A Call For Reporters Who Truly Report
In one of the weirder sci-fi novels of all time, Stranger in a Strange Land, author Robert Heinlein introduced a social innovation. One of the book’s characters holds a special designation as the “fair witness.” By way of demonstration, someone asks the fair witness what color a particular house is. She answers by naming the color […]
Five Takeaways From The Trump Victory
The first and most important takeaway from the presidential election of 2024 is that inflation is the killer of incumbent politicians. There will be plenty of defenders of the Biden-Harris administration who will point to other factors to blame for the inflation that has left Americans poorer. Certainly, it is correct that inflation was not […]
The Irreplaceable Richard John Neuhaus and the Naked Public Square
During the 1990’s and the first decade of the 2000’s, Richard John Neuhaus was the editorial powerhouse behind First Things, a Christian journal dedicated to thinking through matters of religion, culture, and politics. It was unusual in the sense that it brought together some of the best thinkers from Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox traditions in […]
What’s the Truth About Project 2025?
If you’re like me, you’ve seen a lot of online noise and assertions about Project 2025. Both of my college-age kids have asked me about some of the more bombastic contentions. For example, one of them asked whether it is true that Donald Trump’s Project 2025 contains plans to outlaw contraception. Given that this same kid […]
Brazil vs. Free Speech
When Brazilian Supreme Federal Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes shut down the social media network X, it was reminiscent of the dystopian actions of the government depicted by Ayn Rand in her novel Atlas Shrugged. As Justice Moraes employed his new authority by dictating the imposition of ruinous fines and imposing tighter restrictions, one could almost hear the […]
Dishonesty In The Abortion Wars
The abortion issue is more beset by the Orwellian use of political language than perhaps any other controversy in American politics. As an example, we have witnessed decades of verbal dueling over the nomenclatures of “pro-choice” and “pro-life.” Following lines suggested by the thought of Alasdair McIntyre, neither side is willing to grant anything about […]
How Can We Think Better About Politics as Christians
The last 35 years have featured the advent of the first 24-7 news channel (CNN), the introduction of competing channels such as Fox News and MSNBC, the movement toward news with a more explicit ideological identity, the explosion of internet publishing, and then the astonishing growth of social media. Given the massive technological changes that […]
A Determined Darwinist
Last month, a famous scientist and philosopher died. His name was Daniel Dennett. He was convinced that there was no mind behind the universe, but rather that mind had arisen from the combination of matter and natural selection. Now, his conscience has either been scattered across oblivion or he is in a position to know the […]
Rise, ruin, and recovery
Thirty years ago this week, Richard Nixon died. His life offers one of the most intriguing American stories, filled with grit, determination, ruin, and redemption. Richard Nixon did not want to leave the White House in the wake of the Watergate scandal that destroyed his presidency. Barry Goldwater, one of the most respected men in […]
Two Christians Take On Postliberalism
A mere three decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union, we find ourselves bizarrely wondering whether the winners of the confrontation are the possessors of an exhausted philosophy. Liberalism long sailed upon oceans made safer by a lingering, non-established but semi-assumed Christianity (in the American style). Within those lightly acknowledged channels of the spirit, […]