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Higher ed should teach doing good

National Columnists

The ranks of would-be presidential assassins are a cavalcade of losers, yet the latest shooter who set out to murder Donald Trump — the man who opened fire at the White House Correspondents' Dinner on Sunday — turns out to have an elite educational background. Cole Allen is a graduate of CalTech, the prestigious California Institute of Technology. In the most recent City Journal college rankings, CalTech took the top spot for "value added to career," but languished at a dismal 95th place for "student ideological diversity." The rankings noted the school's ...

Theft as social justice

National Columnists

Is robbing the Louvre a good idea? Left-wing influencer Hasan Piker and New Yorker writer Jia Tolentino did a much-discussed video interview with The New York Times on the ethics of theft, and came out four-square in favor of stealing things, including artwork from the Louvre. They consider larceny an appropriate response to the inherent corruption and injustice of the American capitalist system. The merits of this position aside, it's not clear why it justifies stealing paintings or sculptures from a museum owned and operated by the government of France. When asked about the ...

MAGA transforms to anti-Christian now

National Columnists

The past few days have featured the vice president of the United States lecturing the pope on morality and church doctrine. As someone who came up in the conservative movement, I find it a bit dizzying to watch people who used to venerate religious leaders of all stripes now smack-talk the pope and commit what some have characterized as blasphemy. Vance took several swipes at the vicar of Christ. On Fox News, he advised that, "In some cases it would be best for the Vatican to stick to matters of morality." That's some high-octane condescension, but if he had stopped there, it would ...

Library ebooks tell unfair story

Local Columnists

Imagine what would happen at the Minot Public Library if a book publisher pulled up to the building in a big van and ran inside while grabbing every book they had published. It might attract the eye of the police station right across the street. The stunning truth is that in a way this does ...

Clarence Thomas' great speech on Declaration

National Columnists

Many speeches will be delivered this year about the Declaration of Independence as we celebrate its 250th birthday. However, I think the greatest was just delivered by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas on April 15 at the Civitas Institute at the University of Texas, Austin. The force of Thomas' words does not just result from his deep understanding of what the United States is about, and how the Declaration of Independence defines it. The force flows from Thomas' personal reality. He has lived what the Declaration is about. His words are not just the product of ...