Today is Presidents Day in the United States, a national holiday. Actually, that’s not quite right. Officially, the federal holiday is still called Washington’s Birthday, and that’s the official name here in New York, too. (Who knew?) But, unofficially, America uses this day to . . . . Continue Reading »
The outbreak of war in 1914 unleashed a decades-long chain reaction that left millions uprooted and exiled. My own presence in this world would not have come about were it not for these events. Continue Reading »
On Thursday evening, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal delivered a speech on the “Silent War” against religious liberty in America. Jindal criticized the Obama administration, liberal elites, the HHS Mandate, and the infringement experienced by such businesses as Elane Photography, a . . . . Continue Reading »
A few Valentines for lovers of First Things. Continue Reading »
“Virtue and the Artistic Imagination” and more upcoming events in New York, New Haven, Yonkers, and South Bend. Continue Reading »
A new report reveals the secret of a happy marriage in the modern world: Speak in gibberish and look after Number One. Continue Reading »
What’s the point if we can’t have fun? Continue Reading »
Harvard’s Cass Sunstein rearticulated criticisms of “originalism”—the theory that judges should construe legal texts using the original public meaning of its words—in a Bloomberg op-ed piece last week. While critical of conservative originalism, Sunstein does not reject the entire approach outright. Sunstein, like Jack M. Balkin in his 2011 book, Living Originalism, seeks to wrest the idea originalism from the proprietary hands of conservative legal authorities like U.S. Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas. Continue Reading »
In a collection of essays entitled The Sanctified Church, Zora Neale Hurston described the traditions of the African American holiness and Pentecostal churches as a “revitalizing element” in black music and religion. As someone deeply invested in African American folk culture, . . . . Continue Reading »
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