A new book on the politics of the segregationist movement examines a tension between libertarianism and civil rights that continues today. by Jordan Michael Smith Jason Morgan Ward Defending White Democracy: The Making of a Segregationist Movement & the Remaking of Racial Politics, 1936-1965 The University of North Carolina Press, $34.95 In May [...]
How did Scientology, widely viewed as a cult either comical or criminal, brand itself as a Church and secure recognition as a religion in the eyes of the law? Follow the money. By the late 1930s, Lafayette Ron Hubbard was just one among many pulp fiction writers in New York City who were churning [...]
The value of marriage is not that adults produce children, but that children produce adults. –Peter De Vries Why don’t Americans know how to get and stay married? Whatever we think the word means we still value marriage very highly: The National Marriage Project and the Gallup poll organization have found that between 80 [...]
Balancing work and family life can be difficult for any politician, but Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), juggles motherhood, work, and constant cross-country travel. McMorris Rodgers, the number four House Republican (behind House Speaker John Boehner, Majority Leader Eric Cantor and Chairman of the House Republican Conference Mike Pence), is the highest-ranking female Republican in [...]
by Charles Hughes Herman Cain and Rick Perry cast themselves as bold reformers, but wield flashy proposals only to evade the crucial political challenges at stake. Facing a flagging campaign after a brief stint as frontrunner, Rick Perry recently unveiled his tax reform proposal in an effort to regain some momentum. It is the [...]
In Search of Civilization: Remaking a Tarnished Idea John Armstrong Graywolf Press, 2011, 208 pp., $24.00 By Peter Lopatin As the subtitle of John Armstrong’s latest book suggests—and correctly so—the notion of “Civilization” has lately fallen into disrepute and desuetude in intellectual and academic circles. Hostility to “civilization” as an intellectual theme and [...]
The Happy Warrior Why and how someone becomes a Libertarian varies from person to person. For Bryan Caplan, one of America’s leading economists, it all started with a little book called Atlas Shrugged. Since its publication in 1957, that book has inspired countless intellectual conversions throughout the world. For Caplan, it was the beginning of [...]
The left’s frustration with President Obama has been much discussed of late. But their disappointment is nothing new, and shouldn’t be much of a surprise, either. In March 2009, just three months after Obama took office, liberal economist Paul Krugman claimed to be in “despair“ over administration policy. At this early stage, though, few [...]
Last Friday, I joined my co-workers on a trip to the Occupy Wall Street protest in Manhattan. The plan was to film interviews with protesters and hand out Boom and Bust by Alex Pollock—a little free-market evangelism, if you will. On the drive from DC to Manhattan, I wondered how the “occupiers” [...]
Wolf: The Lives of Jack London James L. Haley, Basic Books, $17.99. Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote facing a wall. He found his window to the cold meadows and deep forests of Massachusetts too distracting. Edith Wharton wrote in bed. I always picture her draped in white sheets, bed covers, and thin, lacy shawls—far removed from [...]
Profiling the talented economics professors who are inspiring the next generation of libertarians. A Kid in a Candy Store Many libertarians experience a gradual migration to the movement, perhaps beginning with Atlas Shrugged or a lecture by a prominent libertarian, and then becoming more deeply informed and active in the movement. But Donald Boudreaux [...]
The Declaration of Independents: How Libertarian Politics Can Fix What’s Wrong With America By Nick Gillespie and Matt Welch PublicAffairs, 288 pp., $25.99 For budding libertarians, certain issues of urgency in the libertarian world may seem esoteric: opposition to the Federal Reserve, proposals to allow young people to opt out of social security, and [...]
The New Watchdogs by Rob Bluey Bill Osmulski stepped outside his office into a boisterous crowd of protesters in Madison, Wisconsin, earlier this year and spotted a group of doctors offering to write sick notes exempting from work “mentally anguished and distressed” teachers at a pro-union rally. His discovery led to a news-breaking video that [...]
Conservatives should resist pressure from within to retreat from world affairs and embrace their diplomatic heritage.
As the “mancession” continues to displace the traditional male breadwinner and prolong young mens’ extended adolescence, the state of American manliness is much in debate. A clash between two titans of classical liberalism points the way toward the masculine ideal that deserves to make a comeback. Men at Arms: Rousseau and Burke Debate Masculinity [...]
The administration’s alumni two years on.
Lessons from Right to Left:The Rise of the Liberal Policy MachineEmily SmithThe rise of DC’s liberal policy machineFeaturesGame OverElizabeth Nolan BrownPickup artists and social conservatives hook up.An Investment PiecePhoebe MaltzOn the new feel-good frugality.Full HouseAlexandra SquitieriOur fascination with super-sized families.The Bushies Strike BackJohn McCormackThe administration’s alumni two years on.CultureFull HouseAlexandra SquitieriOur fascination with super-sized families.
A Vet for Freedom talks health care.
On the new feel-good frugality.
The rise of DC’s liberal policy machine
Our fascination with super-sized families.
Pickup artists and social conservatives hook up.
How “Glee” became a preachy after-school special.
Open Source DemocracyAre bloggers the new legislative watchdogs?John McCormackAre bloggers the new legislative watchdogs?FeaturesAll Camped OutRita KoganzonHow “Glee” became a preachy after-school special.The Rise of the Muckraking RightJacob LaksinHow conservative bloggers are scooping the New York Times.Average JanesHelen RittelmeyerTo save feminism, get rid of the lady blogs.What’s Your Story?What’s Your Story? Matt ContinettiEmily SmithDefending Sarah [...]
Defending Sarah Palin against her critics.
Christopher Caldwell’s reluctant case for an Americanized Europe.
To save feminism, get rid of the lady blogs.
How conservative bloggers are scooping the New York Times.
Are bloggers the new legislative watchdogs?
This is the fourth in a series of four articles trying to come to terms with Obama’s foreign policy. Click here to read Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3. It turns out that there is an Obama Effect—or at least there is one in France. After a particularly bleak couple of years, the approval [...]
This is the fourth in a series of four articles trying to come to terms with Obama’s foreign policy. Click here to read Part 1, Part 2, and Part 4. Few things have been more poorly understood about the Obama administration than its foreign policy. Partisan and ideological blinders have tended to obscure and distort [...]
The contrast between the “hardheadedness” of the Bush administration and the fresh look approach of Obama is predicated on the claim that the former twiddled its thumbs while Rome burned. But the world’s problems aren’t proving particularly amenable to the Obama approach either.
Learning for a LivingIn Defense of Vocational Ed.Liam JulianImagine a 17-year-old who does not want to attend college (or at least not right away); who finds parsing Macbeth maddeningly immaterial; who yearns to learn a practical skill and put it to use; who feels his personal strengths are being ignored and wasted. Too often, such [...]
Starting a business in the middle of a recession.
Why women and fiction remain unsolved problems.
Why is the reality of being a conservative in a cultural field so disconnected from the rhetoric of right-wing pundits?
Imagine a 17-year-old who does not want to attend college (or at least not right away); who finds parsing Macbeth maddeningly immaterial; who yearns to learn a practical skill and put it to use; who feels his personal strengths are being ignored and wasted. Too often, such a pupil has no other options. He has no educational choice.
Is compromise possible between realists and neoconservatives? Are the ideas that animate realism and neoconservatism fundamentally incompatible? A look at the intellectual foundations of our nation’s foreign policy.
Doublethink Quarterly:The New Dominion BluesJohn McCormackCan the GOP win Virginia back?FeaturesToward a Bioethics of LoveHelen RittelmeyerWhat conservatism can offer disability activism.Lonegan’s ChargeJacob LaksinCan a right-wing renegade become governor of New Jersey?The Sex VoteJames PoulosPolitical liberty is screwed. Why libertarians can’t get it up.The Hipster Health Care RevolutionElizabeth Nolan BrownHow one Williamsburg doctor is reinventing health [...]
Can a right-wing renegade become governor of New Jersey?
Political liberty is screwed. Why libertarians can’t get it up.
Can the GOP win Virginia back?
What conservatism can offer disability activism.
How Solzhenitsyn got it right.
Amanda Carpenter has packed more than most into her 26 years.
How one Williamsburg doctor is reinventing health care.
Female sexuality may be seen as a distraction for politicians, but it’s also a powerful tool when used correctly. And as Palin’s campaign demonstrated, women are getting much more adept at using it to their advantage.
Easy to access, and satisfyingly potent, “sinful” products and pastimes represent a point of civilization that mankind has been pursuing for thousands of years. Abuseable substances and activities should be encouraged as a test of character for the next generation. If people are not forced recognize individual responsibility, civilization will crumble under the weight of all the helpless sheep expecting to be looked after.
The word “onanism” has its genesis in Genesis itself, from the story of Onan, a man killed by God for “spill[ing his seed] on the ground” rather than impregnating his widowed sister-in-law according to the laws of his tribe. Originally interpreted as a warning against the practice of coitus interruptus, the story’s cautions were repurposed [...]
As NATO meets for its 60th anniversary in Strasbourg-Kehl this weekend, it has a lot on its plate: war-fighting, peacekeeping, piracy, and more. But the problem for today’s NATO lies not in taking on new missions; it lies in carrying them out effectively.
