Lifestyle topics
In recent months, there has been a surge in the number of immigrants trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border. Immigrant rights advocates say that is because they’re fleeing extreme violence in their home countries — violence that shows no signs of abating. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who has broad powers over the nation’s immigration courts, …
Continue reading ‘Immigration again: victims of domestic and gang violence’ »
“Snowflake” students have become the target of a new conservative crusade. This narrative can now be found in news stories, political speeches and op-ed columns in Britain on a daily basis: that young people simply gang up to howl down views they don’t like, rather than engage in debate. Rightwingers claim it is a form …
False news travels much faster online than the truth because of our craving for novelty. In the largest-ever study of how news spreads on social media, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology analysed 126,000 stories on Twitter from between 2006 and 2017. They found that false stories were 70% more likely to be retweeted …
Letter to The Guardian The flaw in the argument for denying far-right propagandists a platform is the failure to address how else the mass of us who oppose the unacceptable views can turn voters away from supporting them if we do not engage with their facile and untenable arguments. The strategy of ignoring them or …
Continue reading ‘Argue with them, don’t just write them off as ignorant’ »
A recent opinion poll suggests that 70 per cent of people in the UK are worried about air pollution and half want the state to do more. The British government does nothing. The main problem are highly polluting diesel vehicles. Air pollution will gradually fall as the oldest, most polluting vehicles are replaced. Yet the …
Continue reading ‘Air pollution is a killer. Tax the polluters.’ »
It goes without saying that raising children is one of the most important things humans do. But there is so much bad advise on how to raise your children. In this post I’ll try to address what both the liberal secularists and the religious conservatives get wrong on parenting, and how to do it in …
From Bryn Glover, Kirkby Malzeard, North Yorkshire, UK “May I report a highly effective way to counter interruptions while talking? “In the 1980s, I sat on the council of the Association of Scientific, Technical and Managerial Staffs trade union in England. Meetings were always attended by the extrovert and voluble general secretary, Clive Jenkins. He …
On a random day (before the royal wedding) these are the subject headings of BBC News as received on my I- pad: – Playing fantasy football with artificial intelligence – “FatTax” row forces New Look price review – Single, 30,and time to leave home – Meghan’s father may not attend wedding – Dealing with a …
A woman wrote to the Washington Post on May 21,2017 complaining about a daughter-in-law who never thanked anyone for gifts, for meals, indeed, for anything. Carolyn Hax, who writes an agony column for the Post, replied in part that her lack of manners hurt the daughter-in-law more than it hurts the giver. “A glaring social …
The all-party parliamentary group on literacy heard evidence that fake news could make children more anxious, damage their self-esteem and skew their world view. In research for the report, the National Literacy Trust showed more than 2,000 UK eight to 16-year-olds six news stories, two of which were fake, and asked them to identify which …
– They have a measure of actual education. – They believe in and keep up with advances in science. – They possess a measure of self-control and self-discipline. – They have empathy for the poor, the sick and the dispossessed – and actually give real money to charitable causes. – They are polite and considerate …
Over the last few months, I’ve come to believe there is a crisis facing young women. Of course, this is based only on my own knowledge and experience, which is primarily of British and university-educated women, but I think it applies more generally as well. The crisis is complex and multifaceted, but I believe it …
French children up to the age of 15 are to be banned by law from using mobile phones anywhere in school grounds – including at break times – from September. French children are already banned from using phones in the classroom under legislation passed in 2010. The new, more wide-ranging law – which was passed …
A Portland couple were discussing hardwood floors. Their Amazon Echo was listening, recording their discussion, then sending the recording randomly to someone in their contacts list, without the couple’s knowledge. The wife told Seattle TV station KIRO 7 that they learned something was amiss when they received a phone call from an employee of the …
Yet again, the British political class is arguing about grammar schools. This row will “never be resolved, because it’s about competing values: the Right prizes opportunity above equality, and the Left vice versa”. But this is the wrong argument to be having in any case. The real problem with our education system is not too …
Continue reading ‘British grammar schools vs. technical and vocational education.’ »
“Psychologically there are two dangers to be guarded against in old age. One of these is absorption in the past. It does not do to live in memories, in regret for the good old days, or sadness about friends who are dead. One’s thoughts must be directed to the future, and to things about which …
According to the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the overall suicide rate has increased by 25% in the US and by more than half in some states. It means that around 16 out of every 100,000 Americans will take their own life. Nearly 45,000 Americans of all ages, genders, races and and ethnic groups …
Many of us dread the monthly credit card statement and plan, maybe, for a leaner month. But for CEOs such as Persimmon’s Jeff Fairburn, who was recently awarded a bonus of almost £110m, “it will still feel like Christmas”. The same goes for lavishly rewarded university vice-chancellors and the handful of GPs identified as earning …
Continue reading ‘The more excessive salaries are publicized, the higher they go’ »
The founder of the Swiss physician-assisted suicide organisation Dignitas went on trial last Friday, on charges of profiteering and exploiting patients’ suffering for his own benefit. In Switzerland, providing assisted suicide services is legal as long as it is not done for “self-serving” motives. The case against Ludwig Minelli concerns the assisted suicide of an …
Twenty-six years of unimpeded growth and waves of immigration into Australia have created a diverse and prosperous nation that is completely focused on Asia. Its traditions may be western, but Australia is becoming emotionally detached from its former rulers. Too many members of the Conservative Party in Britain think Australia and the other Commonwealth nations …
Continue reading ‘Australia ain’t what it used to be. The great Brexit delusion.’ »
