Why pickups cost so much in the U.S.

July 5, Michael Davis, economics professor at the Cox School of Business, SMU Dallas, for an op-ed about how tariffs become taxes and can jack up the price of products like pickup trucks. Published in the Houston Chronicle under the heading Why pickups cost so much in the U.S.: https://tinyurl.com/s7uhyvxr 

It’s OK to talk politics with your family. I know this because my two brothers and I like to talk about pickup trucks, which is really just another way of talking politics.

I should explain. The brothers are both engineers. But not the kind of engineers who sit in front of a computer writing code and collecting stock options. They’re the kind of engineers who go to remote work sites full of heavy equipment and hazardous chemicals. They know about pickup trucks.

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The new nuclear threat: Belarus

July 5, Anthony Colangelo, Robert G. Storey Distinguished Faculty Fellow and Professor of Law at the Dedman School of Law, SMU Dallas, for an op-ed examining the international law implications of Belarus using nuclear weapons supplied by Russia. Published in The Hill under the heading The new nuclear threat: Belarus: https://tinyurl.com/4b9hfdn6 

 

On Sunday, Belarus issued a statement that it would use nuclear weapons if its “sovereignty and independence” were threatened. But would such a use violate international law?

The question breaks down into a few sub-questions, the first of which is how Belarus, Russia’s ally in the region, obtained nuclear weapons in the first place. The answer, of course, is that they came from Russia. From there, one must ask whether the stationing of nuclear weapons in Belarus and the training of Belarusian soldiers in the use and operation of such weapons is a violation of international law.

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Louisiana’s Ten Commandments law is dangerously wrong on history and religion

June 26, Mark Chancey, professor of religious studies at SMU Dallas, for a commentary critical of the Louisiana law mandating the display of the Ten Commandments in public schools. Published in The Hill under the heading Louisiana’s Ten Commandments law is dangerously wrong on history and religion: https://tinyurl.com/bdepz87h 

Louisiana’s new law to mandate display of the Ten Commandments in public schools manages to mangle both history and the Ten Commandments themselves.

It justifies its mandate by suggesting the Founding Fathers would have favored it, citing a quotation it attributes to James Madison: “We have staked the whole future of our new nation upon the capacity of each of ourselves to govern ourselves according to the moral principles of the Ten Commandments.”

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Skilled Artists Create Art; ‘Creatives,’ No

June 25, Robert Hunt, director of global theological education at the SMU Dallas Perkins School of Theology, for a commentary outlining a difference between the way Artificial Intelligence might generate “art” and how trained human artists follow a different process and produce different results. Published in Inside Sources under the heading Skilled Artists Create Art; ‘Creatives,’ No: https://tinyurl.com/3uva6tt6 

 

The word “artist” derives from the Latin “ars.” It refers to skill or craftsmanship. In popular understanding, an artist has creative ideas and the skill and craft to make these ideas manifest in works of art.

But in Silicon Valley culture and the tech industries in general, the word “artist” has been replaced by “a creative” or “creatives” in the plural.

A creative, in Silicon Valley parlance, is a person who makes Instagram videos, TikTok videos, YouTube videos, podcasts, and other social media content. It is “creatives” who manufacture content to fill the endless need for anything that will keep eyeballs on screens so that data can be collected and advertisements sold.

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U.S. v. Rahimi Denies Abusers Firearms. The Decision Is an Outlier.

June 24, Natalie Nanasi, associate professor at the Dedman School of Law, SMU Dallas, and director of the Judge Elmo B. Hunter Legal Center for Victims of Crimes Against Women, for an analysis of a Supreme Court ruling that maintains a ban on firearms possession for domestic violence offenders. Published in Ms. Magazine under the heading U.S. v. Rahimi Denies Abusers Firearms. The Decision Is an Outlier: https://tinyurl.com/3vcmchfz 

 

Survivors of domestic violence have won a battle in the war for common sense gun regulations. In an 8-1 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court held Friday, June 21, that abusers subject to protective orders can continue to be denied access to firearms.

The decision in Rahimi v. United States to uphold federal law will save lives. Over half of women under the age of 45 who are murdered in the United States are killed by their intimate partner. Guns are the weapon of choice in these heartbreaking, and preventable, crimes.

Disarming domestic abusers makes our communities safer. A sizeable percentage of men who commit mass shootings have a history of intimate partner violence, and perpetrators are more likely than the average citizen to endanger the life of a police officer.

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Blaming faculty when protests erupt ignores how we teach

June 12, Jill DeTemple, professor of religious studies at SMU Dallas, for a piece challenging the position that what faculty members teach incites students and community members to protest. Published in the Dallas Morning News under the heading Blaming faculty when protests erupt ignores how we teach: https://tinyurl.com/3c533a9p 

Student protests in support of Gaza have captured the attention of Congress, editorial writers and everyday citizens. Some have expressed solidarity with protesters, characterizing them as “invest[ing] in what’s happening in the world,”or “exercising their fundamental human rights.” Some have condemned them as “disruptive,” “uninformed,” “antisemitic” or “violent.”

Any of these descriptions could be true to a degree as the protests, like the conflict to which they respond, are complex social phenomena happening in the midst of profound political and social instability. Students demanding divestment, chanting slogans, and responding to death and destruction have themselves lived through the prolonged disruption of a global pandemic, a nation at war for the vast majority of their lives, and political polarization at a level as high as it’s been since the Civil War.

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Upset win heralded America’s presence on the world cricket stage

June 11, Hemang Desai, a professor of accounting for the Cox School of Business at SMU Dallas (and an avid cricket fan), for a piece giving perspective to the recent successes of Team USA based in Dallas and cricket’s rise in popularity overall. Published in the Dallas Morning News under the heading Upset win heralded America’s presence on the world cricket stage: https://tinyurl.com/34stk6vx 

 

Thursday marked one of the greatest triumphs in American sports. USA Cricket upset Pakistan in the Group Stage of the International Cricket Council Men’s T20 Cricket World Cup at Grand Prairie Stadium. To American cricket fans, this is reminiscent of the “Miracle on Ice” when the U.S. hockey team defeated the Soviet Union during the 1980 Olympics in Lake Placid, N.Y.

The unheralded U.S. squad, comprising mostly semiprofessional cricketers, defeated a mighty Pakistani national team, who were finalists in the previous T20 World Cup in 2022. Even the NBC Nightly News covered the event.

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Mexico’s first female president faces critical issues, challenging US relationship

June 8, Jennifer Apperti, director of the SMU Dallas Mission Foods Texas-Mexico Center, for a piece outlining the challenges Mexico’s President-Elect Claudia Sheinbaum may face when she assumes the presidency in October. Published in the Austin American-Statesman under the heading Mexico’s first female president faces critical issues, challenging US relationship: https://tinyurl.com/278pturp 

 

Mexico’s presidential election has given the country a historic first: Claudia Sheinbaum becomes the country’s first woman president. That is an important milestone in a country that continues to struggle with gender inequality.

However, the lead-up to the June 2 vote made history for another reason: This election cycle —spanning from Sept. 2023 to May 2024— became the most violent one in the country’s history. There were 24 candidates killed in 2024 alone, and according to a joint study by Mexican think tanks México Evalúa, Data Cívica and Animal Político, a total of 573 people have suffered political violence since the electoral process began. Now, Mexico’s newly elected president has to face a country not only more polarized than before, but also one where criminal violence has spread into the country’s political life.

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Shall we lose our humanity for AI?

June 1, Robert Hunt, director of global theological education at the SMU Dallas Perkins School of Theology, for a commentary contemplating whether AI will compromise our ability to be human and appreciate life. Published in the Dallas Morning News under the heading Shall we lose our humanity for AI? : https://tinyurl.com/bd636ej2 

At a recent presentation on artificial intelligence, I was asked a rhetorical question: Will most of us will be intelligent enough to survive in the age of AI?

Even after all the AI advances, it is the wrong question.

The real question is whether we will be human enough to survive in an AI age.

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How would the nation’s founders view Trump’s conviction?

May 31, Jeffrey Engel, David Gergen director of the Center for Presidential History at SMU Dallas, for a commentary examining how the judicial system designed by the founders held up to political pressures in a case against a former president — and the rule of law prevailed. Published in the Dallas Morning News under the heading How would the nation’s founders view Trump’s conviction? https://tinyurl.com/bhp2s2zw 

 

Donald Trump has now become the first former president convicted of a felony, and the men who wrote the Constitution would be pleased to see the system they designed held up.

No doubt they would be saddened to learn that any high-ranking national leader fell afoul of the law. But they would not be surprised, because they designed a political system with human fallibility as its first principle, and thus with accountability in mind for even the most powerful among us.

When considering an office designed with the morally unimpeachable George Washington in mind, Benjamin Franklin observed at the Constitutional Convention that “the first man put at the helm may be a good one.” Yet “nobody knows what sort may come afterwards.”

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