CULTURE

Book Review: The End of Race Politics: Arguments for a Colorblind America

Why ‘Colorblindness’ on Race Matters More than Ever

College Education: To Much of a “Good Thing”?

College Education: To Much of a “Good Thing”?

Even if the "stimulus" package doesn't seem to be doing much to stimulate the economy, it is certainly stimulating many potential recipients of government money to start lining up at the trough. All you need is something that sounds like a "good thing" and the ability...

Three Good Things

Three Good Things

Here's a daily practice I learned from Martin Seligman, author of Learned Optimism and Authentic Happiness. Once each day, write down three good things that happened in the last 24 hours. You can write them before going to bed or first thing in the morning. You can...

Tell Me Everything You Know

Tell Me Everything You Know

I have invented a new educational game. I call it "Tell Me Everything You Know." Here is how the game works in my grammar class: I write a sentence on the board, set a time limit, and then have the students write down every grammatical fact they can name about the...

Setting Standing Orders

Setting Standing Orders

I'm a believer in using checklists and notes as memory aids. But sometimes you need to be able to rely on your own memory. This is particularly true for things you want to remember every time, like: Remember the car keys. Pronounce that word PREF-ur-u-buul, not...

Praise Your Child’s Thinking

Praise Your Child’s Thinking

Daily life offers us parents many opportunities to strengthen our children 's minds. One way to do that is by noticing and taking advantage of opportunities to praise our children's thought. "Yes, that's right." "Very true," "I didn't know you knew that!" "You...

Sharia Law: Coming to An American Law Court Near You?

Sharia Law: Coming to An American Law Court Near You?

Sharia is a complex and comprehensive unity that traditional Muslims believe to be the unalterable law of Allah. To open the door to one aspect of it is only to open the door to the rest — which inevitably will result in the institutionalized subjugation of women and non-Muslims, and the extinguishing of freedom of speech and freedom of conscience.

Jesus Christ or John Galt? The Republican Party’s Identity Crisis

Jesus Christ or John Galt? The Republican Party’s Identity Crisis

Republicans who support capitalism need to understand that those who combine religion with politics are their enemies, and must be ostracized from the party. In order to be successful, they need to defend capitalism on ethical grounds, which means recognizing that their best pitchman is not Jesus Christ, but John Galt.

Part III: The Bumpy Road to Individualism – Conclusion

By the end of the Italian Renaissance the battle remained horrifically one-sided. Collectivism is the political expression of altruism, i.e., that each man should live for others. Altruism is a known and widely accepted moral code. It has been the foundation of the...

Part II: The Bumpy Road toward Individualism

Individualism began as a doctrine implicit in the Ancient Greek view of man, best captured in their art and in Aristotelian philosophy. That view consisted essentially of reality being knowable and the base of all knowledge, and of man as a heroic being. Such a view...

Part I: The Bumpy Road To Individualism

With the rise of the ancient cultures of Mesopotamia and Egypt (between c. 5000 and 4000 BCE), men’s social groupings expanded. Previously, the social groupings of prehistoric man had slowly developed from family to clan to tribe. The advent of the Neolithic...

The Real Math Magic: Understanding vs Memorizing

The Real Math Magic: Understanding vs Memorizing

These children are not treated like human calculators, they are treated like thinking beings. And when they truly grasp the concepts they are using, when they can explain them fully and articulately, when they retain them because they are not memorizing, but understanding–that is real math magic.

Is College Worth It?

As parents pack their youngsters off to college, they might ask themselves whether it's worth both the money they will spend and their children's time. Dr. Marty Nemko has researched that question in an article aptly titled "America's Most Over-rated Product: Higher...

Amateurs Outdoing Professionals

Amateurs Outdoing Professionals

When amateurs outperform professionals, there is something wrong with that profession. If ordinary people, with no medical training, could perform surgery in their kitchens with steak knives, and get results that were better than those of surgeons in hospital...

On The Rise of Islamic Rule in Turkey

On The Rise of Islamic Rule in Turkey

Any “interpretation” of Islam that is consistent with the Koran as a revealed, unquestioned authority will end in a reversion to its brute, fundamental meaning: the subordination of women and non-Muslims to dictatorial rule by a clerical elite.

The Economics of College, Part III

The Economics of College, Part III

Why does college cost so much? There are two basic reasons. The first is that people will pay what the colleges charge. The second is that there is little incentive for colleges to reduce the tuition they charge. Those who want the government to provide subsidies to...

The Economics of College, Part II

The Economics of College, Part II

Those who argue that the taxpayers should be forced to subsidize people who go to colleges and universities seldom bother to think beyond the notion that education is a Good Thing. Some education is not only a good thing but a great thing. But, like most good things,...

The Economics of College, Part I

The Economics of College, Part I

A front-page headline in the New York Times captures much of the economic confusion of our time: "Fewer Options Open to Pay for Costs of College." The whole article is about the increased costs of college, the difficulties parents have in paying those costs, and the...

No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.

Pin It on Pinterest