Culture

Giving Before Getting 2
- Culture, Featured
- December 19, 2023
When I was a little girl, my mother would take me and my five siblings to Grants, a long-gone discount store. We did this the first week in December every year, shopping for each other using money we had earned and saved. Running down the aisles, touching everything, brimming with excitement, and bursting with secrets,
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Will Harvard’s Head Hang On?0
- Culture, Education, Featured
- December 18, 2023
Last week, Intellectual Takeout reported on the jaw-dropping Capitol Hill testimony of MIT President Sally Kornbluth, UPenn President Liz Magill, and Harvard President Claudine Gay. In turn, each leader affirmed—bizarrely—that calls for genocide against Jews did not violate their schools’ harassment policies unless those calls were severe, directed at individuals, or crossed over into conduct.
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Atheism and Antisemitism at America’s Universities 0
- Culture, Education
- December 18, 2023
Ryan Burge is a data analyst who synthesizes information about religion and politics in the United States. He publishes his findings and observations regularly on Substack. Last week, he wrote an article titled “How Weird is The Religious Composition of Harvard’s Student Body?” In it, he examines the results of a poll Harvard conducted of
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Data Brokers, Advertisers, and Governments: The Market for Your Personal Information 0
- Culture, Featured
- December 15, 2023
A few years ago, I tried to find out what kind of information data brokers had stored about me. But as it turns out, viewing specific information is difficult. I visited at least half a dozen sites without finding any clear way to request my data. Even when dealing with the company that did eventually
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Christmas: ’Tis the Season to Be Pagan?3
- Culture, Religion
- December 15, 2023
The festive season is upon us — a time to decorate the house, gather with family, exchange gifts, and of course, discuss the pagan origins of Christmas. In recent years, suggesting and suspecting that Christmas has a pagan past has almost become a Christmas tradition in its own right. Now, an increasing number of Christians are
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An Unexpected Festival: Some Observations on My Nine-Week Christmas 1
- Culture, Featured, Religion
- December 14, 2023
This year, the Christmas spirit knocked at my door two weeks before Thanksgiving, smiled coyly, and settled in like some stray feline who’s struck gold with a warm hearth and a bowl of Friskies Seafood Sensations. Never before had this spirit arrived so early and so unexpectedly. It started with a review copy of Faith
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