It’s that time of year, and like most of you I’m planning on a big meal and a lazy afternoon as America celebrates yet another Thanksgiving. Naturally, I’m also thinking back over the previous year and looking for things to be thankful for. I’ve found some. Here are a few that aren’t about family, spiral cut ham and so forth.
Tag: america
Disobedience is a Virtue
When we spend most of our formative years being bombarded with the message—from parents, teachers, the media, agents of the state, etc.—that obedience is a virtue and disobedience is a sin, we “learn” that lie at a very deep psychological level, way beyond merely an intellectual understanding.
How to Stop a Rogue President from Ordering a Nuclear First Strike
Nuclear weapons have no legitimate military use. They are weapons of terror, not of war. It’s time that the first and only government to ever use them become the second (after South Africa) to voluntarily give them up, for its own sake and the world’s.
Authority Easily Leads to Abuse
This was a shitty circumstance. It isn’t “fair” that it happened. However, this happens with most teachers, and most people in places of unquestioned authority. In fact, the situation that occurred in college was a situation I had vastly more leverage than in previous similar situations.
As They Perpetuate Their Endless Crimes
Many Americans become enraged in response to reports of personal misbehavior by politicians (of the other party), especially sexual misbehavior. The news media cover the matter 24/7. Allegations are periodically resurrected decades after the public has lost interest. Meanwhile…
The Mutilation of Millions of Children
Just about the most glaring example of cultural bias I can think of is the fact that most Americans view the genital mutilation of young girls practiced in other countries as heinously evil and barbaric (which it is), but view male “circumcision” as just fine.
Assertions versus Facts
CNN can show us an apple, but it can’t show us Russian election meddling or global warming or people being made safe by gun control. Unlike apples, these are complex things not amenable to depiction.
Why We Didn’t Potty Train (and What We Did Instead)
Often times kids’ refusal to use the toilet is based on the amount of pressure we put on them. What you persist they will resist. If there is pressure or shame or anything like that around using the toilet in your home, then it is likely your child feels a lot of anxiety about it.
Factory-Like Schools Are the Child Labor Crisis of Today
There is mounting evidence that increasingly restrictive schooling, quickly consuming the majority of childhood, is damaging children. Rates of childhood anxiety, depression, behavioral problems, and other mental illness are surging.
The Honest Ads Act: “Fundamental Rights,” Real and Imagined
Americans — and Russians — have a fundamental right to say what they want to say, with or without their names attached to it.