that torture is a good idea and that procedures such as water-boarding are not “tough enough” when dealing with terrorist groups like Islamic State. The view is clearly morally and ethically questionable. But if we put that aside, does he have a point? If we
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How Can Children Believe that Santa Claus Exists?0
- Culture
- December 21, 2016
The holiday season is upon us, and so are its attendant myths, most prominent of which is the Santa Claus story. This is the time that many children are told about a man who lives forever, resides at the North Pole, knows what every child in the world desires, drives a sleigh pulled by flying
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Failure to Launch: Young Americans Living with Parents Hits 75-Year High0
- Culture
- December 21, 2016
Via the Wall Street Journal: Almost 40% of young Americans were living with their parents, siblings or other relatives in 2015, the largest percentage since 1940, according to an analysis of census data by real estate tracker Trulia. Despite a rebounding economy and recent job growth, the share of those between the ages of 18
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Why Wandering Minds Are Unhappy Minds0
- Education
- December 20, 2016
Have you ever eaten an apple cider doughnut? I hadn’t; but I was craving one. My wife and I were hiking on a beautiful fall day. The first leg of the hike was unrelentingly steep. Sometimes at the beginning of a hike, my mind fills with complaints: too hot, too many bugs, too steep, too
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Why I’ll Never Own a Cat (And Why You Shouldn’t Either)0
- Education
- December 20, 2016
Last summer, a few neighbor children came running up to our house. They had found a litter of kittens under their deck. My 5-year-old daughter was out the door so fast I didn’t have the opportunity to shout, “Stop! Brain parasites!” I’ve been deathly afraid of cats for five years now. It all stems from
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