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Lesson in economics for AOC

I am not an economist, but I do have some personal experience with the principles of economics and the rules that allow especially Americans to prosper while becoming more self-reliant and less dependent on government. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), aka AOC, the youngest woman ever elected to Congress, graduated from Boston University cum laude, and then returned to the Bronx and worked as a bartender and waitress to help her mother fight foreclosure of their home. Nothing wrong with that, but her life experience apparently has taught her little. In some recent comments she ...

What every graduate should aim for

Many of today's graduates are about to make the same mistake Matthew Emmons made during the 2004 Olympics. It's commencement season for high school and college seniors. The future may be unknown, but graduates know what they want in their future -- money. A 2025 poll by Harvard Political Review asked young Americans to identify their important goals. More than 86% chose financial security. Around three in four selected owning a home, a tangible sign of financial well-being. Just 57% thought getting married was an essential pursuit. That was just a hair ahead of accumulating ...

Bridge generation is feeling its age

Milleniucture, like an older overpass everyone depends on, but it's starting to carry more weight than it was originally designed to hold. We're trying to move things forward as we absorb tension from both directions. And increasingly, this generation is being asked to adapt to a world ...

Children aren’t learning to read

We've been having a debate about "book bans" in recent years, but given the steep decline in student literacy, the deeper question is how anyone would notice whether a book is available in a school library or not. The New York Times published an eye-opening report on a study by the Educational Opportunity Project at Stanford documenting steep declines in student test scores, especially in reading. Over the past 10 years, reading scores have declined in 83% of school districts. What looked like a Covid-driven catastrophe is, instead, part of a long-running trend. Reading scores were ...

Society without God is society without truth

Thursday evening, Jews will celebrate the holiday of Shavuot. This holiday, which occurs seven weeks and one day after Passover (hence the name Shavuot, which literally means "weeks"), commemorates perhaps the most transformative event in all of human history: the revelation of the Word of God to the ancient Israelite nation. It was at Mount Sinai, congregated at the base of the smoking and trembling mountain, that God promised the Israelites they would be a "kingdom of princes and a holy nation" if they accepted and maintained fidelity to His covenant. In unison, ...

Court’s redistricting rejection more than footnote

When White House Deputy Chief of Staff James Blair decided to push mid-decade congressional redistricting, Republicans had reason to be nervous. Redistricting battles are messy, procedurally arcane and easy to lose in the court of public opinion even when you win in a court of law. But Blair saw something others missed: Democrats had already boxed themselves in with maximum partisan redistricting and constitutional restrictions in some states that would prohibit radical gerrymandering. The Virginia Supreme Court's recent rejection of the Democrats' redistricting effort is more ...