Editor’s Note: The “V&V Q&A” is a monthly e-publication from The Center for Vision & Values at Grove City College. Each issue will present an interview with an intriguing thinker or opinion-maker that we hope will prove illuminating to readers everywhere. … Continue reading
American History & Presidents
George Washington as the Model for American Statesmanship
The Center for Vision and Values successfully held its first luncheon of the American Founders Luncheon Series on September 19, 2006, at the Rivers Club in Pittsburgh, PA. The American Founders Luncheon Series brings to Pittsburgh respected scholars on the … Continue reading
Reasoning by Historical Analogies
Reasoning by historical analogy is dangerous. Georges Santayana notwithstanding, history does not repeat itself. Rather, the value of history is in what we learn from the past. Failures are as instructive as successes, if not more so. From the day … Continue reading
The Bible is Unabashedly Pro-Immigrant
Editor’s Note: This article first appeared in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and has been reprinted here with the author’s permission. President Bush has proposed an immigration reform plan. It toughens border enforcement, but also creates incentives for illegal immigrants to come forward, pay … Continue reading
Reasonable Patriotism
Guest Commentary G. K. Chesterton, an Englishman, remarked in 1922 that “America is the only nation in the world that is founded on a creed.” That creed was given 230 years ago by Thomas Jefferson, who wrote in the Declaration … Continue reading
Let’s Get Together on Immigration Reform
Guest Commentary Arizona’s two U.S. senators and House members are at loggerheads on the immigration issue. They are a snapshot of the nation. U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl and Rep. J.D. Hayworth want most of the nation’s 11 million illegal aliens … Continue reading
Religion and the Presidents
Few question that religious issues have played a prominent role in the presidency of George W. Bush. Some even accuse Bush of being a Christian zealot who wants to remake America according to his religious views. Although Bush’s faith has … Continue reading
Policing the Border
Immigration is one of the most controversial issues facing the American people today. Ever since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, loud voices in the media are pointing to “open borders” and hinting at dangerous “illegal aliens” who are … Continue reading
Christ and Politics
New York Times “Christ Among the Partisans” that “there is no such thing as a ‘Christian politics’” is biblically and historically suspect. Wills cites Christ’s statement to Pilate, “My reign is not of this present order” (John 18:36), and his … Continue reading Continue reading
The Anti-Politics of Russ Feingold
If Senator Russ Feingold ever lost any sleep about how to get his name on the front side of a hyphen after the passage of the McCain-Feingold Act, without question he succeeded with his latest gambit to stick it to … Continue reading
Ungracious Idiocy
War is such a dangerous business that the mistakes which come from kindness are the very worst. —Carl von Clausewitz, On War, 1832 The Father of the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, Vladimir Lenin, used the term “useful idiots” to describe … Continue reading
Portrait of an Anti-American
They come in all shapes and sizes, without regard to age, race, color, credo, Speedo, national origins, pedigree, filigree, or no degree. They are full-blooded, half-blooded, sixteenth-blooded, green-blooded, one-sixty-fourth-blooded something or other, Vulcanese, Pekinese, or strip tease. They are mono-cultural, … Continue reading
Can You Name this War?
Can you name the war which so far has claimed over 6,000 American lives, more than half that number being innocent civilians? First we called it “The War on Terrorism,” which didn’t work because making war on terrorism made as … Continue reading
Alito’s Epistle
I get angry emails anytime I accuse the dominant press of hostility toward religion, and specifically toward the religious right, as opposed to the religious left. The press is silent (or at least not hostile) when a liberal preacher denounces … Continue reading
“Bush Lied, You Lied”
Several weeks ago I wrote an article that addressed the allegation that George W. Bush lied about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. I noted that this charge doesn’t make sense, even when granting it for the sake of argument, and … Continue reading
What Happened to Bluto’s America?
My favorite movie is Animal House. Towards the end, after the villainous Dean Vernon Wormer shuts down Delta Tau Chi, expels its members from Faber College and notifies draft boards they are “all, all eligible for military service,” a sense of … Continue reading
“Yes, I Admit I Hate Bush”
There is something quite sad happening in modern politics. There is a hatred of George W. Bush so consuming that it has left many otherwise sensible people with an inability to deal with questions concerning the man and his policies. … Continue reading
The Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy
We all remember Hillary Rodham Clinton’s charge of a “vast right-wing conspiracy”: the allegation that there were a bunch of right-wingers out to get her husband, hoping to impeach him and dance on his grave. Admittedly, there were many such … Continue reading
Beware of Reasoning by Historical Analogy
Thirty years ago, in the wake of the Vietnam War, historian James Clay Thompson warned: the primary lesson learned was that the United States should never again go to war in a former French colony located on the other side … Continue reading
Conservatives Are Blowing It
Conservatives are blowing it. In Harriet Miers, George W. Bush designated a nominee to the Supreme Court who, without conservative opposition and digging, particularly by the diligent Wall Street Journal, would almost surely have sailed through Senate confirmation. By all … Continue reading