How Pope Francis Changed the Catholic Church
How Pope Francis Changed the Catholic Church
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLEJ5BVTRYk
Month: May 2025
Why Are So Many More Pedestrians Dying in the U.S.?
U.S. roads are more dangerous for pedestrians than roads of other countries.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4m99ecBUmcU
A New Front Line for Abortion Rights
A New Front Line for Abortion Rights
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fq2wckn03Qs
Harvard Is Trying to Resist Trump. It Might Not Be Working.
Harvard Is Trying to Resist Trump. It Might Not Be Working.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acVL-77zmWA
China thought it had a truce with the US. Then Trump dropped two bombshells
“A one-two punch from the United States risks shattering the already fragile trade war truce between Washington and Beijing, with Chinese tech companies and students both dealt shock blows by the Trump administration”
…
“The first hit came in a Financial Times report on Wednesday that said moves by US President Donald Trump had effectively cut off some American companies from selling software used to design semiconductors to China.”
…
“But it was the second blow from the White House that landed right in the living rooms of Chinese families, with US State Secretary Marco Rubio saying the US will “aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students” – especially those in critical fields or with connections to the Chinese Communist Party.”
https://www.yahoo.com/news/china-thought-had-truce-us-075046801.html
Is College Worth It?
Is College Worth It?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmP8YMV4ps0
The Messy Fight Over the SAT
The SAT helps colleges determine who will succeed at college. It helps show which students from disadvantaged schools have the most potential to shine. The wealthy can better game other admissions standards than they can the SAT.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MS-tFVwc7Q
By Trump’s Logic, Biden Deserves Credit for a Dramatic Drop in Overdose Deaths
“When it became clear that overdoses had risen dramatically in 2020, experts surmised that it had something to do with the social and economic disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the government’s response to it—an impression confirmed by subsequent research.
A 2024 study found that “volatile drug use during the COVID-19 pandemic was common, appeared to be driven by structural vulnerability, and was associated with increased overdose risk.” Another study published the same year concluded that “policies limiting in-person activities significantly increased” drug death rates.
If pandemic-related disruption drove the 2020 overdose spike, the return to normal life seems like a plausible explanation for subsequent decreases, although the death toll was still about 14 percent higher last year than it was in 2019. Last fall, University of North Carolina drug researcher Nabarun Dasgupta and his colleagues suggested other possible factors, including wider availability of naloxone, an opioid antagonist that quickly reverses overdoses.”
https://reason.com/2025/05/21/by-trumps-logic-biden-deserves-credit-for-a-dramatic-drop-in-overdose-deaths/
Top Historian: How the Ukraine War is Going to End
‘Already in 1993/1994, [Russia] had begun to make threatening language and gestures toward its neighbors. In 1994 the president of Estonia made a speech about how happy Estonia was to be a member of Europe and about the reemergence of a threat from Russia. He was already hearing language from Russia threatening Estonia sovereignty and whether Estonia was really an independent country. At this speech, the deputy mayor of Saint Petersburg, Vladimir Putin, walked out. The language of threat from Russia began in the 90s. In 2005 there was a large cyber attack on Estonia. This is why these countries wanted to join NATO, because they felt a reasonable direct threat from Russia.’
NATO is not a direct threat to Russia’s homeland, and it is only a threat to Russia’s interests if Russia has the intention of dominating its neighbors. Russia’s interest in Ukraine is not primarily defensive, but imperial.
There was almost no U.S. military presence in Eastern Europe until Russia stole Crimea with military force.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKdpLFvxJxg
How To Fix California’s Self-Inflicted Homeowner’s Insurance Crisis
“According to a 2023 paper from the International Center for Law and Economics, as of 2020, despite sky-high property values and well-known wildfire risks, Californians “paid an annual average of $1,285 in homeowners insurance premiums across all policy types—less than the national average of $1,319.” When insurers need to raise rates to reflect risks and costs, they can only do so after extended hearings and a government review process designed to please voters, not to reflect economic reality. Unsurprisingly, well before the Los Angeles fires, insurers were limiting coverage and leaving the state.
Even Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara admits insurers “don’t have to be here, and when we try to overregulate, we’ll see what happened after the Northridge earthquake, when the legislature came in and tried to overregulate, and they no longer write earthquake insurance in California.””
https://reason.com/2025/05/21/how-to-fix-californias-self-inflicted-homeowners-insurance-crisis/