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- Blog 3 Columns
Why Not Polygamy?1
- Culture
- May 16, 2016
As same-sex marriage became widely accepted in the U.S. over the last decade, a surefire way to increase the decibel level of a conversation on the issue was to bring up polygamy. Liberal and conservative proponents of same-sex marriage alike said opponents of gay marriage were relying on weak slippery-slope arguments (they often were). Lengthy
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Why do Media Ignore Communism’s Criminal Past?0
- Education
- May 16, 2016
It seems more and more Western leaders are going to Cuba to prostrate themselves at the feet of the ruling dynasty, the Castros. UK Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond went there on April 28, about a month after US President Barack Obama paid obeisance. Which raises the question of “why”? They hardly need Cuba’s vast wealth, which is
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Did a 15-Year-Old Student Discover a Lost Mayan City?0
- Culture
- May 16, 2016
My friends and I would always talk about how much of the Earth is still unexplored and what it might be like to stumble across an ancient city or culture that has been hiding for centuries. I’m sure it’s been the dream of millions of kids around the world, especially with archeological icons like Indiana
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Are We Failing to Teach Boys how to Treat Women?2
- Culture
- May 16, 2016
Over the weekend, I came across an interesting book entitled The Dangerous Book for Boys by Conn and Hall Iggulden. Recognizing that many of today’s boys no longer know how to do essential “boy things” such as tying knots, building tree forts and go-carts, or making other tools and gadgets, the book undertakes to give
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A Brain Teaser on the Power of Context0
- Entertainment
- May 16, 2016
In his book The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell has a chapter called “The Power of Context.” The power of context shows how people’s decisions are highly influenced by the circumstances in which they are making a decision or presented information. For instance, a seminarian who had just heard the parable of the Good Samaritan might
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A (Seemingly) Simple Way to Feel Happier0
- Culture
- May 16, 2016
Doing good things for others, even on a small scale, seems to increase one’s sense of well-being and happiness more than things done to help one self. So concludes a new study in the journal Emotion (Nelson et al., 2016). Dr. Jeremy Dean at PsyBlog sums it up as follows: “…as people do nice things for
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What Rudyard Kipling’s ‘The Jungle Book’ Gets Right About Rules0
- Culture
- May 13, 2016
The latest issue of National Geographic arrived at our house with a dazzling cover story on Yellowstone National Park, full of images of grizzly bears, wolves, elk, and bison. Yellowstone is a wild place “filled with wonders—fierce animals, deep canyons, scalding waters—that are magnificent to behold but fretful to engage,” and the issue asks whether
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We Need to Stop Pushing Everyone Toward College0
- Culture
- May 13, 2016
Last year, Pew Charitable Trusts reported that eight in ten Americans are in debt. Much of that debt stems from home mortgage loans, but as a new chart from Slate demonstrates, the last ten years have also seen an explosion in debt from student loans. Such an explosion is not surprising considering the push to
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Sexual Harassment Training Isn’t Just a Waste of Time: It’s Harmful0
- Culture
- May 13, 2016
The last time you had to sit through a training program or sign your office’s fine-print disclosure on sexual harassment policy, you probably thought you were just wasting your time. You were wrong: Research suggests that efforts to raise awareness and train employees about sexual harassment may be worse than a waste. They may actually
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