Today is Memorial Day. It’s common to confuse it with Veterans Day. One example comes from the Twitter feed of one business, “Today we honor all Veterans, including those on our Staff here, we thank all of those who have served our country, and we remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice.” There was a letter-to-the-editor someplace that captures the distinction nicely. It was posted […]
Political philosophy
I’ll take rule of law over majority rule
Opposition to a photo ID requirement stresses the importance of voting, but it forgets the more important principles of republican governance and rule of law. Earlier this week, John Fund (co-author of Who’s Counting?) and Mike Freeman (Hennepin County Attorney) debated the issue of photo ID at the University of St. Thomas Law School. Two thoughts stuck out to me as I listened: Parochialism is universal, […]
Socialism’s ancient roots
This year I’ve set a goal of learning a few things about the history of China–you know, that country that’s holding a substantial portion of our national debt. So far I have listened to eight out of 30 lectures, bringing me (roughly) from pre-history up through the birth of Jesus. One thing that has struck me is that underlying today’s political debates are disagreements that […]
What Gov. Snyder should learn from a long-dead Dutch politician
I’ve always been a bit leery of the idea that what government needs is a successful business executive. Henry Payne’s recent column comparing Gov. Snyder and Gov. Daniels prompted me to wonder why. I came up with a few more ideas. He wrote, “Contrary to popular wisdom, the Daniels role model — followed to a ‘T’ by Snyder — is not conservativism; it is creating a successful […]
Did Jesus really say: “Go ye and support the American welfare state and ye shall be saved?”
Most of the political left in this country is secularist, and sometimes militantly so. But there is a remnant of religious lefties, and a Detroit News reader who goes by the pseudonym “RepubTeach” has been preaching the Social Gospel of late. Recently I mentioned a Democratic Party politician who decried entitlement reform as “un-Christian.” I then repeated the comments of a reader on another site: “I’m […]
Is that PhD selling you BS?
Do you ever hear reports of some new research finding about how people behave and then say to yourself: “That’s a bunch of BS”? Well, you may be right. The Chronicle of Higher Education says that the field of social psychology has been shaken by accusations of fraud and sensationalism. One professor quoted in the story, an expert in research methods, says there’s a temptation to write […]
Don’t confuse the political and the moral
Dan Calabrese, my colleague here at the Michigan View, pointed out some significant problems with the logic employed by one Susan Demas (MLive.com writer) regarding Weinergate. I’d like to address something else. Demas wrote, in part, “But I really don’t care if politicians lie about their personal lives. There. I said it. That’s my libertarian side.” Many people think that “libertarian” and “libertine” are synonymous. […]
Religious Faith Is Not A Policy Handbook
A preacher-turned-politician is accused of disregarding his faith by opposing this or that expansion of government-financed health care. Put aside the obvious question–whatever happened to the separation of church and state?–the criticism is based on the invalid assumption that there’s an indisputable link between “Love thy neighbor” and a specific government program. Making this assumption leads to all sorts of errors and undesirable outcomes in public […]
A smoking ban done the way it should be done
The image and place of smoking in American life has come a long way, baby. The other day I saw what would now be called a retro style advertisement featuring golf legend Arnold Palmer hawking cigarettes. And of course you can’t watch an old movie without seeing at least one character light up. Smoking has been on the decline for a long time, and that’s […]
Government unlimited, society constrained
President Obama and Congress are keen to inflict many changes on this country, changes that will inflict a lot of damage. Aside from the particulars, the most significant problem with the Obama agenda is that it is a full-frontal assault on the principle of subsidiarity. Made most famous in Rerum Novarum, an encyclical published by Pope Leo III in 1891, subsidiarity is a defense against […]
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