Christian celebrity culture is toxic. And it has terrible long-term effects. Ravi Zacharias was the head of an international, $40-million-a-year apologetics ministry devoted to explaining and justifying Christianity to a watching world. The position brought him international fame and fortune. … Continue reading
Caleb Verbois
Abraham Lincoln and the Meaning of the 4th of July
When we think of the Fourth of July, we often think of backyard barbecues with friends, baseball, and maybe a beer or two. This year, with COVID-19, maybe we can at least have the beer. But Independence Day was originally … Continue reading
What is Wrong with Minneapolis?
Earlier this week during a routine arrest Minneapolis police officers knelt on George Floyd’s neck for several minutes, finally killing him. This act fits a long and too-frequent pattern of incidents where police use substantial and often lethal force for … Continue reading
Winter is Always Coming
Last week, my father-in-law came to visit for a few hours. He and my mother-in-law live relatively close, and one or both of them come to visit their young grandchildren a couple of times a month. It is a highlight … Continue reading
A Lot Less Bluster and a Little More Sasse
Predictably, the start of Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing to the Supreme Court was an embarrassing fiasco for almost everyone involved. The Republican chair of the Judiciary Committee, Senator Chuck Grassley, had barely begun his opening remarks before Democratic Senator Kamala … Continue reading
Whither Congress?
The news that President Donald Trump authorized the U.S. military to strike a Syrian chemical manufacturing facility is hardly surprising. Even without the potential incentive to distract the news media from Robert Mueller’s investigation and the next phase of James … Continue reading
Memos, Trump, and Trust
Perhaps we should not be surprised by the hysteria over the release of Congressman Devin Nunes’ memo. After all, “memogate” has filled Washington with hysteria for weeks. Former deputy assistant to President Trump, Sebastian Gorka, claimed it showed abuses “100 … Continue reading
Obamacare is Congress’s Opportunity to Lead
Since the 2016 election, much ink has been spilled trying to pinpoint the cause of the collapse of the Democratic Party, both in Congress and state legislatures, during Barack Obama’s presidency. Among the most important was the deep antipathy to … Continue reading
Fake News, Executive Orders, and Immigration
The controversy over so-called “fake news” does not seem to be going away. However, the press’s frustration about it is increasingly misplaced. After the presidential election the media fixated for months on a handful of fictitious headlines from suspect websites … Continue reading
A Never Trumpers Wish-list for Trump’s first 100 Days
Elections have surprising consequences. It is hard to know who is most surprised by the results of the 2016 presidential race: Hillary and her supporters, who have spent the last two months vacillating between tears and anger; conservative Never Trumpers … Continue reading
Melania Trump, Fashion, and Religious Liberty: A Strange Combination
People magazine recently reported news that a number of prominent fashion designers have refused to work with Melania Trump because they do not approve of her, or more likely, her husband’s politics and language. Given Donald Trump’s often offensive way … Continue reading
An Autopsy of a Movement
With Ted Cruz having dropped out of the 2016 presidential race, there will be a string of eulogies seeking to autopsy his campaign. At least some of those critiques may hit the mark. In particular, Cruz’s campaign strategy went awry … Continue reading
Trump isn’t the Problem, He’s the Symptom
After the Michigan primary, there has been a predictable round of handwringing from the GOP about why Donald Trump keeps winning despite being neither a Republican nor a conservative. A lot of answers have been bandied about: there are too … Continue reading
Vote for the Crook, it’s Important
Like many Americans, I learned my first real civics lesson watching my mother vote. Unlike many, my first lesson was fairly depressing. I grew up in southern Louisiana, and in the 1991 gubernatorial election David Duke, a former Grand Wizard … Continue reading
Scalia and the Constitution
I had the great privilege to hear Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia speak on three separate occasions and once to meet him in person after hearing him announce a decision. You can learn a lot about someone by reading his … Continue reading
Why Missouri, Yale, and Rubio are Wrong About College
The recent campus absurdities at Missouri and Yale have justifiably been met with derision by critics and real concern by parents who are paying a great deal of money to send their children to college. But some conservatives like Senator Marco … Continue reading