I keep rereading James Fishback’s essay on high school debate. Published May 25 in the Free Press, he called out the national circuit of high school debate for being partisan, polarized, and punitive toward any students with sane, moderate, or conservative arguments. Continue Reading...
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May 31, 2023
A Campus Satire for Our Time
As far back as the 1960s, novelist Philip Roth declared that reality in the United States was outpacing the creative capacities of the writer of fiction. “The actuality is continually outdoing our talents,” he wrote back then, “and the culture tosses up figures daily that are the envy of any novelist.” Continue Reading...
May 30, 2023
Hong Kong Court Denies Jimmy Lai’s Petition to Terminate Trial
The Hong Kong High Court has rejected a request by pro-democracy activist and newspaper publisher Jimmy Lai to terminate his upcoming trial under the city’s so-called National Security Law (NSL), according to Reuters. Continue Reading...
May 26, 2023
Keep The Covenant on Your Moviegoing Radar This Memorial Day
This Memorial Day, there is one movie in theaters that addresses directly the experiences of veterans. While American families are entertained by the Super Mario Bros. movie, now a billion-dollar proposition worldwide, people who prefer more true-to-life action can see the movie I recommend, Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant, which has barely made any money, even though it’s an exciting, gripping experience, and it’s got a star, Jake Gyllenhaal. Continue Reading...
May 25, 2023
End the Fed’s Cat-and-Mouse Game to Tame Inflation
Nine times. If you’ve seen the classic ’80s film Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, you recognize and can hear the principal’s voice. Ferris, an overconfident and overzealous teenager, has managed to ditch school with his two pals—again. Continue Reading...
May 24, 2023
Tim Keller Lives
I’ve been a Christian for almost half a century, sometimes with a critical spirit toward sermons. So I’ll now write something I’ve never written before and never expect to write again: the best preacher I’ve ever heard “died” last Friday. Continue Reading...
May 23, 2023
Don’t Divinize the State
One consequence of what Italian philosopher Augusto del Noce calls our present “age of secularization” is the paradoxical modern tendency of atheists to divinize politics and the state. What the Church once undid, ideology would rejoin. Continue Reading...
May 20, 2023
Jimmy Lai Denied U.K. Human Rights Lawyer—Again
Hong Kong’s Court of First Instance has rejected Jimmy Lai’s appeal challenging the denial of access to U.K. counsel. In November of last year, a national security committee denied Lai, a U.K. Continue Reading...
May 18, 2023
Liberty Is Not the Product of Any One Religion
Paul D. Miller, a professor of the practice of international affairs at Georgetown University, has argued in a recent essay in Christianity Today that Christianity is not necessary for democracy. Miller challenges “conservative evangelicals” who believe that “Christianity is necessary for a free society.” Continue Reading...
May 17, 2023
Journalists Worldwide Demand: Free Jimmy Lai
Jimmy Lai, Hong Kong’s most famous freedom fighter, is still in prison. In September, he will face a trial that could leave him spending the rest of his life behind bars for the crime of standing against the Chinese Communist Party’s crackdown on Hong Kong and the civil rights it had enjoyed. Continue Reading...