Free Republic

Harvard professor of psychology Steven Pinker tweeted last week: "Belief in an afterlife is a malignant delusion, since it devalues actual lives and discourages action that would make them longer, safer, and happier. Exhibit A: What's really behind Republicans wanting a swift reopening? Evangelicals." Before responding to Pinker's remarkably ignorant tweet, I want to praise him. He is one of the few professors in America to call out the left's destruction of our universities. Most human beings lack courage, but no group is more cowardly than academics. This has been true for 100 years. From the German universities to today,...

Melanie McGrath reviews The Sexual Paradox: Troubled Boys, Gifted Girls and the Real Difference Between the Sexes by Susan Pinker Why is it that some boys who fail at school or university - Albert Einstein and Bill Gates come to mind - go on to forge spectacular careers while many talented girls never reach the top of the career ladder? Here, in a nutshell, is the paradox explored in the developmental psychologist Susan Pinker's new book. It is time, says Pinker, to stop thinking of men as the 'default' setting and women as variants of the norm, when advances in...

P>This is an important book. It was declared among the best non-fiction books of the year by: Amazon.com, Borders, Globe and Mail, Evening Standard, The Independent, Los Angeles Times, New Statesman, New York Times, Publishers Weekly, The Spectator, The Telegraph and the Literary Supplement. Many professionals and others reviewed this book. Because the book is long (509 pages) and comprehensive, it is amenable to a variety of reviews --both positive and negative. The actual number of book reviews is astounding. Put Steven Pinker into your Internet search engine and you will find hours of reading material. The importance of the...

<p>It's the same old song at the presumptuously named "Earth Summit" in Johannesburg. Leaders of nations that have brought us "wars and rumors of wars" live in plush surroundings like the fattest of cats while they indulge in the luxury of blaming others — specifically the United States — for the sufferings of the world's poor.</p>