I have recently been hearing a great deal about “the tiny house movement.” Trailers for yuppies did not seem like such a big deal to me at first. But the justifications many in this movement have been making for their lifestyle choice have reminded me of some fundamental changes taking place in Americans’ priorities—changes I [...]
The new Ben-Hur is a terrific movie. It is exciting, suspenseful, filled with clashes of spirit, interest, and personality, and offers a story of brotherly love, conflict, revenge, and redemption. Religious faith and the spirit of forgiveness are at its core, though not front and center. It is precisely the kind of movie people in [...]
The city of Santa Rosa, just north of San Francisco, has declared a “homeless emergency.” This entails “allowing” the homeless to live in their cars year-round instead of only in winter and inclement weather. There also will be some additional services for homeless people. San Francisco itself decided to address this growing problem by adding [...]
Recent weeks have seen angry charges leveled at both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Key among these have been claims against both candidates that they are unworthy of the people’s trust. The implication is that each would be liable to abuse the powers of the presidency. Some might find in such charges a sad lack [...]
I was reminded recently of the ongoing debate over the nature of democracy. The occasion was my rereading of Claes Ryn’s Democracy and the Ethical Life. In this classic work Prof. Ryn criticizes those who insist that democracy is merely a means for discerning the will of the people. This view, he argues, leads naturally to the [...]
Russell Kirk posed as one of the “canons” of conservatism the existence of orders in society. Critics have responded for decades that such a view shows that traditional conservatives are by nature aristocratic in their orientation, that they are in some sense “un-American” in their rejection of egalitarianism. The assumption appears to be that a [...]
In a recent essay, Samuel J. Abrams reports that liberals outnumber conservatives on college campuses by wide margins. This is hardly news to most Americans. Still, it may be noteworthy that Mr. Abrams’ piece was published in the newspaper of liberal record, the New York Times. Even the liberal establishment now acknowledges that universities trend [...]
The surprise victory for “leave” in the referendum on Britain’s membership in the European Union has been hailed as a win for national sovereignty. It also has been lambasted as a sign of racism and xenophobia among the English and Welsh—though not among the overwhelmingly socialist Scots who voted “remain.” Stock markets and currency exchanges [...]
The “Naked Public Square” is Clothed—with Intolerance When Richard John Neuhaus published The Naked Public Square in 1988, his book captured the imagination of a generation of religious conservatives. Neuhaus expressed the concerns of millions of Christians in particular, who saw public life being stripped of religious symbols and content. He went on to argue [...]
For decades, now, Christians have worried about the progressive push to strip naked the public square by forcing religion into the shadows of a private sphere. Recent events have made clear that this is not the case. Everything is public and political to the secular left. All aspects of our lives are fair game in [...]
Neoconservatives have garnered a fair amount of media coverage in recent weeks for their determination to keep on with the #nevertrump fight. Bill Kristol, editor of The Weekly Standard and son of neoconservative founder Irving Kristol, has been especially vocal in his determination to launch a third party challenge to Donald Trump and the eventual [...]
President Barack Obama has been at it again. Back in 2012, he told American entrepreneurs “You didn’t build that.” His point, such as it was, was that those who work hard, work smart, and create successful businesses should be thankful to the government for providing infrastructure and assorted other taxpayer-funded programs that are essential to [...]
As Europe becomes the Middle East, it is perhaps time to reconsider the United States’ rush toward becoming Europe. Of course, those who are insisting we become more like Europe also are telling us that it is a racist scare-tactic to talk about Europe becoming the Middle East. Then again, one rarely hears Americans talking [...]
The conventional wisdom long has held that conservative boycotts do not work. There is strong logic and evidence to support this view. Conservatives are conservative precisely because they value family and faith above politics. We do not virtue-signal in the manner (or to the extent) of typical progressives, for whom driving a Prius or noisily [...]