Liberty & American Founding
From Matthew Continetti’s review of The Founders’ Key: The Divine and Natural Connection Between the Declaration and the Constitution and What We Risk by Losing It, by Larry P. Arnn: An observer of contemporary American politics would assume that we have rights to just about everything—not only to those freedoms mentioned specifically in the Declaration,…
On Friday, George Will wrote about a photographer in New Mexico whom the government penalized thousands of dollars for declining to take pictures at a same-sex commitment ceremony. Meanwhile, a public school in Colorado has confiscated two sets of Rosary beads from a student, with disputed insinuations of gang activity and erroneous counts of the number…
Today: September 11, global change, evolution, economics, 17th amendment, gold standard, and a boughten electorate… all to a purpose.
Ok, this one drives me crazy. I see it over and over. It’s with the First Amendment to the US Constitution and most people believe it simply means (among other things) that they have free speech to say anything they want. Period. Except that’s not really what it says or what it means. Let’s quote…
President Obama’s teleprompter style has been the subject of substantial (often mocking) critical commentary, and with some justification, as this nearly parodic 2010 video from a Virginia classroom proves: Given recent political events, one can sympathize with the desire of public officials to avoid extemporaneous speech. In a world in which one’s every public utterance…
If not for the determination of Sarah Hale, maybe we wouldn’t be stuffing ourselves, watching football and, um, actually giving thanks together, as a nation, today. It was she who wrote a letter to Abraham Lincoln urging him to call for a national day of thanksgiving. From Sarah J. Hale to Abraham Lincoln*, September 28,…
…remembering too that it is a very serious day. (The crazy-looking guy in the black hat is Stephen Hopkins of Rhode Island).
We hear a lot of the rights-based arguments being made in favor of same-sex marriage hereabouts, including the call to RI Founder Roger Williams and the “separation of church and state”. The arguments for religious liberty have seemed muted in the coverage of the debate. In today’s ProJo, Professor Robin Wilson (co-editor of the book…
Over on the WPRI site, Ted Nesi is running a series of “Dear Mr. Chafee” essays by “five of the state’s smartest citizens.” I’ll admit that I’m a bit suspicious of his claim — inasmuch as I’m on the list — but Tom Sgouros, who penned the first in the series is surely among the…
It is the day after the 237th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party. How appropriate. Over most of our lifetimes, the terms of the political debate were centered around who would give more goodies to the American people. Human nature being what it is, most people gladly took whatever the government gave them. Few thought…
