Free Republic

So, Al Capone lives in your city. Do you talk about it? Do you mention that this Mafia guy got his mansion by breaking the law, blackmailing people, buying and selling politicians, not to mention killing people? Seriously, do you ever talk about Al Capone? Or do you look the other way and pretend that nothing is going on where you live, nothing journalistically interesting, nothing criminally interesting. The man is a psychopath and he’s running a criminal empire in your city. This is not without consequences. To survive, he will have to corrupt your police department, court system, and...

John Dewey is often blamed (by me and many others) for being the cause of the long, relentless decline in American public education. In fairness, he is only the famous face of a bigger story. In the early years of the 20th century, as the Victorian era moved toward the wasteland of World War I, anxiety and ferment rippled across America and Europe. Unions were rising; revolution was preached in every capital; assassinations were common. There was genuine fear that civilization would fly apart. Edward A. Ross, a sociologist, published an influential book in 1901: Social Control: a survey of...