Category: American Culture
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As told in Genesis, in the paradise that God created, man and woman were naked, but they were not embarrassed by their nakedness and they were one with all things. The only thing forbidden to them was to eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. They lived in a world…
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When Hilary Clinton wrote her book, It Takes a Village to Raise a Child, there were many, especially on the right, who ridiculed her for making this statement. Bob Dole in his 1996 presidential nomination acceptance speech said that it doesn’t take a village, it takes a family to raise a child. But this ancient African proverb…
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What is the function of a public school system? Generally, people would say that the function of a school is to teach children the practical skills they will need in order to maximize their opportunities in their work lives … as one used to say, the three “R’s”: reading, ‘riting, and ‘rithmetic. And while that…
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In my previous post, “Rethinking Criminal Justice in a Civilized Society,” I argued that if a crime does not warrant the death penalty, then rehabilitation should be the predominant motivator in sentencing and its execution, not retribution, not punishment. Prisons today are merely modern-day dungeons with a prettier face. No longer do inmates have to…
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When someone is convicted of a crime in our society, the operative focus in sentencing is typically punishment/retribution and that focus is carried out within the prison setting. The one slight exception to this regards the death penalty. Many states no longer impose the death penalty regardless of the severity of the crime, In a…
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During this holiday season, I think it timely to address a fundamental problem in the development of human societies … the us v them mentality. People band together in groups, whether formally or informally, because they feel something in common and want to be part of a group, not alone, often to increase their feeling…
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Hate speech is defined as “speech that attacks and is an incitement to hatred of a person or group on the basis of race, religion, gender, or sexual orientation.” Hate speech is not a rational discussion of the pros and cons of a group’s values or actions. It is targeted solely at the listener’s emotions.…
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The self-help industry is huge. Although numbers are hard to come by, in 2008 Nielsen Bookscan reported that 13.5 million self-help books were sold in the U.S. The self-help industry is said to be worth around $11 billion annually, including seminars, DVDs, etc. Obviously, lots of people are crying out for help. They feel miserable or frustrated…
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Rick Warren wrote an amazingly successful spiritual book, The Purpose Driven Life. According to amazon.com, it has sold more hardback copies than any other non-fiction book in history and it is the most-translated book in the world, except for the Bible. Recently a new edition was published. If so many tens of millions of people have read his…
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In an ideal world, at least in my mind, you would not have the extremes of rich and poor. But people have different intelligence levels, different talents, and different aptitudes which, even with all other things being equal, would translate themselves in the real world to significant disparities in earning opportunities. Add to that that all other…
Preserving American Values 