Miriel M. Thomas Earlier this month, the Supreme Court decided Snyder v. Phelps, a case involving the Westboro Baptist Church’s demonstrations in conjunction with the funeral of a Marine killed in the line of duty in Iraq. Eight to one, the Court ruled that the First Amendment immunizes Westboro from tort liability for the emotional […]

In a forthcoming post on rational behavior, I will describe a dilemma in which the right choice may surprise you.  Choosing virtue and truth does not always mean choosing the most obvious or palatable option.  Ironically, the preceding sentence itself may be obvious.  Sources as varied as the Book of James and the lyrics of […]

The field of economics is a wonderful tool for understanding a limited body of knowledge.  In our imperfect world, I almost always prefer that markets be free to set prices and create wealth. However, if we broaden the scope of what we think economics can tell us about the world, then we run into problems. […]

Americans find it difficult to distinguish between a liberty and a right, and we find it impossible to tie a right to an obligation. One reason may be our failure to see that politics has always advanced from two sources of authority, not just one. In the Top-Down form, the person ruling has a right […]

The god-term of the modern age is liberty. We all want it, we all deserve it, and it is at least the prerequisite to any real solutions in the world. Any significant history of the world is ultimately dealing with its genealogy. But is it so abstract – the steady surfer riding up and down the […]