Category: Politics & Culture

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Media Gets Pope’s Abbas Comments Wrong | The Weekly Standard

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I’m shocked–shocked!–that major news media misreported what the Pope said. Double-shocked (!!!) that it pertained to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict… If anyone needs further evidence of why the news agencies often can’t be trusted to report accurately on Israel and the Palestinians, and why major news outlets such as the New York Times and the BBC should stop repeating agency copy without verifying it, here is an important example from this weekend. Media Gets Pope’s Abbas Comments Wrong | The Weekly Standard. Continue reading Media Gets Pope’s Abbas Comments Wrong | The Weekly Standard

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Later-Term Abortion and Science Denial

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Over at Commentary, Jonathan S. Tobin writes: Instead of mulling whether the late term abortion ban (passed on the second anniversary of the sentencing of late term abortion butcher Kermit Gosnell for slaughtering infants born alive after such procedures) is politically wise for Republicans or a godsend to Democrats eager to replay their 2012 “war on women” attacks on their foes, we should be discussing the real life implications of medical innovations on public policy. The real issue isn’t the legality of abortion as a whole — which isn’t in question — but the lives of infants who could survive … Continue reading Later-Term Abortion and Science Denial

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George F. Will on the Comprehensive, Aggressive, and Dangerous Threat to Free Speech in Contemporary America

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George F. Will spoke at the Inaugural Disinvitation Dinner of the William F. Buckley Program at Yale University. His thesis? “Free speech has never been, in the history of our republic, more comprehensively, aggressively, and dangerously threatened than it is now.” Take a look! Continue reading George F. Will on the Comprehensive, Aggressive, and Dangerous Threat to Free Speech in Contemporary America

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Justice Scalia’s Worst Opinion

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Today is the 25th anniversary of Justice Anton Scalia’s opinion in Employment Division v. Smith, which Michael Stokes Paulsen describes as Justice Scalia’s Worst Opinion: Smith is not by a long shot the worst Supreme Court decision of all time, or even of the past twenty-five years. As a matter of the human harm it inflicts, there are far more egregious cases.Planned Parenthood v. CaseyandRoe v. Wade, the Court’s abortion decisions,top the listin the modern era. Nor isSmith the most indefensible of opinions in terms of the Court’s legal analysis.Roe,Casey,Lawrence v. Texas, andWindsor v. United States, each adopting and extending some form of “substantive due process,” are worse thanSmithon this score.Smithis … Continue reading Justice Scalia’s Worst Opinion

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Calling Out the High-Tech Hypocrites

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From Calling Out the High-Tech Hypocrites: As a country, it is time to understand that the tech oligarchs are not much different from, and no better than, previous business elites. Like oil companies under the Bushes, they relish their ties to the powerful, as evidenced by Google’s weekly confabs with Obama administration officials. No surprise that a host of former top  Obama aides—including former campaign manager David Plouffe (Uber) and White House press secretary Jay Carney (Amazon)—have signed up to work for tech giants. “None of this is to say that the tech elites need to be broken up like Standard … Continue reading Calling Out the High-Tech Hypocrites

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Abraham Lincoln, American Christians, and the Public Square

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Last June, the Pew Research Center released a report entitled, Political Polarization in the American Public. Its opening sentence was alarming: “Republicans and Democrats are more divided along ideological lines – and partisan antipathy is deeper and more extensive – than at any point in the last two decades.” Obviously, people will have principled differences about big ideas and public policies, but those principled differences seem to be negatively affecting personal relationships. “Not only do many of these polarized partisans gravitate toward like-minded people,” the report went on to note, “but a significant share express a fairly strong aversion to … Continue reading Abraham Lincoln, American Christians, and the Public Square

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Lincoln’s Creed

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In 1920, William E. Barton published The Soul of Abraham Lincoln, a now classic study of the development of Lincoln’s faith. “Lincoln’s religious was an evolution,” Barton wrote, “both in its intellectual and spiritual qualities.” Lincoln’s religious identity seems to have moved through three stages: (1) a Calvinist Baptist in childhood; (2) a skeptical, freethinker in young adulthood; and (3) and a not-altogether-orthodox Christian in mature adulthood. “Too much of the effort to prove that Abraham Lincoln was a Christian,” Barton wrote, “has begun and ended in the effort to show that on certain theological opinions he cherished correct opinions.” … Continue reading Lincoln’s Creed

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Saving President Lincoln | The Weekly Standard

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Jaffa put it like this, in a paragraph that distills Lincoln’s mind better than any words not written by Lincoln himself. If self-government was a right, and not a mere fact characterizing the American scene (more or less), then it must be derived from some primary source of obligation. There must be something, Lincoln insisted, inhering in each man, as a man, which created an obligation in every other man. And if any majority anywhere, however constituted, might rightfully enslave any man or men, it could only be because there was nothing in any man which, simply because he was a man, other men … Continue reading Saving President Lincoln | The Weekly Standard

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Happy Thanksgiving from President Obama

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  Weekly Address: Wishing the American People a Happy Thanksgiving  Remarks of President Barack Obama Weekly Address — Thanksgiving Thursday, November 28, 2013 Hi, everybody.  On behalf of all the Obamas – Michelle, Malia, Sasha, Bo, and the newest member of our family, Sunny – I want to wish you a happy and healthy Thanksgiving. We’ll be spending today just like many of you – sitting down with family and friends to eat some good food, tell stories, watch a little football, and most importantly, count our blessings. And as Americans, we have so much to be thankful for. We … Continue reading Happy Thanksgiving from President Obama