Current back issues from February 1994:
The trouble with academic prose: convolution and confusion.
Feb 01, 1994; ... In ordinary life, when a listener cannot understand what someone has said, this is the usual exchange:Listener: I cannot understand what you are saying.Speaker: Let me try to say it more clearly. But in scholarly writing in the late 20th century, other rules apply. This ...
Crime and tolerance: society's indifference to crime.
Feb 01, 1994; ... It will be fifty years ago this June that I graduated from Benjamin Franklin High School in East Harlem, in the company of State Senator Joe Galiber, and any number of prominent New Yorkers. I find myself at this half-century mark thinking: "How much more difficult a city we have now." And ...
Calvin and Hobbes and John Paul: the morality debate. (comic strip characters; Pope John Paul II)
Feb 01, 1994; ... Many people find philosophy boring and theology frightening. They would rather read the comics. And so would I: I can't imagine starting a day without studying "Calvin and Hobbes." But whether we notice it or not, that comic strip is often about the fundamental moral issue of our times. Here ...
Democracy as a coalition of cultures: democracy and balance.
Feb 01, 1994; ... The shortest definition of democracy I can think of is willingness to leave office when defeated at the polls. Even shorter as a criterion of the existence of democracy is alternation of political parties in office. All models of democracy include competition for office based on civil ...
Facing up, paying up: ending the budget deficit.
Feb 01, 1994; ... Early on in his presidential campaign Bill Clinton talked about the need for Americans to pull together and "sacrifice." Later, in a State of the Union address remarkable for its candor, he spoke to a raptly attentive nation about how our ballooning federal deficits cloud our economic ...
Does money buy happiness: a new look at income and utility.
Feb 01, 1994; ... Twenty years ago in |The Public Interest~, Richard Easterlin argued that richer societies are no happier than poor ones. However, Easterlin argued, within any one country richer people are happier than poorer people. He explained this anomaly as follows: People judge their economic welfare ...
The Asianization of Asia: Asia defines itself.
Feb 01, 1994; ... SEARCHING FOR A NEW IDENTITYAsia has at long last started to define itself. Asian consciousness and identity are coming vigorously to life. Western nations are increasingly impressed by the economic power and political gravity of the region. But Asia's success in the far-ranging ...