The more civilized and cultured we humans get, the more we tend to conflate means with ends. For instance—the First Amendment was meant to as a means to ensure the ability for citizens to openly criticize other citizens and the government so that we could identify and address potential problems impairing the security and happiness
“There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves
Have you heard the news? You and I are now living in a “post-truth” world. The Oxford Dictionaries proclaimed the official beginning of the new era in 2016 by selecting “post-truth” as the Word of the Year. According to our betters in academia, in the ruling elite, and in the punditocracy, the very concept of
Each week on the Sabbath, Jews read a section of the Five Books of Moses, completing the entire cycle each year. Recently, the portion included the “Bringing of the First Fruits.” When the Temple was standing, Jews from all over Israel brought the first produce of the year as an offering to God. Jonathan Sacks,
The arena of contemporary American politics is a confused place. And so-called conservatives—Republican politicians, yes, but, particularly, those in the mainstream “conservative media” or Big Conservatism—are especially confused. Historically, within the West, there can be discerned two rival ideal political types between which discourse and practice have oscillated. On the one hand, politics has been
The mainstream media besmirches conservative public figures on a regular basis. Look no further than Donald Trump and Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Some conservatives believe the best way to answer media smears is to change the libel laws. That’s a well-intentioned idea, but it would end hurting conservatives the most. Say goodbye to conservative media if
Beto O’Rourke, the former Texas congressman and longshot candidate for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, said the one thing at the September 12 primary debate that Democrats insist they do not believe when it comes to gun control. “Hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15, your AK-47.” Coming from a native son of Texas,
Should our 232-year-old United States Constitution still be binding? For the last few years, progressives increasingly have begun to answer with an emphatic “No!” The most visible such criticism of our fundamental law is the attack on the Electoral College, which provides for indirect election of the president by electors who, if the truth be
Recently in the American Conservative, Rod Dreher shared a bit of compelling candor from an anonymous reader, a middle-aged man whose suburban lifestyle has rendered him unable to find intimacy and meaning in just about every area of his life. Four friends sent it to me separately, with the tagline "try not to cry when
On Capitol Hill this week, lawmakers got a visit from Attorney General Bill Barr and White House Legislative Affairs Director Eric Ueland, looking to sell them on a gun control proposal. The proposal, an outline of which was released by the Daily Caller’s Amber Athey, parallels legislation proposed by Senators Pat Toomey (R-Penn.) and Joe
