CULTURE

A nation’s culture is the sum of the intellectual achievements of individual men, which their fellow-citizens have accepted in whole or in part, and which have influenced the nation’s way of life. Since a culture is a complex battleground of different ideas and influences, to speak of a ‘culture’ is to speak only of the dominant ideas, always allowing for the existence of dissenters and exceptions. — AYN RAND

A Bet Between Julian Simon and Paul Ehrlich Demonstrates The Most Important Check in Economics

The Simon–Ehrlich wager and why predictions of resource scarcity keep getting it wrong.

Photo Mark Da Cunha capitalism

Academic Fascism in America

From the Nazis to the Stalinists, tyrants have always started out supporting free speech, and why is easy to understand. Speech is vital for the realization of their goals of command, control and confiscation. Free speech is a basic tool for indoctrination, propagandizing, proselytization. Once the leftists gain control, as they have at many universities, free speech becomes a liability and must be suppressed.

Looking Back

Looking Back

The New York City schools were among the best in the country in those days, better than they had been for the European immigrants before me and much better than they would be for the mass influx of blacks from the South after me.

Movies: Tomorrowland Lacks Imagination

“Walt Disney loved showing how stuff works. No one in this movie plausibly would have the curiosity for new knowledge and reverence for the manmade to look twice at a futurist attraction at Tomorrowland, except possibly Laurie’s villainous character.”

Improving Black Education

Improving Black Education

According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, sometimes called the Nation’s Report Card, nationally, most black 12th-graders’ test scores are either basic or below basic in reading, writing, math and science.

Why Are U.S. Schools Mediocre? Ask the Kids

Why Are U.S. Schools Mediocre? Ask the Kids

If you want schools to do better, get the government the hell out of schooling. But that’s only a start. Next, put the task of reason and intelligence into education itself — with the central and overriding goal of education being a well-trained mind.

A Beautiful Epitaph

A Beautiful Epitaph

While reading “The Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge” by David McCullough, I came across a passage referring to the death of Emily Roebling, the wife of Washington Roebling, that I found particularly poignant.

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