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Chicago, Carl Sandburgs city of big shoulders, is not necessarily thought of as a literary city. As home to the famous Poetry magazine and countless successful authors, the Windy City has carved out a place as a literary capital that takes a back seat to no one, including our own New York City.

As Chicago took off as Americas leading manufacturing city in the early 20th century, it attracted many an ambitious youngster from the rural Midwest and the American South. Chicago wanted to be known as a cultural capital in addition to an industrial hub. In time, so many aspiring writers flocked to the city that the joke was that one couldnt take two steps in either direction without bumping into a budding poet.

Sandburg was a native of Galesburg who worked as a newspaperman before gaining fame as a biographer of Abraham Lincoln while competing with Robert Frost for the title of the good gray poet originally held by Long Islands Walt Whitman.

Another Midwesterner who made a beeline for the big city was Ernest Hemingway. A native of suburban Oak Park, Hemingway was too restless for Chicago or the U.S. itself, but as a young man, did much journalistic work in the big city while polishing his fiction skills.

Chicago as a venue for fiction hit high gear with the sprawling novels of Theodore Dreiser, an Indiana native who also worked in the rough and tumble world of Chicago journalism. The city was a backdrop for such classics as Sister Carrie (1900) and An American Tragedy (1925), works dramatizing the great American obsession of pursuing wealth at virtually all costs.

As the city grew, its native sons also contributed to literary Chicago. Ben Hecht followed the Hemingway mode of working as both a newspaperman and a novelist, before writing screenplays in Hollywood. Nelson Algren continued the naturalist tradition of both Dreiser and Hemingway in such popular novels as The Man With The Golden Arm (1949). His nonfiction book, Chicago: A City On The Make (1951) became synonymous with the citys image as a haven for hustlers and swindlers of all types.

We were mad for literature, wrote the novelist Saul Bellow of his West Side pals as they read and discussed Nietzsche and Spengler during the Depression-era 1930s. Bellows friends included Isaac Rosenfeld and Oscar Tarnov, both highly regarded novelists. It was Bellow, however, in such wide-ranging novels as The Adventures of Augie March (1953), Herzog (1964), Humboldts Gift (1975), The Deans December (1982) and Ravelstein (1999) who made the city come alive for millions of readers around the world. Bellows friend, Phillip Roth, was not a native of Chicago, but he used the city as the backdrop for his 1962 novel, Letting Go. Bette Howland, another writer in the Bellow orbit, captured the bleak side of the city in Blue In Chicago (1978). Journalists competed with novelists to best capture the citys frenetic pace. Studs Terkel was a broadcast journalist who, like Bellow, immortalized the city in such thick classics as Division Street (1967) and Working (1974), in which average Chicagoans talked into the tape recorder to tell the joys and anguish of everyday life in the imperial city. Mike Royko, the longtime newspaper columnist, also captured the citys color in thousands of columns, some collected in such volumes as Sez Who? Sez Me (1983) and Like I Was Sayin (1985). Roykos 1971 biography of longtime mayor Richard Daly, Boss, became another instant classic.

Central to the citys intellectual life is the University of Chicago. The South Side-based institution has boasted numerous intellectuals vital to the growth of conservative thought in the United States. Its faculty has included such Nobel Prize Laureates as Milton Friedman and Frederick von Hayek, both of whom championed free market economics in a Keynesian age, and in the process changed the worlds mind about how next to achieve prosperity.

University of Chicago

Other University of Chicago professors who fought a rearguard action for the traditional West were Leo Strauss, Edwards Shils, Richard Weaver and Allan Bloom. Weavers Ideas Have Consequences (1948) became a defining text in the bid to attract traditionalists and libertarians under the same conservative banner. Blooms 1987 best seller The Closing Of The American Mind put the author at ground central of the coming culture wars of the 1990s and beyond. The university, under the legendary leadership of Robert Hutchins, became famous for championing the Great Books pro-Western curriculum, which became the source of both its fame and controversy. Also central to American conservatism was the Chicago-based Regnery Gateway publishing house, which introduced the public to such prolific authors as Russell Kirk and William F. Buckley, Jr. before making the move to the more prosperous pastures of Washington, DC.

Recent decades have seen the rise of such bestselling authors as Scott Turow, plus James Atlas, Bellows first major biographer. A most prolific author has been the essayist, Joseph Epstein. A literary and cultural critic, Epstein has been a keen, if somber, observer of American life for decades, culminating in his longtime editorship of The American Scholar. His many thought-provoking books include Essays In Biography (2012) and A Literary Education (2014).

Life in Chicago, Bellow once maintained, is an ongoing high wire act. Will the city make it or eventually collapse? Plenty of writers will be chronicling the citys trajectory as the years unwind.

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Literary Chicago: A Haven For Hustlers And Swindlers - Long Island Weekly News

If this was said in the mythological context, then perhaps it is not sure. But now science has also started to believe that meditation forms an invisible shield. Also, in that environment, this shield protects against infections surrounding the body. According to the experts, meditating twenty minutes daily should be done, then there are changes in the body that it starts to combat diseases and stress attacks. It does not require separate medical precautions.

In addition, during the research work, Herbert was attracted to attention by experimenting on the working of the cardiovascular system and the reciprocal relations of the emotions. Apart from this, he along with his colleague Dr. Wallace and his team tested about two thousand persons, who used to meditate regularly. Apart from this, he has presented the findings of the study in the book Response Medicine and Tension. At the same time, he has written that due to meditation, there is also an increase in the inhibition capacity of a person's skin. Along with this, within three minutes, the oxygen consumption rate decreases by sixteen percent within three minutes, although in five hours of sleep there is only eight percent reduction.

For your information, let us tell youthat an experiment similar to this was also done by Dr. Peter Fenwick of Madslow Hospital and Institute of Psychiatry, London. Along with this, he has written in his book 'Meditation and Science' that he examined the electrical activity of the brain of some people who had been practicing meditation regularly for at least a year. Apparent changes were noted at the time of meditation. At the same time, the freshness gained by these waves, the body and mind gather enough strength to withstand external adversities.

If this was said in the mythological context, then perhaps it is not sure. But now science has also started to believe that meditation forms an invisible shield. Also, in that environment, this shield protects against infections surrounding the body. According to the experts, meditating twenty minutes daily should be done, then there are changes in the body that it starts to combat diseases and stress attacks. It does not require separate medical precautions.

In addition, during the research work, Herbert was attracted to attention by experimenting on the working of the cardiovascular system and the reciprocal relations of the emotions. Apart from this, he along with his colleague Dr. Wallace and his team tested about two thousand persons, who used to meditate regularly. Apart from this, he has presented the findings of the study in the book Response Medicine and Tension. At the same time, he has written that due to meditation, there is also an increase in the inhibition capacity of a person's skin. Along with this, within three minutes, the oxygen consumption rate decreases by sixteen percent within three minutes, although in five hours of sleep there is only eight percent reduction.

For your information, let us tell youthat an experiment similar to this was also done by Dr. Peter Fenwick of Madslow Hospital and Institute of Psychiatry, London. Along with this, he has written in his book 'Meditation and Science' that he examined the electrical activity of the brain of some people who had been practicing meditation regularly for at least a year. Apparent changes were noted at the time of meditation. At the same time, the freshness gained by these waves, the body and mind gather enough strength to withstand external adversities.

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These are the amazing benefits of meditation - News Track English

Charles Warner | The Union Times Sally Summers sings Sign Us With Ashes during the Ash Wednesday Community Service at Grace Methodist Church on Ash Wednesday. Ash Wednesday is the start of the 40 days of the Lenten Season, a time of preparation for Christians through prayer, doing penance, mortifying the flesh, repentance of sins, almsgiving, and self-denial. Its institutional purpose is heightened in the annual commemoration of Holy Week, which commemorates the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, beginning on Palm Sunday when Christ entered Jerusalem, through His crucifixion on Good Friday, and culminating with His resurrection on Easter Sunday.

UNION What would give up for Lent? What should give up for Lent?

Lent is a six-week period that begins with Ash Wednesday and ends approximately six weeks later before Easter Sunday. It is traditionally described as lasting 40 days, the number of days Jesus Christ spent in the wilderness before beginning His earthly ministry and during which He faced and rejected three temptations offered Him by Satan.

The institutional purpose of Lent is to prepare Christians through such things as prayer, doing penance, mortifying the flesh, repentance of sins, almsgiving, and self-denial. Its institutional purpose is heightened in the annual commemoration of Holy Week, which commemorates the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, beginning on Palm Sunday when Christ entered Jerusalem, through His crucifixion on Good Friday, and culminating with His resurrection on Easter Sunday.

Locally, Lent is celebrated at Grace United Methodist Church which hosts a service each Wednesday during the Lenten Season. Each service is lead and the Lenten message delivered by a different minister from a different church in Union County. After each ceremony, worshippers adjourn to the Grace Methodist Social Hall where they will enjoy a meal prepared by church members.

This year, Ash Wednesday was February 26, and, as it has for many years, Grace Methodist held its annual Ash Wednesday Community Service that day.

As in previous years, the service included the Lenten Meditation, the sermon delivered by a local minister. Wednesdays Lenten Meditation was delivered by Rev. David Bauknight, Pastor of Grace Methodist Church, who began by telling a story about the confrontation between a priest and a mugger during Lent.

The priest was walking down an alley at night in a bad section of town when a mugger steps out of the shadows behind him and puts a knife to his back and demands all his money. Terrified, the priest turns around, opening his coat to give the mugger what he wants. In doing so, he reveals his clerical collar. The mugger, realizing hes dealing with a man of God, steps away, apologizing profusely, saying he doesnt want the priests money. The priest, however, does reach into his pocket and offers the mugger a cigar. The mugger, however, says he cant take the cigar because hes given up smoking for Lent.

Bauknight then spoke about how that when people think of Lent they often associate it with giving up something, usually something they enjoy. He said while this is true it often leads people to view Lent as something unpleasant because they are giving up fun things. However, he said that this is a misunderstanding of Lent which he said is best illustrated by the phrase spring has sprung, which he said is a good time we can be part of. Bauknight said the purpose of Lent is to remind us of the time Jesus spent in the wilderness, a time of purification and preparation that Christ underwent in preparation for His ministry on earth in which He preached and taught about humanitys relationship to God, bringing the message that God cares for each and every one of His children.

Lent, Bauknight said, is time we think about what God is asking of us to bring us closer to Him through Jesus Christ, a process that He assists us in by sending His children comfort and guidance through His Holy Spirit.

The question remains, however, what would you give up for Lent? Or, better yet, what should you give up for Lent that would draw you closer to God? Bauknight made some suggestions about what we can give up for Lent.

Grumbling

Bauknight suggested that something we can give up for Lent would be grumbling, pointing to Ephesians 5 which calls upon us to be giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

15 Minutes In Bed

Bauknight also suggested giving up 10-15 minutes in bed and instead spending that time in prayer, studying The Bible, having a devotional, things that can help give us a better understanding of Gods love for us and what He wants for us.

Finding Fault

Bauknight also suggested giving up finding fault in others, pointing out that while constructive criticism is a good thing, everyone has faults and that each of us hopes others will overlook our faults so each of us should do the same for others.

Speaking Unkindly

Bauknight also suggested giving up speaking unkindly of others and instead speaking of others in ways that are kindly and uplifting.

Hatred

Bauknight also suggested giving up hatred of others and instead practice loving one another, pointing out that love covers a multitude of sins and so each us should be generous in Christian love for others.

Worrying

Bauknight also suggested giving up worrying and instead turning the things that are worrying us over to God and live for today and let Gods grace be sufficient in helping us through the challenges of life.

TV

Bauknight suggested giving up TV one evening a week and instead using that time to go visit someone who might be in need.

Spending

Bauknight suggested giving up buying anything but essentials and instead using the money to give to others who are struggling with obtaining the necessities of life.

Judging Others

Bauknight also suggested giving up judging the appearance of others according by the standards of the world and instead look at others as Christ looks at all of us.

Giving up these things, Bauknight said, is in keeping with the spirit of Lent, bringing us to a closer understanding and appreciation of all that Christ has done for us including His suffering and sacrifice on the cross and enabled us to truly prepare ourselves for the sheer job of Easter morning when Christ rose from the dead in triumph over death, hell, and the grave.

Lenten Season is continuing and so are the Lenten Community Services at Grace Methodist Church. The next service will be held today (March 4) at noon with the Lenten Meditation delivered by Rev. Lee Moseley of Union Presbyterian Church.

Each Lenten Service in the Grace Methodist Sanctuary is followed by a $7 lunch in the church social hall. Todays menu features chicken casserole, green beans, fruit salad, rolls, dessert, tea & coffee.

The remaining services will be held on the following dates with the following ministers leading worship and the following menus served those days:

Wednesday, March 11

Speaker Father Mike McCafferty from St. Augustine Catholic Church

Menu Baked Ham, potato salad, green beans, sliced cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, rolls, dessert, tea & coffee

Wednesday, March 18

Speaker Rev. Merritt Wentz from Bethel/Duncan Acres UMC

Menu BBQ w/buns, baked beans, coleslaw, potato chips, pickles, dessert, tea & coffee

Wednesday, March 25

Speaker Rev. Robbie Stollger from First Baptist Church

Menu Meatballs w/sauce, copper pennies, brown rice, dessert, tea & coffee

Wednesday, April 1

Speaker Rev. Jeff Farmer from Sardis UMC

Menu Pork Loin, Asian slaw, sweet potatoes, rolls, dessert, tea & coffee

Wednesday, April 8

Speaker Rev. Dr. A.L. Brackett from St. Paul Baptist Church

Menu Fried chicken, green beans, macaroni/cheese, biscuits, dessert, tea & coffee

Charles Warner | The Union Times Rev. David Bauknight, Pastor of Grace Methodist Church, delivers the Lenten Meditation during the Ash Wednesday Community Service hosted by the church. Grace Methodist hosts a series of Lenten Services during Lent, the 40-day period that begins on Ash Wednesday and ends just before Easter. During his Lenten Meditation, Bauknight spoke about the things people can give up for Lent that can help draw them closer to God such as grumbling, worrying, hatred, and judging others.

https://www.uniondailytimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/web1_thumbnail_20200226_120244.jpgCharles Warner | The Union Times Rev. David Bauknight, Pastor of Grace Methodist Church, delivers the Lenten Meditation during the Ash Wednesday Community Service hosted by the church. Grace Methodist hosts a series of Lenten Services during Lent, the 40-day period that begins on Ash Wednesday and ends just before Easter. During his Lenten Meditation, Bauknight spoke about the things people can give up for Lent that can help draw them closer to God such as grumbling, worrying, hatred, and judging others.

Charles Warner | The Union Times The Ash Wednesday Community Service hosted by Grace Methodist Church on Ash Wednesday (February 26) featured the singing of hymns including Have Thine Own Way Lord and What Wondrous Love Is This! Those attending also took part in the Call To Worship and Prayer In Unison while also enjoying the performance of In The Hour of Trial during the Prelude and The Glory of These Forty Days by Organist Tommy Bishop.

https://www.uniondailytimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/web1_thumbnail_20200226_120357.jpgCharles Warner | The Union Times The Ash Wednesday Community Service hosted by Grace Methodist Church on Ash Wednesday (February 26) featured the singing of hymns including Have Thine Own Way Lord and What Wondrous Love Is This! Those attending also took part in the Call To Worship and Prayer In Unison while also enjoying the performance of In The Hour of Trial during the Prelude and The Glory of These Forty Days by Organist Tommy Bishop.

Charles Warner | The Union Times Sally Summers sings Sign Us With Ashes during the Ash Wednesday Community Service at Grace Methodist Church on Ash Wednesday. Ash Wednesday is the start of the 40 days of the Lenten Season, a time of preparation for Christians through prayer, doing penance, mortifying the flesh, repentance of sins, almsgiving, and self-denial. Its institutional purpose is heightened in the annual commemoration of Holy Week, which commemorates the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, beginning on Palm Sunday when Christ entered Jerusalem, through His crucifixion on Good Friday, and culminating with His resurrection on Easter Sunday.

https://www.uniondailytimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/web1_thumbnail_20200226_120608.jpgCharles Warner | The Union Times Sally Summers sings Sign Us With Ashes during the Ash Wednesday Community Service at Grace Methodist Church on Ash Wednesday. Ash Wednesday is the start of the 40 days of the Lenten Season, a time of preparation for Christians through prayer, doing penance, mortifying the flesh, repentance of sins, almsgiving, and self-denial. Its institutional purpose is heightened in the annual commemoration of Holy Week, which commemorates the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, beginning on Palm Sunday when Christ entered Jerusalem, through His crucifixion on Good Friday, and culminating with His resurrection on Easter Sunday.

Charles Warner | The Union Times Kathy Stepp has a cross drawn on her forehead by the Rev. David Bauknight of Grace Methodist Church during the Imposition of the Ashes that concluded the Ash Wednesday service hosted by Grace Methodist last Wednesday. Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent, the six weeks leading up to Easter Sunday. Each year Grace United Methodist Church hosts a celebration of Lent with a service each Wednesday for the duration of the Lenten Season. Each service features a different minister from a different church in Union County delivering the Lenten Meditation. Bauknight delivered the Lenten Meditation last Wednesday and the Lenten Meditation at todays service will be delivered by the Rev. Lee Moseley of Union Presbyterian Church.

https://www.uniondailytimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/web1_thumbnail_20200226_122557.jpgCharles Warner | The Union Times Kathy Stepp has a cross drawn on her forehead by the Rev. David Bauknight of Grace Methodist Church during the Imposition of the Ashes that concluded the Ash Wednesday service hosted by Grace Methodist last Wednesday. Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent, the six weeks leading up to Easter Sunday. Each year Grace United Methodist Church hosts a celebration of Lent with a service each Wednesday for the duration of the Lenten Season. Each service features a different minister from a different church in Union County delivering the Lenten Meditation. Bauknight delivered the Lenten Meditation last Wednesday and the Lenten Meditation at todays service will be delivered by the Rev. Lee Moseley of Union Presbyterian Church.

Grace Methodist hosts Ash Wednesday service

Charles Warner can be reached at 864-762-4090.

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The priest, the mugger, and Lent - Union Daily Times

Peterson himself described some of its symptomatic features in Maps of Meaning when he discusses how the breakdown of traditional mythopoetic traditions generated a sense of nihilistic uncertainty

Introduction

We live in an increasingly chaotic world. This owes much to the precarity engendered by 21st century neoliberalism, which put forward the allure of unlimited personal freedom so long as working people and minorities abandoned their civic capacity to demand egalitarian change. In the aftermath of the 2008 Recessionwhen the contradictions and instabilities of the Washington consensus and neoliberal governance exposed the naked emperor in all his ideological frailtyone saw a resurgence of energy on the Left. Many once more saw the opportunity to push for a fairer world, where resources and power were distributed in a more just manner. These developments are climaxing now in the push to get genuinely Left candidates into office in both the United Kingdom and the United States, which would solidify a major sea change in the politics of developed states.

The Decay of the Post-Modern Epoch

For all the optimism this may induce, every progressive step forward brings with it the risk of conservative reaction. We are currently inhabiting a highly reactionary period, with post-modern conservatives like Donald Trump and Boris Johnson advancing right-wing agendas designed to re-entrench traditional authority figures (and groups) atop the social hierarchy. Many are calling for the retreat of democracyor are castigating the advance of marginalized groups who agitate for their fair share, dismissing them as the resentful, ungratefulproduct of so called post-modern neo Marxist indoctrination. By far the most famous intellectual associated with this pushback is Jordan Peterson. The Canadian psychologist and University of Toronto Professor is the author of the best-selling 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos and has millions of followers on YouTube and Twitter. He is also well-known as a critic of the radical left, characterizing social justice activists as totalitarian and offer scathing denunciations of progressive thinkers and agitators. Peterson is also a frequent guest at various conservativemedia outlets to denounce the evils of political correctness and identity politics. These efforts have made him a hero to many conservatives, while also catalyzing an onslaught of progressive commentary pointing out the numerous flaws in his analysis. These shortcomings range from his questionable understanding ofleft-wing theory to his unfortunate tendency to associate with some unsavory figures on thefar-right,which cost him a prestigious gig at Cambridge. These critiques are often well-founded, but so far there has been a lack of systematic engagement with his thinking as a whole. This includes a lack of in-depth examination of his works such asMaps of Meaning and his other academic publications.

Our bookMyth and Mayhem: A Leftist Critique of Jordan Peterson is intended to fill this gap. It is going to be released on April 24th with Zero Books. It examines Petersons intellectual output and offers comprehensive criticisms of many dimensions of his thought, ranging from his support for capitalism to his denunciation of the post-modern left. It is written by four authors, Matt McManus, Ben Burgis, Conrad Hamilton, and Marion Trejo, each of whom brings their respective expertise to the table when examining Petersons work. The book also includes a lengthy introduction by Slavoj iek, which both examines the place of Peterson in contemporary culture and looks back on their debate several months ago.

One of the major topics of analysis is the nature of post-modernity and how to deal with it. Post-modernism is typically described as a left-wing philosophical outlook, and it is often misleadingly lumped in with a number of different forms of identity politics such as radical feminism. However, these various other approaches such as radical feminism have independently complex genealogies and outlooks. While there are certainly left-wing forms of political agitation, post-modernity is better interpreted as a cultural condition characteristic of late 20th and early 21st century life. Peterson himself described some of its symptomatic features in Maps of Meaning when he discusses how the breakdown of traditional mythopoetic traditions generated a sense of nihilistic uncertainty, leading some to retreat into cynicism and others to embrace new dogmatisms.

What Peterson misses is the way in which capitalist processes contributed to the upending of traditional values and the establishment of an increasingly relativistic culture. Professor Gabriel Andrade expressed a similar point in his recent article Listen Jordan Peterson, Marx Is Your Friend. The characteristic feature of capitalismas Marx and Engels expressed in The Communist Manifestois that it is a revolutionary mode of production where all that is sacred is profaned and, everything that is solid melts into air. The logic of capital is to quantify the value of everything in the world so commodities can be placed into relations of exchange with one another. Each thing that exists has its price. This is true even of human beings, which even the classical liberals like Kant insisted should not be subjected to the quantifiable appraisals of capital. For Kant, each human being possessed an inherent dignity which placed a person, beyond price. By contrast in the neoliberal capitalist era of the 21st century, human beings must have a price:about $10 million USD,according to the EPA. The sacred quality of life that persisted in earlier epochswhere each individual was considered beyond price as a unique subject of Gods loveis replaced by an era where atomized individuals have a carefully calculated relative value, which can be traded off against other values. As this logic gradually permeates all areas of the lifeworld, we see even religious beliefs for which people live and died given an instrumental worth related to health and good-functioning in society.

Conclusion: An Ongoing Project

Our ambition is for our book to be a jumping off point for a more robust discussion on Peterson and the political right generally. With that in mind the authors have also prepared a websiterun by our online manager Greg Talion, which is taking submissions for articles discussing and criticizing any element of Petersons thought from a Left perspective. Anyone interested in making a contribution is welcome to submit to us from any theoretical background. We are also very open to submissions defending Peterson provided they are written in a spirit of dialogue and debate. With that said, we are especially interested in essays criticizing Peterson from a feminist, critical race, queer-theoretical, and socialist perspective. The website should supplement Myth and Mayhembyproviding an ongoing intellectual resource for activists and intellectuals eager to push against Petersonian argumentsor other positions staked out by the Right. These resources are vital in a reactionary era. This is all the more the casewhen for the first time in decadesthere is a serious opportunity to win the battle of ideas along with political power ala the election of a Democratic Socialist candidate to the White House.

Matt McManus is Professor of Politics and International Relations at Tec de Monterrey, and the author of Making Human Dignity Central to International Human Rights Law and The Rise of Post-Modern Conservatism. His new projects include co-authoring a critical monograph on Jordan Peterson and a book on liberal rights for Palgrave MacMillan. Matt can be reached atmattmcmanus300@gmail.comor added on twitter vie@mattpolprof

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Announcing the Release of Myth and Mayhem: A Leftist Critique of Jordan Peterson - Merion West

NORTH AMERICA

Peterson, a professor of psychology at the University of Toronto in Canada, rocketed to fame in 2016 after taking to the air waves to trumpet his refusal to use the gender-neutral pronoun one of his students requested he use.

This expectation would rest on Burstons unsparing critique of Sigmund Freud, Jacques Lacan, Louis Althusser and, especially, Friedrich Nietzsche, who are Petersons btes noires. With something less than precision, Peterson labels this heterodox group cultural Marxists whose works were used to undermine the traditional university and serve to found the post-modern university more committed to grievance than the search for truth.

Burston also agrees that it is no good thing that liberal arts faculties are top heavy with left-wing professors. Further, Burston criticises the fact that in some American universities, pseudo-judicial proceedings . . . convened to adjudicate allegations of sexual harassment or sexual assault are a grotesque mockery of justice because they lack due process (in some cases the accused does not even know the evidence presented against them).

Then, the Toronto-born Burston uses sociologist Don Carveth the way a football player would a reverse pass and shifts our attention to the fact that, ironically, the crisis in the liberal arts, the loss of faith in evidence has led not to any sort of liberation but, rather, has unknowingly furthered the corporate agenda now dominating many North American universities.

Generalising from his field, Carveth writes, under the hegemony of neo-liberalism, the displacement of truth values in psychoanalysis has proceeded apace as: Genuine critique has not been welcomed.

Towards the middle of chapter seven, after showing that Petersons claim to being a Classical Liberal is risible, Burston shows what Petersons call for the slashing of liberal arts budgets looks like in the real world. Citing declining enrolment, university administrators hire only part-time faculty, freeze tenured facultys salaries, slash operating budgets and research funds.

But the money, and lo and behold! the revenues directed away from the humanities and social sciences (and the fine arts, eg painting, music) invariably end up in the budgets devoted to STEM [science, technology, engineering and mathematics] disciplines, the salaries of the rapidly multiplying cohort of assistants and associate administrators, and the budgets and salaries of sports coaches, some of whom in the United States earn millions of dollars. Money also goes to public relations professionals whose task is to boost the universitys brand or image.

Burstons trenchant critiques of thinkers like Althusser are central to understanding whats gone wrong with North American universities. Liberal arts professors have used Althusser and Nietzsche to undermine the traditional mission of the university, the search, however flawed, for truth. These same thinkers have served to found the post-modern university, more committed to grievance, rooted in Romantic views of the self as the primary intelligible unit, than rational inquiry.

Althusser convinced the generation I am part of (I entered university in 1976) that reading Freud meant reading Lacan. But, Lacans version of Freud, Burston shows, was never a serious or scholarly endeavour.

Often Lacan attributes ideas to Freud that he never said. The specific examples need not detain us, for, whats truly important is Burstons willingness to state baldly that objective truths exist: Freud did or did not say what Lacan says he did. The same is true for recording Lacans anti-Semitism, which wasnt discussed when I was in university but which Burston shows is in his texts. Facts matter.

Many will bristle at Burstons characterisation of left-wing authoritarianism and its dalliance with anti-Semitism and also try to dismiss that of both Hamas and Hezbollah. Burston is to be commended, however, by pointing out the contradiction that far from being progressive, both are unabashedly misogynistic, anti-gay and anti-democratic.

Before anyone dismisses Burston, who does nothing to hide being Jewish, for being an apologist for Israel, he is equally hard on Benjamin Netanyahu, who put the lie to the belief that a right-wing Jew was close to a contradiction.

Burston homes in on Petersons quite wobbly understanding of those he calls cultural Marxists. For all their errors, Burston argues, Marxists believe in progress in the sense that society can be remade into a classless society. Post-modernists like Nietzsche or more recently Jacques Derrida eschewed such a teleological view of history. Truths are illusions we have forgotten are illusions, wrote Nietzsche in 1873 in a line I quoted a number of times in literature essays.

Drunk with such power, my professors and I missed that in his first work, The Birth of Tragedy (1872), Nietzsche argues that slavery is necessary for the creation of high culture, while in The Genealogy of Morals (1887), perhaps his most quoted book, he divided the human race into birds of prey and lambs, which now makes me wince.

Which leaves the question, since Peterson rejects post-modernism, does he erase this difference or, perhaps, side with the lambs? Rule six in his book, Set your house in perfect order before you criticise the world, may sound like a folksy flourish, but it chills Burston: most of us manage to bumble through life without our closets let alone our lives being in perfect order.

Burston rightly links this rule with Petersons statement in a New York Times interview that the people who hold that our culture is an oppressive hierarchy . . . dont want to admit that the current hierarchy might be predicated on competence.

Burston doesnt let the modal verb might blind him to Petersons point, one eagerly embraced by corporate lenders and administrators who look back on (a mythical view) of the 1950s and hardly suggests that Peterson has any doubts about the legitimacy of todays hierarchies.

Witches and dragons

Parts of Burstons book are heavy going. Fortunately, he livens his discussion of notoriously difficult writers like Lacan and Theodor Adorno with witty asides. Peterson, however, moves him to being incredulous.

In one interview, Peterson said, witches do exist. They just dont exist in the way you think they exist You may say well dragons dont exist. Its like, yes they do the category of the predator and the category of the dragon are the same category. Its a superordinate category. It absolutely exists more than anything else. In fact, it really exists. What exists is not obvious.

To say that witches exist is not fake news. Rather, Burston declares, it is manifestly absurd. To say that dragons exist is utter nonsense.

Against Petersons bombast and faux erudition, recalls the Canadian literary critic Northrop Frye, whose The Great Code: The Bible and Literature became the surprise best seller of 1981. Frye spoke (and wrote) with genuine authority and it was his deep learning first to become an Anglican minister and then a professor of literature that led him to being a genuine liberal, who took strong stands against the Vietnam War and South African apartheid.

Fryes example leads Burston to believe that education leads 1) not to quiescence but to seeing how the world can be made better because 2) genuine inquiry leads not to division into ever smaller group identities but, rather, to understanding the common humanity of men and women.

* Daniel Burston, Psychoanalysis, Politics and the Postmodern University, London: Palgrave Macmillan, ISBN 978-3-03-349202.

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Has teaching objective truths become inconvenient? - University World News

starred Burgess Meredith. Photograph: Moviestore/REX/Shutterstock

Fans of Don Patersons lyric poetry will find his latest volume, Zonal (Faber, 14.99), something of a surprise. Often given to self-reinvention, Paterson has always kept musical panache at the forefront of his multi-award-winning verse, be it in the laddish smarts of Nil Nil, the paternal meditations of Landing Light, or the metaphysical reach of Rain. This new book is not only his most seemingly confessional, but also a stylistic departure. Taking its cues from the first season of the TV classic The Twilight Zone, its often surreal, long-lined narratives jump from funny to sad to profound with a suppleness somewhere between Frank OHara and CK Williams. I am trying hard not to be that guy, sighs the speaker in one poem, and while I can fall prey to bitterness, I refuse to sound like some middle-aged incel addicted to Jordan Peterson videos. The poets cutting wit and acute awareness aside, the best poems here are the reimagined character portraits that bookend the collection: Lazarus, in which self-improvement meets the Orphic contemplation of the void; and Death, in which a self-deceiving salesman tries to buy off the grim reaper.

JO Morgan won the Aldeburgh first collection prize in 2009 for a book-length poem that recounted a childhood on the Isle of Skye. In his seventh volume, The Martians Regress (Cape, 10), he has quietly established himself as a gifted writer of the long poem. His previous book, Assurances, was an intimate presentation of his fathers involvement in maintaining Britains airborne nuclear deterrent. The Martians Regress is an imaginative leap, in its story of environmental collapse and a fragile humanity, though it mines not dissimilar terrain in conjuring familiar dystopias: Waking from his nightmare / The pressing blackness of the air / Failed to hide the martian from himself. / The nightmare too had woken. In portraying the variously hopeful, hopeless, comic and bleak ways of apparent aliens, Morgan brings us closer to ourselves.

Numinous musicality remains a hallmark of the former violinist Fiona Sampsons poetry. Come Down (Corsair, 10.99) traces the meeting points of our fleeting human lives and the shifting timelessness of the world that surrounds us, be it cool stone as our voices / lick at space, or words that make a wavering / line in snow. Free from punctuation except for the odd dash or question mark, Sampsons poems refuse to stay still, intent on pursuing lines of inquiry into what it all means: Wet stone smells / of lost meaning smells / of mysterious / wise intention / the unlived-in stonework / drawing back from us. But Come Down also faces up to precise human hurt, most hauntingly in the sexual damage of Old Man, and the titular long poem, exploring place, memory and the chasms of history.

David Harsent is the modern master of what could be called the poem noir. His formally adept work often draws a solitary character into disturbing, half-apprehended horrors, as the human psyche casts and conjures its shadows in an unforgiving world. In Loss (Faber, 14.99), we join an eerie narrative that begins at 00:00 and the full of night to come, as visionary insomnia engulfs a man confronting personal and public losses. While unremittingly bleak, this book-length poetic sequence is powerful in its metaphorical reach: Children in a pool of light, a pool of dust; the way / images deceive, the way time shunts and stalls, a test / of what gathers and corrupts. Like the best poets, Harsent reminds us what it is to lose sight of ourselves, as we might meditate / on the effect of pain but never on its cause.

Ben Wilkinsons Way More Than Luck is published by Seren.

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The best recent poetry review roundup - The Guardian

College football season is over. The offseason moves have begun. Some coaching carousels remain in full swing, while others have settled on whos to lead their respective programs in 2020 and, possibly, if the head coaches prove their individual worth in wins, beyond. Some players are bowing out and taking their talents elsewhere. Other players are deciding whether to stick around for the remainder of their eligibility or, at the behest of their Pop Warner dreams, to take it pro.

Thats where we come in, because news across the college football landscape comes at you fast this time of year. Check in here for the latest updates on the coaching carousel, as well as any player updates that impact the Big 12 Conference and the Texas Longhorns.

With Scottie Hazeltons departure for the defensive coordinator job at Michigan State, Kansas State has opted to promote safeties coach Joe Klanderman to the open coordinator job. Assistant coach Van Malone was also provided new titles of assistant head coach and passing game coordinator to add to his current job responsibilities as cornerbacks coach.

Texas Tech (defensive personnel)

IN Kevin Cosgrove (LSU), Derek Jones (Duke)

OUT Kerry Cooks (fired), Todd Orlando (USC)

It took Orlandos firing by Texas head coach Tom Herman to make it happen, but nevertheless, former Longhorns defensive coordinator landed with an in-state rival. Under Texas Tech head coach Matt Wells, Orlando was set to coach linebackers and had been named assistant head coach. To land him, Texas Tech nixed safeties coach Kerry Cooks and opted to move current defensive coordinator Keith Patterson in Cooks place.

However, all of the above fell through when Orlando ditched Lubbock for a gig as defensive coordinator with the USC Trojans just two weeks into his Texas Tech tenure. Also in tow with Orlando will be Texas ex Craig Naivar, who was originally expected to join him at Tech.

With Orlandos departure, the Red Raiders looked to Kevin Cosgrove to coach the programs linebackers. Cosgrove was most recently the leading defensive analyst on LSUs national championship-winning team. He also has nearly four decades of experience as a coach, with more than half of that coming as a defensive coordinator with New Mexico and Nebraska, among others.

Also joining Texas Techs coaching squadron will be Derek Jones, who is set to join the Red Raiders as a defensive back coach, co-defensive coordinator and associate head coach, the program announced earlier this week. Jones has spent the past 12 seasons at Duke, where he helped turn around an otherwise abysmal defense in recent years; prior to then, he spent ten seasons between Memphis, Middle Tennessee and Murray State.

TCU (offensive personnel)

IN

OUT Curtis Luper (Missouri), Chris Thomsen (Florida State)

Two things are for sure: former running backs coach Curtis Luper is heading to Missouri for a similar role and offensive line coach Chris Thomsen is off to the Florida State, where hell serve as a deputy head coach under head coach Mike Norvell. The rest, however, remains up in the air, albeit delicately Football Scoop reported on Jan. 15 that former TCU offensive coordinator Doug Meacham is expected to return as an inside wide receivers coach. Colorado State running back coach Bryan Applewhite is also expected to join TCU head coach Gary Patterson, per Football Scoop.

247Sports reports that Patterson is expected to name former Minnesota head coach Jerry Kill to his offensive staff, as a special assistant to the head coach. 247Sports notes that Kill wont be among the ten assistant coaches in 2020. Instead, hell oversee the offense from the perspective of coach and player evaluations, play calls and schemes, among other things.

Baylor (offensive and defensive personnel)

IN Dave Aranda (LSU), Ron Roberts (Louisiana), Larry Fedora (Texas), Joe Wickline, Brian Stewart (Detroit Lions)

OUT Matt Rhule (Carolina Panthers)

The NFLs Carolina Panthers stole Baylor head coach Matt Rhule at a price of $60 million over seven years. As a result, Baylor hired LSU defensive coordinator Dave Aranda. Its the first head coaching job of his career and also means that the Longhorns will face a new defensive coordinator in Baton Rouge this September. Not longer after, Aranda then hired Ron Roberts, who spent the past two seasons as defensive coordinator at Louisiana. In 2019, Louisiana finished No. 18 nationally in scoring defense, allowing 19.7 points per game.

The coaching carousel continued. Days later, Aranda added former Southern Mississippi and North Carolina head coach Larry Fedora as his offensive coordinator. Fedora spent 2019 as an analyst for the Longhorns, and holds a 79-62 record as a collegiate head coach.

Joe Wickline, previously an offensive lineman coach and offensive coordinator for the Longhorns under Charlie Strong, is also heading down the road to Waco, Baylor announced over the weekend. Its not Wicklines first stint with the Bears: From 1997 to 1998, he was an offensive line coach at Baylor prior to spending time at Florida, Oklahoma State and then Texas, where he coached under Strong from 2014 to 2015.

As is Brian Stewart, who was hired as the Bears new cornerbacks coach. Stewart was most recently in charge of cornerbacks with the Detroit Lions. In 2007 and 2008, he was also the defensive coordinator for the Dallas Cowboys under former head coach Wade Phillips. In 2009, he was with the Philadelphia Eagles, prior to taking his talents back to the college level, where he served in stints at Houston, Maryland, Nebraska and Rice from 2010 to 2017.

Oklahoma (offensive and defensive personnel)

IN DeMarco Murray, Jamar Cain (Arizona State)

OUT Ruffin McNeil (personal leave)

Football will have to wait for now, because family comes first for Oklahoma assistant head coach and outside linebackers coach Ruffin McNeil, whos leaving the program to move back to North Carolina to take care of his sick father, the Sooners announced in January.

With the departure of McNeill, Oklahoma opted to hire Jamar Cain away from Arizona State to coach the programs outside linebackers, Fox Sports reports. At Arizona State, Cain coached the Sun Devils defensive linemen. In Norman, hell inherit a solid defensive core between the likes of Jon-Michael Terry, Nik Bonitto and Joseph Wete.

Multiple outlets are also reporting that Oklahoma alum DeMarco Murray will return to Norman as the programs new running backs coach. During his time at Oklahoma from 2007 to 2010, he rushed for 3,685 yards and 50 touchdowns. He also recorded 10 touchdown receptions and three kickoff return touchdowns, earning him a school-record of 64 all-purpose scores. Not to mention the fact that he also holds Oklahomas record for all-purpose yards (6,498) and receiving yards by a running back (1,512.)

Oklahoma State (offensive coordinator)

IN Kasey Dunn

OUT Sean Gleeson (Rutgers)

Longtime Oklahoma State assistant coach Kasey Dunn got the best of this move. Dunn, head coach Mike Gundys longest tenured staff member since 2011 and the 2017 National Wide Receivers Coach of the Year, was promoted to offensive coordinator after Sean Gleeson was hired away for the same role with Rutgers.

Kansas (defensive personnel)

IN Jordan Peterson (New Mexico)

OUT Clint Bowen (North Texas), Tony Hull

In December, longtime Kansas defensive coordinator Clint Bowen announced he was leaving the program to join North Texas, after serving in a variety of roles over two separate stints 1998 to 2009 and 2012 to 2019 and under several Jayhawks head coaches. As a result, Kansas head coach Les Miles hired a safeties coach in Jordan Peterson, who previously served in the same role with New Mexico since 2017 , and as defensive coordinator with the program after he was promoted last year.

Adding to that, and although its unclear where, exactly, hell land, Tony Hull announced in February that hes leaving the Kansas football program. In his four years with the Jayhawks, Hull has served as a position coach (most recently as a running backs coach in 2019), associate head coach and recruiting coordinator.

West Virginia (offensive personnel)

IN Gerad Parker (Penn State)

OUT Xavier Dye (South Florida)

When West Virginia receivers coach Xavier Dye announced his departure for South Florida, head coach Neal Brown landed on Penn State receivers coach Gerad Parker to step in as the programs new offensive coordinator. West Virginia assistants Matt Moore and Chad Scott shared offensive coordinator duties in 2019. Moore and Scott remain on the coaching staff and will likely be moved to position coaches.

Iowa State (tight ends coach)

IN Mick McCall (Northwestern)

OUT Alex Golesh (UCF)

Iowa State head coach Matt Campbell couldnt hold on to tight ends coach Alex Goresh, whos taking over as co-offensive coordinator and tight ends coach with the UCF. As a result, longtime college football guy and former Northwestern offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Mick McCall has joined the Iowa State Cyclones as a running backs coach, according to Football Scoops. Assistant coach Tom Manning was in charge of running backs in Ames in 2019 but has opted to move to coaching the tight ends position.

Kansas State (special teams coach)

IN

OUT Sean Snyder (USC)

Its the end of an era, because the Snyder family is no longer at Kansas State. Sean Snyder, the son of longtime former head coach Bill Snyder, has accepted an offer to be the next special teams coordinator at USC, the Manhattan Mercury reports. During his time working with the Wildcats special teams from 2011 to 2018, Kansas State set or tied eight school records, and from 2013 to 2017, the program produced the first-team All-Big 12 kick returner each season.

Rumors of Scottie Hazelton being interested in the defensive coordinator job at Michigan State under newly hired head coach Mel Tucker also turned out to be true. Kansas State was unable to match the offer and Hazelton is heading to Lansing as the final assistant to be hired onto Tuckers somewhat promising staff.

Hell be sorely missed in Manhattan. In 2019, Hazeltons defense gave up a stingy 21.4 points per game to opponents, the second lowest among Big 12 teams. The Wildcats pass defense was also ranked as the conferences second-best, in which they gave up just 202.9 yards per game. Meanwhile, their eighth-ranked run defense gave up just 165.6 yards per game.

Redshirt sophomore defensive lineman Houston Miller Listed at 6-4, 275 pounds, Miller has declared for the NFL Draft. In 28 games at Texas Tech, Miller notched just three tackles.

Redshirt junior defensive tackle Ross Blacklock Despite the NFLs Advisory Committee telling Blacklock that he should hold off on declaring for one more season, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, hes opting to do so anyway and has signed with an agent.

Junior receiver Jalen Reagor After leading the Horned Frogs in catches (43), yards (611) and touchdowns (5) an inconsistent season by his standards Reagor has opted to forgo his senior season and try the NFL. Hes projected as a first round pick later this year.

Redshirt junior cornerback Grayland Arnold After earning a second-team All-Big 12 recognition in 2019 and a second overall conference ranking with six interceptions, 40 tackles and two pass breakups, Arnold is heading to the NFL, like former coach Matt Rhule.

Junior defensive lineman James Lynch This one was a no-brainer for the 2019 Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year. He finishes his college career with 33.5 tackles for loss and 22 sacks.

Junior receiver CeeDee Lamb For those who watched the Longhorns take on the Sooners in 2019, this move was in itself equally obvious for Lamb. After consecutive 1,000-yard receiving seasons with double-digit touchdown catches, Lamb is a projected first round pick.

Junior linebacker Kenneth Murray It didnt end well for Murray and the Oklahoma defense against LSU in the College Football Playoff Semifinal game (Heisman Trophy-winning LSU quarterback Joe Burrow ate their lunch), but Murrays 102 tackles and four sacks in 2019 were enough to boost his confidence enough to send himself to the NFL.

Freshman Utah State linebacker Christian LaValle LaValle, a member of the 2019 signing class with the Utah State Aggies, will finally get his chance to play for Wells, who left the Aggies for his current role at Texas Tech after the 2018 season. At 511, 240 pounds, 247Sports ranked LaValle and the No. 44 inside linebacker in the nation coming out of high school. LaValle will likely be forced to sit out the 2020 season unless he successfully petitions the NCAA for an eligibility waiver.

Redshirt junior quarterback Justin Rogers Although hell have to sit out a year before hes eligible to compete, the former TCU quarterback is transferring to UNLV. Once one of the highest touted recruits in TCU history, what was presumed to be a prolific career to come for the Horned Frogs was thrown into array when Rogers injured his knee early in his high school senior season, effectively delaying his career. In Las Vegas, hell join what our SBNation neighbors Frogs OWar described as a crowded QB room. Notably, Rogers will likely compete for the starting job once hes eligible for the 2021 season.

Senior Temple tight end Kenny Yeboah Yeboah barely missed his chance to reunite with former head coach Rhule, who recruited Yeboah as part of the 2016 class. As a redshirt junior with the Temple Owls, he accounted for career highs in catches (19), yards (233) and touchdowns (5). Yeboah is expected to fill a much needed role for the Bears in 2020.

Senior UCLA receiver Theo Howard Three months after he announced his intention to transfer away from the UCLA Bruins, Howard has found a landing spot in Norman, where hell help push what will be a younger group of receivers for the Sooners in 2020. During his career at UCLA, Howard amassed 1,359 yards and nine touchdowns on 119 receptions.

A host of current Sooners have also entered their name into the transfer portal. Names included among that bunch are redshirt sophomore linebacker Levi Draper, redshirt sophomore linebacker Ryan Jones, freshman linebacker Jonathan Perkins, redshirt junior cornerback Jordan Parker, freshman safety Ty DeArman and redshirt sophomore defensive tackle Troy James, among others players on the offensive side of the ball, such as redshirt junior receiver Mykel Jone and redshirt freshman offensive lineman Michael Thompson.

Though James and DeArman are set to land at Prairie View A&M and SMU, respectively, it remains to be seen where the remainder of the transfer hopefuls will land in 2020.

Junior West Virginia offensive lineman Josh Sills West Virginias loss is Gundys gain. With two years of eligibility remaining, Sills opted to remain in the Big 12 as a graduate transfer. His 2019 season ended early on with an ankle injury. Prior to then, he started 22 of 25 games with the Mountaineers and was named second-team All-Big 12 in 2018.

Missouri cornerback Christian Holmes is also taking his talents to Stillwater for his senior season in 2020. Holmes was a three-star prospect in the 2016 recruiting class. Over the course of 12 games in 2019, he recorded 29 tackles and defended four passes. In 2018, he recorded 35 tackles, defended 12 passes and picked off two interceptions for the Tigers.

Meanwhile, Oklahoma State receiver Tyrell Alexander has entered the transfer portal, according to GoPokes. In Stillwater, Alexander was recruited as a receiver but was moved to cornerback prior to the 2018 season. He was then moved back to receiver, where he played for the remainder of his time as a Cowboy. The redshirt senior will be immediately eligible wherever he lands, as noted by our SBNation neighbor Cowboys Ride For Free.

Joining him in the transfer portal will be sophomore receiver CJ Moore. A former four-star recruit out of Tulsa Union, Moore totaled four catches for 81 yards in five games, including a 59-yard reception against McNeese State, in 2019.

Senior running back Khalil Herbert You know run game-happy Les Miles hates to see this one. Prior to his commitment to Virginia Tech in early December, at Kansas, Herbert, who redshirted four games into the 2019 season, rushed for 1,735 yards and 14 touchdowns with an average of 5.4 yards per attempt during his time with the Jayhawks.

Junior West Virginia offensive lineman Josh Sills Like we noted above: West Virginias loss is Gundys gain.

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Big 12 Offseason Tracker: Kansas States Joe Klanderman promoted to DC - Burnt Orange Nation

It dawned on me the other day when I was preparing to give a lecture to my Chapman University students on the cardinal principles of taxation.

I suddenly realized that a wealth tax as proposed by Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and other radical democrats is already in the tax law.

It is called RMD Required Minimum Distributions that all U.S. citizens and residents are subject to if they are 72 years old or older.

RMD requires older Americans to withdraw around a certain percentage of their Individual Retirement Accounts (IRA) and other retirement funds every year, which is then subject to income taxes. The percentage depends on their age it tends to go up as people get older starting at 3% and gradually moving higher.

The amount you must withdraw depends on the RMD table provided by the IRS. The table can be found at https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-tege/uniform_rmd_wksht.pdf.

For example, if you are 72 years old, you divide the value of your IRA funds by 25.6, and that amount has to be withdrawn during the year and is taxable income.

If you have $1,000,000 in your IRA, that amounts to $39,062 of taxable income. At a 35% tax rate, you pay a wealth tax of $13,672.

Every year, your RMD percentage gradually rises. By age 80, you will have to withdraw $53,476 from a million-dollar IRA.

By age 90, you will be forced to withdraw $87,719, subject to income tax.

Is that not a federal wealth tax that is as extreme as Bernie Sanders is demanding?

The RMD was hidden inside the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act (TEFRA) passed in 1982 and signed by President Ronald Reagan (possibly holding his nose). The people who snuck this provision into the law knew that it would affect only a few people at first, but then a floodgate when the baby boomers like me hit their 70s.

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A capital gains tax is a tax on capital, but it is not a wealth tax per se because you can postpone indefinitely the tax by not selling your assets. But with RMD, you are forced to sell part of your assets (stocks, bonds, mutual funds, etc.) every year as taxable income to the IRS.

Of course, a property tax is also a wealth tax, but its imposed by states and counties, not the federal government.

If Bernie Sanders wealth tax became law, it would be a form of double taxation, since older Americans already pay a wealth tax through RMD.

A Tale of Two Triumphs

At the political conference at the Ritz Carlton in Laguna Niguel, California, I spoke before 400 conservative leaders, including Steve Moore, about How to Get Rid of a Bad Idea (Democratic Socialism): With a Better Idea Democratic Capitalism!

At the end of my talk, I told the audience that my book, The Making of Modern Economics, has become the Book the New Socialists Fear the Most. Why? Because my book addresses students directly those who find socialism appealing.

As one reviewer wrote, The Making of Modern Economics offers the most devastating critique of Marxism and Keynesianism ever written.

My book has converted many young socialists to democratic capitalists the stakeholder philosophy that shows that enlightened capitalism can benefit everyone, rich and poor. It solves the inequality issue that young people are most concerned about.

Afterwards, I sold my entire lot 51 copies of the paperback copies of The Making of Modern Economics. People were buying multiple copies to give to their children going to college and to their friends.

If you want an autographed copy, send $35 to http://www.skousenbooks.com, or call Harold at 1-866-254-2057.

Maxims and FreedomFest a Hit at EconoSummit!

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My second triumph was at the EconoSummit in Las Vegas. Rare coin dealer Robert Mish, president of Mish International (www.mishinternational.com), presented me with a Spanish real dollar minted in Mexico in the singular year 1776!

Robert Mish presents me with a 1776 Spanish real dollar.

It will be always be a prized possession. Im adding it to my collection of 1776 memorabilia, which includes a first edition of Adam Smiths Wealth of Nations.

Robert also told the audience that FreedomFest was the most important conference of the year and encouraged everyone to attend.

We signed up 30 people on the spot and are now close to 700 attendees! I expect a record crowd this year due to our keynote speaker, Dr. Jordan Peterson. If you want to see why hes creating so much buzz, watch this recent interview in Sweden over 6,300,000 views!

Were lining up great new speakers and sessions every day. To learn more and sign up, go to http://www.freedomfest.com and use code FF20EAGLE.

Remember, every subscriber who comes to FreedomFest will receive a FREE 2020 American Eagle silver dollar and a copy of the 7th ed. of Maxims. To become a subscriber to Forecasts & Strategies, go to http://www.markskousen.com, or call Eagle Publishing at 1-800-211-7661.

AEIOU,

You Blew it! Media Hype on the Coronavirus: Much Ado About Nothing?

An investment advisor informed me this week that he was canceling his clients conference in California because of the coronavirus scare.

Yesterday, the governor of California declared a state emergency, even though there are only 60 cases of the virus. More than 300,000 students are now kept out of school.

It is all overreacting due to media hype. The scaremongers are everywhere, and its hurting business and the stock market.

Chapman University, where I teach, reports that there are no cases of the virus on campus. It states, Campus operations are normal and the risk of COVID-19 within Orange County is considered by the Health Care Agency to be low.

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I have had a few students with the flu, which is typical during the winter, but no serious outbreak.

Even though my investment friend admitted that the chances of getting the virus was extremely low, and the chances of dying even lower, he said he couldnt take any chances that one of his clients might come down with the virus.

I spent the weekend at two conferences, a private political event in Laguna Niguel, California, and an investment seminar in Las Vegas (the EconoSummit). Thankfully, nobody canceled except one of the speakers, economist Art Laffer, 80, who was afraid he might contract the virus and die. Better safe than sorry.

Is the federal government, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), overhyping the worries about the COVID-19? Public health officials have warned Americans to prepare for a pandemic. Congress and the Trump administration are giving them billions of dollars, and what for? Meanwhile, private sector (pharmaceutical companies) are rapidly developing a vaccine.

Out of the 162 confirmed cases in the United States, only 11 people have died in America, and they were mainly elderly patients with a high medical risk. For most cases, the coronavirus has been mild.

One expert showed that the number of cases in China is topping out. Thats good news.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has been more reserved in its warnings, We do not see evidence as yet that the virus is spreading freely in communities. The WHO has refused to define COVID-19 as a pandemic.

Thank God that the Olympic Committee took a more sanguine attitude and has decided to go ahead with the 2020 Summer Olympics, July 24-Aug. 9, in Japan.

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We Already Have a Wealth Tax, and Its a Lot! - Stock Investor

Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of Reddit and Initialized Capital, is forever on the road. Heres what keeps him going. As told to Marjorie Korn

The week started in Buenos Aires. Then I flew to Mexico City. Now Im home in Miami. Last year, I did 550 flight hours for Initialized Capital, which I co-founded. So Im thoughtful about what I packlike a TRX to get a quick pump in before meetings. It makes me feel alive and helps with jet lag.

I try not to be away for more than a week at a timelonger for Grand Slams and tournaments. The mornings my wife, Serena [Williams], and I are together, shell go train, and Ill hit the gym with my trainer. I do whatever he tells me to dostrength training, weights, and old-school medicine ball work. I like to incorporate big, heavy chains into those workouts. I find excuses to wear them during exercises. As far as tennis, Ive never played in my life, and I dont really plan to pick up that sport unless my daughter, Olympia, wants to learn. Then Ill play with her.

I love intermittent fasting. Its easy for me because I love black coffee; thats all the breakfast I need. On weekends, I cheat. Family breakfast is more important. And Im 90 percent plant-based. I saw the documentary Game Changers before Olympia was born. It made a compelling case for a plant-based diet. At 34, I drink less than I did in my 20s. In business, its easy to drink every night. Now when I drink, I make it count. As far as my overall health, Id give myself a B+room for growth, but the trend is in the right direction.

For access to exclusive gear videos, celebrity interviews, and more, subscribe on YouTube!

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How Alexis Ohanian Keeps His Health and Fitness in Check on the Road - Men's Journal

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, second from left, along with Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, center, and public health officials arrive to provide updated public guidance around the coronavirus during a press conference at the Thompson Center, Friday, Feb. 28, 2020, in Chicago. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune via AP)

Passengers wear face masks to protect against the spread of coronavirus Feb. 29 as they arrive at Los Angeles International Airport.

A large monitor displaying a map of Asia and a tally of total coronavirus cases, deaths, and recovered, is visible behind Vice President Mike Pence, center, and Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, left, as they tour the secretary's operations center on Thursday Washington.

Through established plans and drills with the Iowa Department of Public Health as well as other local hospitals and health departments, Muscatine Public Health is promising to stay prepared in case of a coronavirus outbreak in the community.

A fifth case of COVID-19 has been confirmed in Illinois.

According to a Illinois Department of Public Health press release, the fifth confirmed case is a Cook County resident in his 20s who traveled through Chicago O'Hare International Airport earlier this month after traveling to Italy. He acquired the infection in Italy and has been hospitalized at Rush University Medical Center in isolation. Currently, public health officials are working to identify and contact his close contacts.

The state of Illinois is working around the clock to contain COVID-19 and educate the public, Governor JB Pritzker said in a press release. Public health officials anticipated there would be additional cases and we will continue to implement robust measures to contain the virus while also preparing for further transmission. The risk of COVID-19 to the general public in Illinois remains low, but we encourage the public to be vigilant and take extra care with the normal precautions you should take during flu season.

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has confirmed one of the earlier presumptive positive cases, and Illinois is awaiting results on the other case.

According to the IDPH, the transmission route for the third and fourth cases, a couple in their 70s, is currently unknown. "Both individuals recently traveled to another state, but health officials have not been able to link them to a COVID-19 confirmed case in Illinois or the other state," the release says. "Therefore, because IDPH has been unable to identify a point of exposure for these two cases, IDPH believes it is possible these cases may be due to community transmission in Illinois.

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Fifth case of COVID-19 confirmed in Illinois | Health and Fitness - Quad City Times