Greek mythology. Greek tragedy. Greek philosophy. Any of us who took a course or two on Western civilization remembers the name John Davies Homer, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. We may not revisit them, but they revisit us in many of the traditions that are woven through to our modern- day concept of the world. And …
Whistleblowers in our society our either considered heroes or traitors. In any event they have a massive impact in our history. For those who compile such lists of modern-day whistleblowers often Mark Felt, Deep Throat from Watergate is number two and Daniel Ellsberg, the defense analyst who revealed the Pentagon Papers, is number one. Ellsberg’s …
The ways that statisticians and governments measure the economy were developed in the 1940’s, when the urgent economic problems were totally different from those of our times. In her book “The Measure of Progress: Counting What Really Matters”, Cambridge professor, Diane Coyle, helps us understand how inadequate our system for assessing the economy …
Pope Leo XIV, the first American Pope, has been seen as a stabilizing force in the Catholic Church after a tumultuous papacy of Pope Francis. And while he is disciplined, thoughtful, and measured in his words and deeds, perhaps more traditional than Pope Francis, he has also been very vocal about his concerns about the …
There is a largely invisible pricing structure in the American health care system that dictates the types of medical procedures that are most valued and therefore best compensated. It affects the way you interact with the system day after day. In her short, but clear-eyed, dissection of why specialists and surgery are often the weapon …
If you’re paying attention these days, and in the wake of the NCAA basketball tournament, it’s hard not to notice how legalized gambling has crept into every facet of American life. You see it during sports games and with the full involvement of the leagues. You pass signs on the highway daily about games of …
When one of your friends tells you that pickleball is now the all-consuming passion in their life, what do you say? Every day, thousands and thousands more people pick up a paddle and get hooked on the fastest growing sport in the land. What’s all the fuss about? As a long-time tennis guy, I had …
It’s true. The headline in Fortune on-line screamed “The Treasury Just Declared the U.S. insolvent. The media missed it.” Well maybe the media missed it, but Congress and the President also have been asleep at the nation’s wheel on this issue for a very long time. The Treasury’s own consolidated financial statements for fiscal year …
The test scores for 4th and 8th graders in math and reading have not been great lately. The lag may be due to the time lost during the pandemic, but there may be another remnant of that time that is affecting things. As teachers hurried to adopt EdTech practices in that time, much gave way …
While some states are making it easier to vote, with automatic registration when you renew a driver’s license, or aggressive campaigns to bring voter registration to you, other states are working aggressively to restrict voting by requiring proof of citizenship, which goes beyond basic voter identification. And President Trump and the GOP-proposed SAVE Act is …