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Intellectual Takeout Tag

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The Tragic Decline of Music Literacy (and Quality)

17:35 20 August in Articles Written by Jon Henschen by rafferty

By Jon Henschen August 16, 2018, Intellectual Takeout Throughout grade school and high school, I was fortunate to participate in quality music programs. Our high school had a top Illinois state jazz band; I also participated in symphonic band, which gave me a greater appreciation for classical music. It wasn’t enough to just read music. You would need to sight read, meaning you are given a difficult composition to play cold, without any prior practice. Sight reading would quickly reveal how fine-tuned playing “chops” really were. In college I continued in a jazz band and also took a music theory class. The experience gave me the ability to visualize music (If you play by ear only, you will never have that same depth of understanding music construct.) Both jazz and classical art forms require not...

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Thomas Sowell: A Beacon of Reason in a Nonsensical World

17:54 01 February in Articles Written by Jon Henschen by rafferty

January 31, 2018 By Jon Henschen, Intellectual Takeout When I hear the name Thomas Sowell, it gets my immediate attention. Dr. Sowell, recently retired from his position as Senior Fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, is an American economist turned social theorist, political philosopher, and best-selling author. Born in North Carolina in 1930, Sowell grew up in Harlem, New York. He dropped out of high school at age 17 due to financial difficulties and problems at home, but went on to serve in the United States Marine Corps during the Korean War.  Following the war, he received a bachelor’s degree from Harvard, graduating Magna Cum Laude in 1958. The following year, he received a master’s degree from Columbia University. In 1968, he earned a Doctorate in Economics from the University of Chicago. Sowell served...

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The Subtle ‘Tyranny’ of Regulatory Overlords

19:23 15 January in Articles Written by Jon Henschen by rafferty

January 12, 2018 By Jon Henschen, Intellectual Takeout Who really benefits from the 14,000 pages of Dodd-Frank? If you’re a business owner, you quickly learn the pains of regulation and how it impacts your ability to survive and thrive. Author and theologian C.S. Lewis framed the topic best when he said, “Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.” This description aptly describes the actions of governmental bureaucrats who make up...