There is a parallel between sports and democracy. Both depend on the ability to say, “You whipped me fair and square this round; just wait till next round.” And both, as we know them today, were English inventions. I have […]
Culture
The Years Everything Tipped
From 1405 to 1433, the Ming rulers of China sent ‘treasure fleets’ to Southeast Asia, India, the Middle East, and as far as Mozambique. And then in 1434 the Portuguese reached Western Sahara, after which they went farther south every […]
Was It Early Medieval Catholic Family Law That Made the Western World Unique?
Joseph Henrich argues that the Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic world got its uniqueness from family codes imposed by the Church in the Early Middle Ages. The key parts of these codes were not restrictions on same-sex marriage or […]
What Being against ‘CRT’ and ‘Wokeness’ Should Not Mean
Those who want to fight against ‘CRT’ and ‘wokeness’ are doing a good thing. But it should not be an excuse for going back and whitewashing our history [pun sort of intended]. I admire the efforts of those on the […]
Timothy Snyder on the History Behind the Ukraine War
In his book, The Road to Unfreedom, Timothy Snyder intends to warn us about the threats to ‘freedom’ in America, Europe, and Russia. He reminds us that the war really started on February 24, 2014, not on February 24, 2022! […]
Building on Greenfields
Some say that one of the solutions to our housing problem [indeed, their favorite solution] is building on land that has not been built on before. There are a lot of issues surrounding this, however. There are two ways of […]
If We Want to Celebrate National Emancipation, There’s a Better Alternative Than Juneteenth
The new holiday of June 19, though its celebration has spread nationally, has a particular application to Texas. But there is another date that would be more suitable as a national holiday of emancipation: December 18. June 19, known as […]
Book Notice: David Brooks, The Road to Character
David Brooks, in his recent book, The Road to Character, makes a distinction between two kinds of virtues and tells us we need to be more concerned about ‘legacy virtues’ and not just the ‘résumé virtues’ that give us success in […]
Pornographic Ideas?
In every society, even those that profess freedom of speech, there are ideas and images that are perceived as too corrupting to be expressed or uttered. We used to think this way about pornography. Now we think this about certain […]
The New Southern Democrats
Large parts of the African American and Latino elements within the Democratic Party are the most moderate elements within the party, playing the same role as the mostly white Religious Right played within the Republicans. A surprising new force has […]