In the news, Monday, April 30, 2018

________

APR 29      INDEX      MAY 01

________

________

from Brain Pickings
Personal Blog in Brooklyn, New York

Theodore Roosevelt on the Cowardice of Cynicism and the Courage to Create Rather Than Criticize
How to prevent that cultural tragedy, which poisons the heart of a just and democratic society, is what Theodore Roosevelt (October 27, 1858–January 6, 1919) examined when he took the podium at the Sorbonne in Paris on April 23 of 1910 to deliver one of the most powerful, rousing, and timelessly insightful speeches ever given, originally titled “Citizenship in a Republic” and later included under the title “Duties of the Citizen” in the 1920 volume Roosevelt’s Writings (public library).

________

from Conservative Intelligence Briefing

POLL: Millennial Voters Slipping from Democrats’ Grasp
“Enthusiasm for the Democratic Party is waning among millennials as its candidates head into the crucial midterm congressional elections,” per a Reuters/Ipsos online poll. “The online survey of more than 16,000 registered voters ages 18 to 34 shows their support for Democrats over Republicans for Congress slipped by about 9 percentage points over the past two years, to 46 percent overall. And they increasingly say the Republican Party is a better steward of the economy.”

President Trump Should Receive Nobel Peace Prize, South Korean President Says
President Trump should receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on North Korea, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said Monday morning. North and South Korea have ended their nearly 70 year war and are about to engage in historic peace talks that will prominently feature President Trump.

________

from Forbes

That Time The CDC Asked About Defensive Gun Uses

Last month, I discussed the need for more robust and intellectually balanced research into gun use in the United States. In particular, I proposed that “Any Study Of ‘Gun Violence’ Should Include How Guns Save Lives.” In particular, a 2013 study ordered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and conducted by The National Academies’ Institute of Medicine and National Research Council reported that, “Defensive use of guns by crime victims is a common occurrence”.

________

from Hoover Institution
Nonprofit Organization in Stanford, California

Repeating The Past
The United States appears to be slowly emerging out of the wreckage that it has made of the Middle East. One would hope that the country’s political, intellectual, and military leaders would use the coming years to think seriously about the lessons to be learned from a lack of understanding that has marked America’s strategy over the past half century. It would be nice if they would, but I doubt they will. They certainly will not, if the past is any guide. As George Santayana commented, “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” And as that great American philosopher, Yogi Berra, noted, “it has been déjà vu all over again.” In a world where our historians no longer study strategic or military history and where our political scientists study history in irrelevant bits and pieces and only when it supports their irrelevant theories, I am afraid we will soon no longer be able to understand our own history, much less that of the “other.”

________

from HumanProgress.org  Education Website

What 19 in 20 Americans Don't Know About World Poverty
An overwhelming majority—95 percent—of Americans are confused about the state of global poverty. A survey from the late Hans Rosling’s web project Gapminder assessed the public’s knowledge on that subject. The survey asked twelve thousand people in fourteen countries if, over the last two decades, the proportion of the world's population living in extreme poverty has a) almost doubled, b) stayed the same, or c) almost halved. The correct answer, as frequent visitors of HumanProgress.org know, is c. Extreme poverty has halved. But a staggering 19 in 20 Americans got the answer wrong. In fact, most people in all fourteen countries surveyed got it wrong.

________

from New York Times  Newspaper in New York, NY

#GorsuchStyle Garners a Gusher of Groans. But Is His Writing Really That Bad?
“In all, Ms. Varsava found, ‘Gorsuch’s style is considerably less formal and conventional than average, which likely makes his opinions seem more down-to-earth and less legalistic than other opinions — qualities that might increase his appeal and enable him to reach a wider audience.’ “Ms. Varsava also tested the swagger of Justice Gorsuch’s appeals court opinions in light of what she called ‘his reputation for self-assuredness and overconfidence’ by counting ‘terms of certainty’ like ‘clearly,’ ‘surely’ and ‘decidedly.’ It turned out that he did use those kinds of terms more than twice as often as the average judge. “But Justice Gorsuch was also about twice as likely to use ‘terms of hesitancy’ like ‘possibly’ and ‘maybe.’ Ms. Varsava concluded, with a bit of hesitancy of her own, that ‘he might have a proclivity for qualifiers in general.’”

________

from The Spokesman-Review

Newspaper in Spokane, Washington

________