By taking seriously the thinking of a scholar-politician who transcended the contours of our political divide, Greg Weiner illuminates possibilities for American politics that have been lost with Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s passing.
Month: September 2015
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The Image of Liberty: What the Roman Empire Can Teach Us About American Politics
A look back at the disintegration of republicanism in the Roman Empire yields important lessons for contemporary American government. Will we demand actual liberty—including the authority truly to govern ourselves—or be content with its image?
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Scientists Should Tell Lawrence Krauss to Shut Up Already
Lawrence Krauss’s “argument” for atheism is like that of an artist who confines himself to using black and white materials and then concludes that, since color doesn’t show up in his drawings of fire engines and apples, it follows that fire engines and apples are not really red.
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It’s Time to Get Serious about Infidelity
Being forced to pretend that infidelity is harmless is an insult to the millions of infidelity victims who suffer under our discriminatory no-fault divorce laws.
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Did The Supreme Court Take Tennessee Courts Out of the Marriage Business?
For a trial judge, the jurisdictional implications of the Supreme Court’s same-sex marriage decision are not matters of idle speculation. They are pressing practical questions with grave consequences.
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The Limits of Consent
Consent only has value when it is used to make decisions based on knowledge of what is truly good for us as human beings.
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Contra Mundum Pro Mundo: A Review of The Colson Way
A new book captures the heart of Chuck Colson’s message: love your country, but love your God more.
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Public Morality and the Lure of Profit
The liberal campaign to redefine marriage is not over. Attempts to secure constitutional rights to polygamy and polyamory are on the way. Conservatives must pursue a new strategy to thwart private corporations from undermining public morality if we hope to prevent further changes to the institution of marriage and protect other vital elements of public morality.
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What Makes a Society Thrive?
A collection of essays helps the public understand the elements that make up a society where people can flourish, the reasons for our society’s current problems, and some avenues for potential reform. Below is an adaptation of the editors’ introduction to that collection.
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Ashley Madison and the Problem of Liberal Sexual Ethics
Liberal attempts to defend adultery demonstrate the internal inconsistency and shallowness of contemporary sexual ethics.
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The Public Case against Human Cloning
A new report from the Witherspoon Council on Ethics and the Integrity of Science forcefully makes the case against all forms of human cloning. Below is an excerpt from the report on the moral case against cloning-to-produce-children and cloning-for-biomedical research.
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On Abortion, Medical Science is Still Waiting to be Heard
Judicial overreach and badly flawed constitutional reasoning were not the worst offenses committed by the Roe court. Far worse was its contempt for facts and truth, which left a cultural wound that continues to fester.
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Keeping the Spotlight on Planned Parenthood
Do not be distracted by misdirection. Do not let the horror of abortion be the main issue. Stick to the pertinent facts: Planned Parenthood is profiting from the sale of fetal parts. Planned Parenthood is routinely violating federal law. Planned Parenthood does not care about women.
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Joys, Struggles, and Scare Tactics: On Down Syndrome and Abortion
It’s tempting to make neat calculations based on what we know in the abstract about Down syndrome. But once an actual child enters into the equation—with all of his strengths and foibles, quirks and habits—we don’t get the answer we expected at all.
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Assisted Suicide and Our Society of Autonomy
The individualism required by a society of autonomy shuts down love, dependence, and self-sacrifice. To extinguish grief, we are told, we must extinguish the grieving.
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Donald Trump, George Will, and the Crisis of American Conservatism
You can’t beat a flawed moral vision with no moral vision. This is not idealism but hard political reality.
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Give Me Liberty and Give Me Death: Belgium’s Brave New Euthanasia Regime
Belgium has the most permissive euthanasia laws in the world, and one of every twenty deaths in Belgium is now deliberately caused. Suicide is becoming a moral obligation in a culture that promotes euthanasia as a dignified exit that offers relief to caregivers.
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The Inequality Act: Weaponizing Same-Sex Marriage
If enacted, the deceptively titled Equality Act would punish dissenters, giving no quarter to Americans who continue to believe that marriage and sexual relations are reserved to the union of one man and one woman.
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The Supreme Court’s 2014-2015 Term: The Year the Administrative State Trembled
The opinions of the Supreme Court’s most recent term indicate that the court’s conservative justices are rethinking the scope and power of the administrative state.
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Is Lying Ever Justified?
A new book powerfully examines the most important questions surrounding lying and argues that to assert falsely is to commit an act of self-induced practical schizophrenia.
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The Social Injustice Done to Adjunct Faculty: A Call to Arms
The time has come. If senior faculty members don’t force the issue of justice for adjuncts, no one else will.