Tag: Benjamin Franklin

Commentary: Benjamin Franklin’s Work as a Psychologist

RealClearWire

Benjamin Franklin was one of the most fascinating men ever to walk this earth. Born into a working-class family, he had practically no formal education, yet became one of the most wealthy, influential, loved, and respected men of all time. Europeans dubbed him “the best president America never had.” His excess energy made him an indefatigable worker, but it was his enthusiasm for life and his insatiable intellectual curiosity that most distinguished him. Throughout his long and distinguished career, he was always observing, reading, discussing, testing, questioning. In particular, he studied people, including himself. 

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Commentary: The War on Thomas Jefferson

RealClearWire
Portrait of Jefferson in his late 50s with a full head of hair

The final decision, after years of debate, was made on Oct. 8 to remove from the New York City Council chambers the statue of the man we all know to have been a dreaded slaveholder—to the tune of 600 over his lifetime—Thomas Jefferson.

Despite that, writing at Bari Weiss’s Substack, political science professor Samuel Goldman, with whom I concur, is less than happy.

“The removal is disgraceful. Unlike monuments to Confederate leaders that display them in full military glory, Jefferson is depicted as a writer. Holding a quill pen in one hand and the Declaration of Independence in the other, he is clearly being honored for composing an immortal argument for liberty and equality.”

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Daylight Saving Time Starts Today

Zachery Schmidt

Americans – except for those in Arizona and Hawaii – will wake up this Sunday, March 10, and realize an hour has been deleted from their day. Welcome to daylight saving time! Beginning on March 14 2:00 a.m. through November 7 2:00 a.m., clocks will ‘Spring forward’ an hour.

The short answer to why we go through this yearly ritual is so that we can enjoy more of the natural daylight in the Summertime. So the hour people will lose on Sunday is totally worth it to enjoy more daylight in the Summer!

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American Inventor Series: Benjamin Franklin, American Printer

Anthony Gockowski

Before anything else, Benjamin Franklin was a printer. It’s difficult to imagine now, but printing was a strenuous trade in Franklin’s time, requiring late hours, heavy lifting of various lead types, and long shifts operating the manual presses. Franklin, however, loved to read, which suited him well in his career as a printer.

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