Andrew O’Shaughnessy is Vice President of The Thomas Jefferson Foundation and Saunders Director of the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies. This interview is based on his new book, The Illimitable Freedom of the Human Mind: Thomas Jefferson’s […]
Archives for December 2021
Evangelical roundup for December 9, 2021
What is happening in Evangelical land? Mark Driscoll needs money “after a year of trials.” What is Rob Bell up to these days? Three more kidnapped missionaries in Haiti are released. On listening to evangelicals. Robert Jeffress, one of the […]
Malice Towards None? Charity For All?
Perhaps one day Lincoln’s call for national healing will be relevant again
The Meeting House, a Toronto megachurch, places pastor Bruxy Cavey on leave for alleged sexual misconduct
Here is Yonat Shimron at Religion News Service: A pastor at one of Canada’s largest churches has been accused of sexual misconduct and has been placed on leave while the church undertakes an external investigation. Bruxy Cavey, who grew The Meeting […]
“The idea of growing old in America today is become more uncertain and even scary, and it shouldn’t be”
No, this is not one of those posts about older people worrying about the state of American democracy. It is much more pragmatic in nature. Why aren’t we taking care of older Americans in the way that we should? Conservatives […]
Johnny Cash: Voice of the dispossessed
Over at The Atlantic, Stephen Metcalf reviews Michael Stewart Foley’s Citizen Cash: The Political Life and Times of Johnny Cash. Here is a taste: For Foley, Cash’s status as an artist whose music deeply engaged otherwise incompatible audiences gives him […]
Gerson: The GOP view on vaccines is not pro-life
Yesterday we wrote about Michael Tomasky’s piece titled ““The Right Wants to Freedom Us to Death.” Today we have Michael Gerson’s Washington Post column, “How is the GOP’s coronavirus recklessness compatible with being pro-life?” Here is a taste: During last […]
The Democratic race for Pat Toomey’s Senate seat reveals the divisions in the party
The frontrunner is Pennsylvania Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman. His top challenger is western Pennsylvania congressman Conor Lamb. Here is Holly Otterbein at Politico: One candidate promises he won’t be a centrist Democratic senator like Joe Manchin or Kyrsten Sinema. Another […]
Why the Left should support classical education
Over at the socialist magazine Jacobin, journalist Liza Featherstone reviews Roosevelt Montás’s Rescuing Socrates: How the Great Books Changed My Life and Why They Matter for a New Generation. Here is a taste: Montás is a voice in an ideological […]
Nashville removes a statue to the founder of the KKK
It was a really strange statue that one website said “accurately reflects the ugliness of its subject.” D. Patrick Rodgers’s piece at Nashville Scene is titled “Nathan Bedford Forrest Has Fallen.” Here is a taste: The Confederacy has fallen. Again. […]
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What will happen to the Robert E. Lee statue that once stood in Charlottesville, Virginia?
The Jefferson School African American Heritage Center will melt it down and turn it into a new piece of public art. Here is Eduardo Medina at The New York Times: The City Council of Charlottesville, Va., voted on Tuesday to […]
Does the Jan. 6 House Select Committee now possess the political equivalent of Heidi Fleiss’s black book?
Remember Heidi Fleiss, the so-called “Hollywood Madam? She had a lot of important clients in her Rolodex. Last night we learned that former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows will not cooperate any further with the House Select Committee investigating […]
Remembering Pearl Harbor
Here are some news reels from British Pathe:
New Hampshire’s “An Act Relative to Teachers’ Loyalty” has little to do with the teaching of American history
Here is Eileen O’Connor of the Concord Monitor: Just one year after New Hampshire legislators first introduced a bill that banned the teaching or discussion of “divisive concepts” like systemic racism, another bill will be debated this legislative session that […]
Black Americans have a long history of creating spaces against violent white resistance
Alicia Jackson teaches history at Covenant College in Lookout Mountain, Georgia. Here is a taste of her Washington Post piece, “Black Americans have long envisioned and created spaces of sanctuary”: On a plot of land near Toomsboro, Ga., three dozen people […]
Tomasky: The Right’s view of liberty during this pandemic is “incompatible with human life”
Michael Tomasky is the editor of The New Republic. Here is a taste of his piece, “The Right Wants to Freedom Us to Death”: Future historians—that is, if future historians are actual historians and not a bunch of hired-gun fascist […]
Christ the King and Democratic Rule
The Kingdom of God is within us, but we are also within it
California congressman Devin Nunes is retiring to become CEO of Donald Trump’s media company
We all know Devin Nunes by this point. Some of you may recall the so-called “Nunes Memo.” This is also the guy who told everyone to go out and eat at their favorite restaurant in March 2020. Earlier this year […]
Thinking in paragraphs
Jonathan Jacobs, a philosophy professor at John Jay College in New York City, wants his students to think in paragraphs. He is profiled at The Christian Science Monitor. A taste: …he pushes first-year students in his classes at John Jay […]