America is divided, with a line that is drawn between two ideological camps. Each of these two camps perceives America radically different from the other. On the one side, there are those who see America built upon certain unchanging principles that are connected to God. That is, these people believe man to be created and [...]
The New York City St. Patrick’s Day Parade is touted as the oldest and largest parade in the world. It boasts a quarter of a million marchers. The tradition was started 253 years ago and in 1891 the Ancient Order of Hibernians began the ritual march up 5th avenue, the same route used to this [...]
State constitutions say quite a bit about the foundations of American rights. Oftentimes when thinking of rights and duties it is the United States Constitution that comes to mind. But state constitutions deal with the rights of the people as well, and in many ways are a much better gauge of how the American constitutional [...]
An amusing citation from Margaret Thatcher reads: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.” The socialists, however, were not the only ones who would run out of other people’s money. Democracies are quite capable of duplicating this feat. The question is this: What entitles us to acquire other [...]
In its modern sense, the concept of human rights could be said to be alien to the Islamic tradition. That is because the modern doctrine of rights is an invention of the European Enlightenment. It was an attempt to base the humane social order on reason rather than revelation. Unfortunately the secular foundations of the [...]
Stratford Caldecott Cardinal Angelo Scola, speaking in Venice recently, discussed the phenomenon of the expansion of the notion of ‘rights’ in the context of modern political discourse without any agreed philosophy underpinning them. We are faced with a paradox: a hitherto unprecedented circulation and expansion of rights in tandem with a degree of [...]