Sailing the Last Voyage with Newton and Pascal
Most on the "religious right" aren't paying attention to rulings like this, but like Charles Rubin they should be: The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York has ruled that same-sex couples can take advantage of the estate tax marital deduction provisions of the Internal Revenue Code. This ruling has far-reaching federal …
Continue reading "Same-Sex Civil Marriage: The End of the Marital Estate and Gift Tax Exemption?"
Pollster John Zogby finds young people disillusioned these days: Nearly four years after enthusiastic younger voters poured into polling booths to help push Barack Obama over the finish line and into the Oval Office, their hope has turned to fear and pollster John Zogby says that they are ready to give up on politics. “I …
Continue reading "Generation Y Answers the Question from the Last Presidential Cycle"
Things are not pretty in the Windy City these days: But despite the chorus of praise, it’s becoming evident that the city took a serious turn for the worse during the first decade of the new century. The gleaming towers, swank restaurants, and smart shops remain, but Chicago is experiencing a steep decline quite different …
Continue reading "Chicago: The City of Big Shoulders Slumps"
There has been a great deal of discussion these days about gender selective abortions, which, when done, usually go against girls. We've been presented stories of nations where the ratio of men to women in the population is rising to "unprecedented" proportions because families are doing away with their baby girls through abortion. And, of …
Continue reading "Abortion, Infanticide and the "War on Women": A Lesson From China"
When we think of China today, we think of a nation growing very fast economically and taking its place as one of the great powers of the world. Getting to that point--or getting to that point again, if one takes a long view of history--took a course of great suffering and several unexpected turns (how …
Michael Tomsky of the Guardian is simply wrong about this: So if Warren’s mother told her there was Cherokee blood, and if one little rivulet of Cherokee blood going back generations makes one a Cherokee, which legally it does, then she’s Cherokee, at least as far she knows. Now she has to prove this? You …
Continue reading "Yes, it Can be Proven Whether Elizabeth Warren is Cherokee or Not"
Old Ivy is a little chagrined over the career accomplishments of this Class of '62 member: Harvard University alumni attending their 50th class reunion this week are getting updates on classmates, but one person stands out among those sharing news about career moves, retirements and grandkids — Unabomber Ted Kaczynski. Kaczynski graduated in 1962 and …
Continue reading "The Unabomber Only Did What The Rest Wish They Had"
I've mentioned on occasion that, where I teach, the full-time faculty in my discipline is entirely African. We recently had a faculty retreat and, before we got underway with the matters at hand, we discussed various items. One of them was the subject of Americans keeping lions as pets, which the Africans found understandably unbelievable. …
Continue reading "If We Had Been a German Colony, We Would Have Been Further Down the Road"
I recently came across a fascinating book entitled The Handbook of Palestine by H.C. Luke and E. Keith-Roach. Produced in 1922 by the British Mandate government which had just taken control of the country after a long Ottoman Turkish rule, it’s a fascinating snapshot of the Holy Land beginning its transition to the State of …
I recently came across a fascinating book entitled The Handbook of Palestine by H.C. Luke and E. Keith-Roach. Produced in 1922 by the British Mandate government which had just taken control of the country after a long Ottoman Turkish rule, it's a fascinating snapshot of the Holy Land beginning its transition to the State of …
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