Are those who oppose health care reform simply racist? Or perhaps just trying to fill their unemployment-related free time? Two articles recently appearing in the New York Times offer just such accounts of what motivates the Tea Party protesters and other vocal opponents of the
Some say we finally have a President who is a thinker. Do we? An “open, out-of-the-closet, practicing intellectual”—this was New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof’s laudatory description of America’s new president. Kristof, echoed by a chorus of similar commentators, was expressing hope that Obama might help
As more and more young people become interested in Ayn Rand's ideas and methodology, there is an increasing need and demand for an institution that systematically teaches her philosophy. In fact, such an institution exists. The Ayn Rand Institute's Objectivist Academic Center offers students an opportunity
The primary purpose of the OAC is to teach students about Objectivism. However, in my case the program also provided a major secondary benefit: the positive effect it had on the rest of my academic life. The knowledge and skills I acquired at the OAC had
The formula is painfully familiar— “According to a recent survey by X from the University of Y,” followed by a statement about married couples’ tendency to get bored with their sex lives (ABC News), or thin women’s tendency to think themselves fat (Psychology Today), or
In its usual capacity as scholastic trend-setter, Harvard University unleashed a strange phenomenon on academia last year: amid the marble halls and ivy thickets, visiting professor Tal Ben-Shahar attracted a record population of Harvard students to a class about "squeezing lemons into lemonade." In the
It is a common view that the quest for truth breeds misery-as echoed lately in viewer responses to House, MD. Raking in four Emmy nominations, including Best Dramatic Series, House has emerged as the most popular show on primetime TV. Its title character, Dr. Gregory House,
In launching Google.cn on January 25th, the beloved search engine caved in to the Chinese government's demand that it block politically "sensitive" content from searches. Now, if a Chinese web surfer wants to learn, for instance, about the 1989 massacre at Tiananmen Square, he will
The buzz about Christian propaganda couched in Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe seems to have subsided. With the film's premiere, the suspense about ideology has largely been replaced by universal commendations of its "enchanting animations" and portrayal of "family values." Secular
By now few of our readers have eluded the fairy dust that has settled all over the world since Harry Potter first cast its spell. This summer Rowling seemed to have yet again bewitched entire populations, as young and old, rich and poor, college professors