It is well known that important constituencies, especially those for the Democratic Party, have not been turning out in ‘midterm’ elections in the last few years. In fact, a New York Times writer has endorsed eliminating ‘midterms’ for that very […]
Howard Ahmanson
If We Treated Food the Way We Treated Housing
Josh Barro, an economics columnist at the New York Times who used to be at Forbes, has written an interesting column on what the food marketplace would be like if we owned lifetime resaleable futures in our food instead of […]
Hasn’t it Always Been Babylon?
Rod Dreher, one of our favorites on this site, has written a column called “From Israel to Babylon” of which the sources are largely drawn from the Southern Baptists. The younger Southern Baptists expect to be a religious minority, which, […]
Now, Even Apartment Dwellers are Getting Choosy about their Neighbors
It has been known for a long time that homeowners have wanted to control who their neighbors are. In the past it was race; now it is for income and for how they might use their property, and often for […]
Why Republicans Are Not Always Reliable Defenders of Economic Liberty
As an activist against ‘redevelopment,’ I often wondered why Republicans, who posture themselves as the party of ‘small government’ or ‘limited government,’ were so hard to convince to repeal redevelopment. Josh Barro, a clever columnist for the New York Times, […]
Very Bad Taste Not A Reason To Forbid Anything: A Thought For 9/11, Nine Years Later
There has been quite a to-do about building an Islamic center in Lower Manhattan close to Ground Zero. I have to say I think the whole thing is in very bad taste. With one possible exception. The famous Sagrada Familia […]
Living with Same Sex Marriage
Several of the Federal circuit courts have found that the Fourteenth Amendment, which became part of the Constitution in 1868, requires the states to validate same sex marriage as equal with opposite sex marriage. Of course, I think this would […]
Suppose We Applied Some of the Theories of Today to the Culture Wars of 90 Years Ago?
Wesley J. Smith warns us that the ACLU is now maintaining that the rights of access of people to not only abortion but Death with Dignity should override the rights of physicians, pharmacists, and health care workers to conscientious objection regarding […]
The Residential College Experience and New Urbanism
Matthew Gerken, in Philanthropy Daily, has a nice essay entitled “Why We Love College.” For all the problems with the American university experience – they’re not preparing the kids for jobs! – they’re not preparing the kids for anything but […]
‘Beach People’ vs ‘Brunch People’ – the Eternal Struggle
I have concluded that there are two kinds of people, ‘beach people’ and ‘brunch people’. The first are those that like outdoor activities; the second are those that like to sit in one place for hours and read, or study, […]