The American university purports to be an institution dedicated to dispassionate inquiry and the pursuit of wisdom. Since the 1960s, many Americans have identified universities with anti-American radicalism, sexual libertinism, and moral relativism. That is certainly part of the crisis of American . . . . Continue Reading »
From the early centuries through the Reformation and beyond, Christian thinkers distinguished between violence and just acts of force. Justin argued that every “honourable person” would agree that “rulers should give their decision as having followed not violence and tyranny but . . . . Continue Reading »
In Milbank’s view, Augustine violates his own privative doctrine of evil, which gives no “ontological purchase to dominium , or power for its own sake,” when he allows that punishment might take a purely positive form. For Milbank, “in any coercion, however mild and benignly . . . . Continue Reading »
Reihan Salam argues that low-skill immigration impacts US society differently now than a hundred years ago. Salam writes that the skills gap between low-skill immigrants and native-born American is wider now than in 1900 “and so this particular barrier to assimilation was much . . . . Continue Reading »
Yeah I know I’m late to the party, but here are my two cents, 1. It seems that Bachmann has made her greatest cultural mark as a focus of liberal self-congratulation. I don’t think sneering at a backbench House member who finished dead last in the one presidential delegate selecting . . . . Continue Reading »
Under my argument with Pete’s argument , there were some interesting suggestions that ought to be more public. Pete, Peter Lawler and I carried on the discussion here, but I would like to publicly note some fine arguments by our readers. From Art Deco: The problem, as always, is . . . . Continue Reading »
1. Kate writes: The current progressive tax system is based in a class-envy model of taxation. Maybe for quite a few on the left, but many on the right ( including Greg Mankiw) can support a progressive tax system with no reference to envy. The diminishing marginal utility of the dollar is implicit . . . . Continue Reading »
Here is my argument with Pete this morning. The current progressive tax system is based in a class-envy model of taxation. But we have lived with that for a long time. It has fueled ever bigger government, but we have lived with that for a long time. Our income tax system is . . . . Continue Reading »
and everybody else too. . . . . Continue Reading »
Ben Domenech is one of the shrewder conservative writers out there. He supports a flat tax writing: The whole point of starting with the argument for a flat tax is to end up with a tax structure that looks more like Simpson-Bowles and less like the mess we have today . . . Of course Republicans . . . . Continue Reading »
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