Sunday Reads

An irregular round-up of interesting reads.  Most of these made me go "hmmmmm," none of them imply concurrence:
 
Quote of the Day:
"Idolatry is committed, not merely by setting up false gods, but also by setting up false devils; by making men afraid of war or alcohol, or economic law, when they should be afraid of spiritual corruption and cowardice." - G.K. Chesterton

• Research on college majors’ ROI demonstrates what you would expect.
• The “fatal conceit” is now a game.
• A new site that rates the kid-friendliness of movies.
• A reflection on the “100-year war” waged by radical Islam and the “West.”
• The rise of “plumbing” millionaires – a good thing!
• The pendulum swing – cities are on the “nope” list, small towns on the “ope.”
• In the age of a harmful food chain, the last thing needed:  The Big Dip Cup.   But why not? With a single-payer system, personal choices become a community tax.

• As American leadership retreats, others step up.
• Intuitively accurate: Hard work as a cure for mental health aliments.
• The tax-funded failure of “affordable housing” projects gets studied.
• Drink like a Founding Father.
• Ranked Choice voting –the pathway towards a more Parliamentary System – explained.
• A UN study on violence against women documents interesting data.   The study notes, “The replacement of the female sports category with a mixed-sex category has resulted in an increasing number of female athletes losing opportunities, including medals when competing against males.”
• New research suggests that the less regulated the industry, the less impacted it is from “shocks.”  Once again, common sense strikes!
• Is there a partisan bias towards marriage?  New research suggests this to be the case.
• “Experts” update their projections on the probability of a nuclear war.
• More evidence that “density” in housing is a trade-off with a cost paid in the general welfare.
• The heart-and-soul of America?  It’s always been a vibrant free market:  “[In 1807] …even with a population of only about 7.5 million, U.S. already had more business corporations than any other country, and possibly more than all other countries put together, securing its role as the world’s first “corporation nation.”
• Given the fade-out effect, the only lasting impact on children in universal pre-K, appears to be the household increase in wealth fueled by the longer hours parents were able to work.