Culture

Susan Cain, in this excerpt from her TED talk "The power of introverts", points to a cultural shift that has implications beyond the introvert/ extrovert dichotomy. The United States has moved from being a society that valued character to a society impressed by salesmanship.

It doesn't seem like it should be an open question. Who would possibly advocate for legalizing drunk driving? But in an article titled Legalize Drunk Driving, Lew Rockwell, founder and Chairman of the Board of the Mises Institute, tries to make the case.

...and what we could do to improve that perception.

But was it a positive difference, or a negative one? The poem is ambiguous.

The game of tic-tac-toe has simple rules, a limited number of moves, and equal chances for both sides. If both players understand the game, it is almost impossible to avoid a draw. As ecologist and philosopher Garrett Hardin noted in his 1968 paper The Tragedy of the Commons, tic-tac-toe has "no technical solution." Sure, there might be ways to win by thinking outside the box:

The United States' largest Protestant denomination has become a slow-motion train wreck. Following the denomination's near-failure last summer to condemn white supremacy, and reeling from a decade of membership decline, the one bright light for the Southern Baptists in the era of #MeToo was that no prominent leaders had been named as sexual predators.

On November 10, 1979, Cindi Lamb was driving to the grocery store with her infant daughter Laura when her car was hit head-on by another vehicle. The baby girl was paralyzed for the rest of her life, and died at age six.

On May 3, 1980, Candy Lightner's 13-year-old daughter Cari was walking to a church carnival with a friend when she was struck by a car. The driver never even stopped. Cari was taken to the hospital, where she died.

Shortly after Donald Trump's inauguration, Emma Green reported in The Atlantic about people who had been fired from evangelical ministries for voicing their political views.

If it’s December, it’s time for Fox News to reignite the flames of the alleged "war on Christmas". "I told you that we would be saying 'Merry Christmas' again," proclaimed President Trump in St. Louis this week.

Below are two objects that are popular in the United States, and require skill and training to use properly. Carelessness operating these objects can lead to serious injury or even death. That's why all 50 states require some form of training, a licensing examination that includes a written test and a hands-on demonstration of skill, and liability insurance to cover accidents before allowing a resident to operate one of these.