This essay originally appeared in the Daily Times on February 2, 2023 (here). Thanks to the Tennessee Conservative News (here)! There is a common belief, frequently asserted with grave concern, that our public discourse has become overly fractious—that is to say, disagreeable. The implicit prem…
Politics & Economics
Revisiting the Last Frontier
Alaska is a magnificent state. Is its untamed, unspoiled splendor an asset or a defect? This essay originally appeared in Law & Liberty on July 25, 2022 (here). Thanks to Power Line and Instapundit (here)! I visited Alaska for the first time four years ago and was impressed enough to write an…
The Legal Profession Brooks No Dissent
Lawyers pursuing disfavored causes face retaliation by an increasingly woke guild. This essay originally appeared in American Greatness on June 5, 2022 (here). Thanks to Instapundit (here) and The Federalist (here)! Conflicts and disagreements—inherent in human nature—are resolved by ei…
Review: BLM: The Making of a New Marxist Revolution
This essay originally appeared in the May 2022 issue of Chronicles (here). In 2020, following the death of George Floyd—a drug-addled career criminal-cum-martyr—in Minneapolis, many cities were besieged by destructive riots, under the banner of “Black Lives Matter.” Just as disconcerting …
Unmasking the Nanny State
Preserving the rule of law sometimes requires judicial intervention to prevent government overreaching. This essay first appeared in Law & Liberty on February 23, 2022 (here). Thanks to Power Line, Instapundit (here), the SE Texas Record (here), Real Clear Policy (here), Cafe Hayek (here), an…
Do Parents Have Rights?
School boards in the culture war: progressive advocates falsely cry wolf to thwart reform. This essay originally appeared in American Greatness on October 31, 2021 (here). Thanks to Instapundit (here), Tennessee Conservative News (here), the SE Texas Record (here), Legal Insurrection (here), the …
Kamala Harris and Me
My feature-length 2016 profile of Kamala Harris in City Journal, entitled “The Next Obama,” was written while she was still Attorney General of California, running for the U.S. Senate. That piece has proven to be prescient, although I must give credit to City Journal editor Brian Ande…
Frankenstein’s Monster (BLM) Terrorizes the Village
Boomers (most of whom who never read Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel) remember the 1931 movie version of Frankenstein, famously starring Boris Karloff. Back in the day, when Marvel was a comic book brand rather than a movie franchise, and before special effects replaced plot lines and characters in c…
Galt’s Gulch in Music City, USA
This essay originally appeared in City Journal, on May 17, 2021 (here). Thanks to Power Line, Real Clear Policy, Instapundit (here), Real Clear Markets (here), and the Pamphleteer (here)! People move for many different reasons: climate, housing, employment, education, family, taxes, health, and s…
Obedience Fatigue
Over a year of CDC flip-flops and credibility-straining pronouncements leave a compliant public skeptical. Vaccinated Americans yearn for normalcy. This essay first appeared in Law & Liberty, on May 5, 2021 (here). Thanks to Instapundit (here), Power Line, Real Clear Policy, and the Tennessee…