Florida & Beyond, and All Opinions

Only 8.4% of the world’s population lived in a fully functioning democracy, this shift is being referred to as a “democratic recession”. The gradual erosion of democratic values and freedoms and the slide towards authoritarianism is opening up more space for China to dominate the global agenda with its values.

Virtue signalers are often inclined to pat themselves on the back for their moral insight and courage. This refuge doesn’t work: talking about virtue is useful, but real virtue requires work. It is far more demanding and is far harder to fake.

Even if all the greenhouse gas emissions driving global warming ceased today, we find that Greenland’s ice loss under current temperatures will raise global sea level by at least 10.8 inches (27.4 centimeters). That’s more than current models forecast, and it’s a highly conservative estimate.

The verdict in the trial of co-defendants Adam Fox and Barry Croft Jr. comes after a previous trial ended in acquittals for two other co-defendants, Daniel Harris and Brandon Caserta, and mistrials for Fox and Croft. Their two other alleged accomplices, Ty Garbin and Kaleb Franks, pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with the prosecutions against the others.

NASA’s Artemis 1 mission is poised to take a key step toward returning humans to the Moon after a half-century hiatus. The mission, scheduled to launch on Monday, Aug. 29, 2022, is a shakedown cruise – sans crew – for NASA’s Space Launch System and Orion Crew Capsule. Here’s the significance of the mission.

The most telling new information is that the FBI agent says that a review of Mar-a-Lago documents the government had already obtained by grand jury subpoena earlier this year were marked in a way that would clearly indicate national security was at risk.

Chautauqua has never been immune from larger national tensions and sometimes failed to live up to the inclusive vision it proclaimed. But its founding values are those that Salman Rushdie’s supporters were seeking to defend when he was attacked there on Aug. 12.

The plan would offer up to US$10,000 in forgiveness for people who earn less than $125,000 – $250,000 for couples – and up to $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients. Three experts explain the decision and its impact.

As the United States gets less religious, is it also getting more selfish? No: progressive spiritual practitioners as a growing but largely unrecognized, underestimated and misunderstood political force. People may change what they do on a Sunday morning, but checking out of church doesn’t necessarily imply checking out of the political process.

The searing temperatures seen around the Mediterranean this year are indicative of rising global temperatures. Marine life is increasingly threatened. Marine heatwaves were found to be responsible for the loss of up to 80% of the population of some Mediterranean species between 2015 and 2019.

Happiness has evolved into an industry. That’s created the social expectation that we should all aspire to happiness. But this can be an obstacle to happiness. This is why if we actually want to live better lives, pessimism is the philosophical system that can help us achieve it.

More than 3% of incoming college students use a different set of pronouns than “he” or “she.” It is indicative of a growing number of young people who identify outside of a gender binary – that is, they do not identify as female or male.

Queer people have always belonged in rural places and have always participated in rural traditions. The unashamed presentation of queer, rural rodeoers refutes the lazy dichotomy of the urban queer progressive versus the rural homophobic conservative.

Just as money laundering enabled mobsters to disguise their ill-gotten gain as the profits of a legitimate business, message laundering presents dishonest and dangerous speech as credible, innocuous or persuasive.