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Politics

Taking Easter Seriously

"That God, which ever lives and loves,

One God, one law, one element,

And one far-off divine event

To which the whole creation moves."

-- Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809-1892)(ENDITAL)

When American colonists were oppressed by British governance, the word most frequently uttered in pamphlets, editorials and sermons was not "safety" or "...Read more

Can Congress Ban TikTok?

"Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech."

--First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

When James Madison set about to draft the Bill of Rights -- the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution -- he was articulating what lawyers and philosophers and judges call "negative rights." A positive right grants a ...Read more

My Dinner With the Pope

I spent last week living and studying at the Vatican as a guest lecturer at the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, or PASS. PASS is an organization of scholars that explores ideas of interest to the Vatican. Last week, PASS addressed the philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas, since March 8, 2024, was the 750th anniversary of his death.

This is ...Read more

Taking Rights Seriously

"If all mankind minus one were of one opinion,
Mankind would be no more justified
In silencing that one person,
Than he, if he had the power,
Would be justified in silencing mankind."
-- John Stuart Mill (1806-1873)

The world is filled with self-evident truths -- truisms -- that philosophers, lawyers and ...Read more

The Torturers' Poor Memories

As the pre-trial hearings in the case of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and others who are charged with masterminding the 9/11 attacks proceed at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba, the government continues to stumble with its own witnesses. In hearings last week, government lawyers tried to demonstrate that statements the defendants made to CIA and ...Read more

Gargantuan Trump Judgement is Government Theft at its Worst!

"Where there is a wrong, there is a remedy." -- Justice Benjamin N. Cardozo (1870-1938)

Last week, a New York court ordered the Trump Organization and its principals -- including the former President -- to forfeit nearly $400 million to the state government. This gargantuan punishment was not for any crime committed or harm caused by the...Read more

Government and Death

When the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche proclaimed that God was dead, he didn't mean it literally, as that would have been impossible. He meant that God's creatures have so failed to acknowledge Him and relate to Him, it is as if He decided to end His own existence.

Stated differently, Nietzsche recognized that Christianity had ceased ...Read more

Taking Free Speech Seriously

Can the government prevent Big Tech from censoring political and cultural voices on their platforms? Can the government regulate these platforms to compel speech the government wants to hear and to prevent speech it believes may harm innocents? If you believe -- as I do -- in natural rights, minimal government and that owners of private property...Read more

The Feds Are Buying Our Emails!

"The Framers ... conferred, as against the Government, the right to be let alone -- the most comprehensive of rights, and the right most valued by civilized men." -- Justice Louis Brandeis (1856-1941)

While we are all consumed with Joe Biden's bumblings and Donald Trump's trials, the federal government's rapacious appetite for spying on ...Read more

Government by Experts

I have often thought that after Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson was our worst president. By worst is meant least faithful to the Constitution and most destructive of personal liberty.

With the exception of Lincoln's dictatorship -- during which the federal government used violence to crush the states' natural right to secede from a union they ...Read more

The Emperor's New Clothes

Just as a fictional emperor paid his tailors a fortune for clothes that no one could see, and then marched naked in a grand public procession while his subjects roared with laughter, so, too, is President Joe Biden attempting to march clothed with the Constitution he dishonors. He will have the same fate as the emperor.

Last week, Biden used ...Read more

Milk and the Police State

Last week, in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, state troopers and investigators executed a search warrant on the farm of Amos Miller. Miller has been producing fresh unadulterated dairy products and grass-fed beef for 40 years. He does not sell to the public. Rather, he sells only to folks who join his club because they want pure raw dairy ...Read more

Nikki Haley, American History and Intellectual Honesty

When Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley answered a question last week in which she stated that the American Civil War was fought over "government," "rights" and "freedoms," she was correct. Yet, like most politicians, when she realized that the popular answer should have been "slavery," she modified her answer. She should have stood ...Read more

 

Comics

Dave Granlund Al Goodwyn Steve Breen John Deering David Fitzsimmons Bill Bramhall