Culture

San Francisco Creates First Transgender District 0
- Culture
- December 13, 2018
San Francisco created a special cultural district for transgender persons, marking the first legal transgender district created anywhere in the world. San Francisco’s Tenderloin district is now home to “Compton’s Transgender Cultural District,” The Daily Beast reported Tuesday. The Tenderloin is a triangular neighborhood located a few blocks from San Francisco’s City Hall. It is also San Francisco’s
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A Perfect Solution to the Statue-Toppling Problem 0
- Culture
- December 13, 2018
Schools ought to teach history, not protest it. A number of teachers at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill have pledged to withhold more than 2,000 grades in protest over the university’s plans to house “Silent Sam” in a separate on-campus building. Silent Sam is a statue of a Confederate soldier that stood in
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How School Districts Weaponize Child Protection Services Against Uncooperative Parents 0
- Culture
- December 13, 2018
Schooling is adept at rooting out individuality and enforcing compliance. In his book, Understanding Power, Noam Chomsky writes: “In fact, the whole educational and professional training system is a very elaborate filter, which just weeds out people who are too independent, and who think for themselves, and who don’t know how to be submissive, and so
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Former Atheist Explains How Rationality, Not Emotion, Encourages Religious Belief 0
- Culture
- December 13, 2018
I recently ran across an interview with author Stephen Asma in The Irish Times. Although an atheist, Asma is a rather unique atheist because he believes religion is necessary, a fact evidenced in his recent book Why We Need Religion. According to Asma, a philosophy professor, religion does not make sense rationally, but it makes
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‘The Great Awokening’: The Threat of America’s New Political Religions 0
- Culture
- December 12, 2018
The decline of religion in America is real—that is, depending on how you define “religion.” Weekly church attendance is in decline, as is self-identification with a formal religion, denomination, or belief system. Meanwhile, the rise of the “nones” seems increasingly steady in speed, replacing religious-cultural standards and norms of old with a modern menu of “personal spiritualties” based
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How to Keep Your Kid from Being a Brat This Christmas 0
- Culture
- December 12, 2018
A number of years ago, a friend of mine organized a Christmas charity event. Like many of its kind, this event matched less fortunate children with well-off families, eager to share of their bounty and provide the children with a present or two at a fun Christmas party. But the gift giving didn’t stay limited
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