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Patriotism and lapel pins, revisited
I was interested to read Anonymous’ measured response to my criticism of the flag pins. Anonymous remarks that I pack “an awful lot more baggage into that shiny lapel pin than is deserved,” and goes…
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Evolution speeds up
There’s an interesting new study out on human evolution: apparently, driven by increasing population size and migration, it has speeded up in the past 50,000 years. (The New York Times coverage is here; Scientific American‘s…
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Benefit of the doubt? Enough.
We’ve learned, thanks to the New York Times, that the CIA destroyed at least two videotapes of what the press–following the administration’s penchant for euphemism–keeps calling “harsh” or “severe” interrogation techniques. It’s time the press…
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What the kids bring home from school
My four-year-old son came home from his (public) kindergarten the other day with two things: one, a piece of paper on which he (with his parents’ help) was supposed to describe how his family celebrates…
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Universities
In a previous post, I pointed out that charging students US$22,000 for a semester at sea might not be in the best interests of society. But what are universities for?Universities are a very different thing…
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Patriotism
Those shiny little enamel flags politicians ostentatiously wear on their lapels proclaim their wearer’s unwavering patriotism; their ubiquity suggests that politicians have calculated that patriotism sells. This is hardly surprising: American kids start their school…