Jonathan Emerson-Pierce

My February 2026 Essay for Public Discourse "We cannot expect to preserve a liberal democracy until each generation learns to embrace its civic responsibilities." thepublicdiscourse.com/2026/02/100125/

Two hundred fifty years ago this week, George Washington and his Continental Army set off for fortified New York City and prepared to repel a British invasion. thefp.com/p/this-week-in…

NEW: California's In-Home Supportive Services Program loses an estimated $6 billion to $12 billion yearly to scammers. Meanwhile, the state’s powerful home-care unions collect more than $149 million in membership dues, funneling money into the political network supporting Newsom and California Democrats.

A dog in Ireland couldn’t wait in the car any longer and started honking the horn for its owner.

Should a KKK member be allowed to teach at a public school? Most @FloridaState students said no. Then I asked the same question about ISIS, and students became less confident.

“God used beautiful mathematics in creating the world, but the world may not care about beauty.” Paul Dirac was famous for trusting beauty as a guide in physics. He believed that the most fundamental laws of nature should be mathematically elegant, and this belief even led him to predict the existence of antimatter purely from the beauty of his equations. But this quote carries a deeper reflection. Dirac also understood that nature does not have to follow human ideas of beauty. What seems simple or elegant to us might not be how the universe actually works. In a way, he was reminding us to stay humble. Beauty can guide us, but it is not a guarantee of truth. The universe follows its own rules, whether they look beautiful to us or not.

Mamdani gets dismal report card from New Yorkers after less than 100 days in office trib.al/LXgrzpo

“Most problematic theories in the human sciences tend to fragment and flatten, sometimes even dehumanize humanity. Some other accounts, however, vaunt humans to nearly godlike status.” comment.org/reducing-the-i…

France under pressure: Some cities losing cultural cohesion, grappling with crime, extremist influence, and rising local tensions. Don´t miss our latest episode with French MEP @MarionMarechal 👇 youtube.com/watch?v=J3kHfU…

This week made one thing clear: the Middle East’s conflict isn’t just political, it’s civilizational. Read this DC by @AlispeaksX idicenter.org/commentary/the…

EXCLUSIVE: Vladimir Putin has openly defied Sir Keir Starmer’s threat to seize sanctioned Russian vessels by sending a warship to escort them through the Channel. But just how many Russian ships have been through British waters? ⬇️ telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/04/0…

"Our spiritual, cultural, and political recovery will demand strength of soul and truly arduous efforts." Daniel J. Mahoney on why the spirit of civilizational self-repudiation must be named and resisted before any genuine American renewal is possible. hubs.li/Q049CK880

The federal opposition has called for a federal and NSW police response to a new sermon shared online by notorious Islamic hate preacher Wissam Haddad, in which he targets Jews, Christians and mocks Easter. skynews.com.au/australia-news…

When language sounds profound, it can create the illusion of insight—even though it really says nothing at all. See why this matters for science, philosophy, and public discourse: bit.ly/4tlySwj

April 8, 1341: Petrarch was crowned poet laureate of Rome on Capitoline Hill. His rediscovery of Cicero's letters is often credited with starting the 14th century Italian Renaissance.

“The pope favors ‘diplomacy’ over war, but you can’t negotiate with evil,” @CalThomas argues. Read more: trib.al/n9onLug

Since 2020, the population of children under 5 in large urban counties has dropped 7%. In NYC, that number is 18%. Liena Zagare discusses a new @ManhattanInst report from her and @cojobrien that identifies a four-pillar policy agenda to reverse the urban family exodus.

Armed men kill 20 and abduct others in northwestern Nigeria villages reut.rs/41SY55D reut.rs/41SY55D

We assume that physics and cosmology are piecing together a complete picture of the universe, and that a theory of everything is simply a matter of time. | iai.tv/video/the-theo… What if that assumption is wrong? Astrophysicist Jo Dunkley makes the case that some mysteries may be permanently beyond our reach. A Professor of Physics at Princeton, Dunkley works at the frontier of our knowledge of the cosmos, leading research on the Atacama Cosmology Telescope and Simons Observatory.

Chicago’s delivery robots join services like Uber and Lyft in helping us through mundane tasks and burdens to an easier life. chicagotribune.com/2026/04/08/col…

"I call it theory-induced blindness: once you have accepted a theory and used it as a tool in your thinking, it is extraordinarily difficult to notice its flaws." -Daniel Kahneman (1934-2024) stevestewartwilliams.com/p/one-bias-to-…