If you think it through, I think you’ll also come to realize that civil discourse is the biggest impediment to centralized power. How so? When people fear expressing their innermost thoughts to others, friendships cannot develop. Personal associations are nipped in the . . . Continue reading →
Civil Liberties
On What Political Correctness Really Is
“Political Correctness” is a euphemism for the silencing tactics of power elites who are pushing power-consolidating agendas. It works by isolating and marginalizing anybody who might get in the way of those agendas, through smears and threats and psychological manipulation. I think . . . Continue reading →
Caution Against Social Revolution Via The Judiciary
This is a case about change—and how best to handle it under the United States Constitution. From the vantage point of 2014, it would now seem, the question is not whether American law will allow gay couples to marry; it is when . . . Continue reading →
From Tolerance To Compulsion
We’ve gone from tolerance to compulsion,’’ the Giffords’ lawyer, James Trainor, told me. “State government should not be forcing people to violate their own religious beliefs, nor should they be forced to make a choice between making a living and violating their . . . Continue reading →
Shi’a Islam Celebration Of Ashura (Caution: Hard To Watch)
This is part of the Shia observance of Day of Ashura.
Ben Says Thanks
Spanking Children Shouldn’t Be A Crime
That rational, logical, research-based position will satisfy some, but it will not satisfy anti-spanking activists, who would have the government tell parents how they may and may not discipline their children. They see no difference between two open-handed swats to a child’s . . . Continue reading →
A Growing Cloud
With the ongoing stramash surrounding Gordon College and its accreditation, the pressure is building on institutions of higher education with religious affiliations. The only question now seems to be: how many will stand firm? If an institution as prestigious and powerful as . . . Continue reading →
A Flaw Inherent In The 1964 Civil Rights Act
When the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed, there were a few people like Barry Goldwater who opposed it on principled libertarian grounds. These were not southern rednecks or Dixiecrats, and they were glad to see the end of Jim Crow. . . . Continue reading →
It’s About Power And Conformity
The theory behind gay marriage, in short, was the theory behind the entire secular left: society and the state are the all-powerful forces on which the life of the individual depends, and the most important political task—indeed, the most important task in . . . Continue reading →
Dark Thoughts About The Future
Viewed objectively, these two recent controversies represent skirmishes rather than major invasions of religious freedom. But all of us view them with dark thoughts about the future. Our foreboding is justified. Progressives have long dominated an important American subculture: the university. It’s . . . Continue reading →
Idaho Ministers Must Perform Homosexual Weddings Or Go To Jail. In America (UPDATED 10/23/14)
“For profit wedding chapels are in a position now where last week the ban would have prevented them from performing gay marriages, this week gay marriages are legal, pending an appeal to the 9th Circuit,” Warren Wilson with the Coeur d’Alene City . . . Continue reading →
Another Significant Threat To Constitutional Liberties (UPDATED)
In May of this year the Houston city council passed the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance (HERO) that requires businesses and workplaces to make available restroom facilities not according to sex but according to gender identity. A group of Houston area pastors has . . . Continue reading →
What American Journalists Once Did
The Big Factory
The Left’s model of society is still the model of Marx and Bismarck: one big factory to be managed by experts. The government schools are an assembly line for human widgets, who are in theory there to be taught what the state . . . Continue reading →
Constitution Day 2014
2009: No Federal Dollars For Abortion
(HT: Daily Signal)
Remembering The Wrong Things
The Twofold Government And Citizenship
Cal State Has Crossed A Line
In (1559) Institutes 3.19.15 Calvin wrote that God has instituted a “twofold government in man” (duplex esse in homine regimen). This truth means that we have a legitimate interest in both sacred and secular spheres. By distinguishing between sacred and secular spheres . . . Continue reading →
Discomfort As Ground For Silencing Dissent
When you invite very conservative speakers here who perhaps have controversial views on Islam or homosexuality, you essentially make Yale a very uncomfortable place for a large percentage of the people here on campus, and everyone should feel at home at college…. . . . Continue reading →