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
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
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
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. 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
This year, the nation of Austria celebrates the 60th anniversary of its liberation from Nazi occupation. With the Allied victory in May 1945, the German “Anschluss” that had dragooned Austrians into Hitler’s socialist Third Reich in 1938 passed into history, remembered only … Continue reading
You love your house, you love your neighborhood, and you are pleased that local officials want to help toward its development. Yet, after the Supreme Court recently declined to rehear the Kelo vs New London, CT decision, economic development in … Continue reading
Guest Commentary I drive through West Virginia all the time, and it’s hard to give directions there. You always find yourself saying, “Take the Robert Byrd out to the Robert Byrd, and make a left onto the Robert Byrd.” It … Continue reading
Editor’s note: This article first appeared in the The New York Times. When John Roberts, President Bush’s nominee for chief justice of the Supreme Court, told the Senate Judiciary Committee last week that “the right to privacy is protected under the Constitution … Continue reading
Guest Commentary Opening the hearings on Monday on the nomination of Judge John Roberts to the Supreme Court, Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) claimed that four years ago he was in the minority to emphasize the critical importance of judicial ideology. … Continue reading
The Judiciary Committee hearings for Judge John Roberts provide an arena in which the supporters of the “living Constitution” will clash, however politely, with the advocates of “original intent” sometimes called “originalists.”These two conflicting judicial philosophies lurk behind almost every … Continue reading
Sitting in a black Yukon with a machine gun in his lap, Condoleezza Rice’s bodyguard was not the most striking figure outside of St. Matthew’s Cathedral in Washington, D.C. Neither was the thin, black-clad Secretary of State as she departed … Continue reading
On July 6, 1992, Tory, my fourteen-year old daughter died after a ten year battle with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. The grief one feels at the loss of a child is indescribable. The natural order is for children to bury their … Continue reading
This month marks the 80th anniversary of the Scopes Trial, the original trial of the century. Civility, not a survival-of-the-fittest demeanor, marked the proceedings. It’s not a bad precedent for our U.S. Senators to follow in their deliberations over U.S. … Continue reading
How will you celebrate the 4th of July? Will you have/Are you having a picnic? Going to one? Picnics are fine, but all of us should also truly celebrate the essence of the Fourth – the propositions about rights and … Continue reading
Professors Calabresi and Lindgren in a recent Wall Street Journal article entitled “Supreme Gerontocracy” (April 8) complain that U.S. Supreme Court justices are retiring 10 years later on average than were the earlier justices. Therefore, they support the adoption of … Continue reading
Effective wartime presidents are generalissimos, commanders-in-chiefs wielding military power to achieve historically monumental strategic ends; visionaries who shape and mold events through bold political and military action. Abraham Lincoln and Franklin D. Roosevelt, America’s two greatest wartime Presidents, served the … Continue reading
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s response to a question concerning the lack of proper equipment, “You go to war with the Army you have,” rightly prompted some pointed critiques. While the US Army is the world’s finest ground force, it … Continue reading
Did you ever learn anything profound from a fourth grade play? I did yesterday. I took an hour off of work to go to the humble theatre of Grove City Christian Academy — the little gymnasium of First Baptist Church … Continue reading
The headline in the Akron Beacon Journal made the accompanying article a must-read: “Kerry Plans a Hunting Trip as Part of His Push for Votes of Social Conservatives.” At first, I thought perhaps Dave Barry had written a column on … Continue reading
