Archives for April 2019

April 24, 2019|being, Edith Stein, existence, James Matthew Wilson, poetry

The Ineffable Weight of Being

Decorations at a poetry-reading event in Bucharest, Romania, July 14, 2017 (Ana Maria Tone / Shutterstock.com).

James Matthew Wilson's poems in The Hanging God speak about the reality of life and the love we give, receive, or reject.

April 24, 2019|Originalism, the Ninth Amendment

The Ninth Amendment and the Federalist Interpretation

by Mike Rappaport|

The Bill of Rights (Jack R. Perry Photography / Shutterstock.com).

The Federalist Interpretation of the Ninth Amendment has some merit, but the Amendment still protects natural rights.

April 24, 2019|Hassan al-Turabi, Islamism, Omar al-Bashir, Sudan

Reasons for Caution About Sudan

by James R. Rogers|

Omar al-Bashir arrives in Uganda for a diplomatic visit on November 13, 2017 (Sumy Sadurni/ZUMA Wire/Alamy Live News).

One can certainly hope for the best in Sudan, but the liabilities the country faces in transitioning to peace, let alone to democracy, remain sizable.

April 23, 2019|Administrative State, Federalism, Legal Process, New Deal, Originalism

Originalism as Ideology

by Michael S. Greve|

Shutterstock.com (photo by Nicole Glass)

Once you think about where originalism came from and what it was supposed to do, you begin to suspect that it may have run its course.

April 23, 2019|gig economy, regulation, Ridesharing

How One Bad Regulation Creates Another

by John McGlothlin|

An Uber vehicle on the streets of New York City (Mike Dotta/Shutterstock.com).

Needless restrictions on ridesharing in New York are causing its neighbors to consider the same approach.

April 23, 2019|Christianity, Emmanuel Macron, envy, France, gilets jaunes, inequality, laicite, Notre Dame

France, a Nation Mired in an Obsession with Inequality

by John O. McGinnis|

Firefighters inspect the structure of Notre Dame on April 16, 2019 (Frederic Legrand - COMEO / Shutterstock.com).

When many of the richest people in France stepped up to donate for the cathedral's rebuilding the reaction was not gratitude but anger.

April 23, 2019|carbon emissions, climate change, Environmental Protection Agency, superstorms

How to Teach Children about Climate Change

by Paul Schwennesen|

(shutterstock.com)

It would be more accurate, and helpful to Mother Earth, if we weren’t so anthropocentric in the way we studied and taught the subject.

April 22, 2019|Austin, Lawrence Wright, Rick Perry, Texas

Fear and Loathing in the Lone Star State

by Mark Pulliam|

"Greetings From Austin - Capitol of Texas" postcard mural, Roadhouse Relics, Austin, Texas (Steve Lagreca/Shutterstock.com).

A respected writer sullies his legacy with a tendentious partisan screed.

April 19, 2019|Bosch, corruption, Crime, Los Angeles

Everybody Counts or Nobody Does

by Titus Techera|

Titus Welliver as Det. Harry Bosch in still from Bosch (Image: Amazon Studios).

Bosch's manliness and stoic sense of duty combine with the absence of faith to make him serve those who need him without hoping for a just order.

April 19, 2019|nones, Religious Right, voluntary association

Good Riddance to Cultural Christianity

by James R. Rogers|

Pat Robertson speaks at the Road to Victory event at the Christian Coalition Conference September 19, 1998 in Washington, DC (Richard Ellis / Alamy Stock Photo).

The problem with the Christian Right is not that it’s too Christian, but rather that it’s not Christian enough.

A Mirror of the 20th-Century Congress

by Joseph Postell

Wright undermined the very basis of his local popularity—the decentralized nature of the House—by supporting reforms that gave power to the party leaders.

The Graces of Flannery O'Connor

by Henry T. Edmondson III

O'Connor's correspondence is a goldmine of piercing insight and startling reflections on everything from literature to philosophy to raising peacocks.