How can we have rule of law when judges can amend our founding document at their whim? The term “living constitution” doesn’t poll well. That’s what Constitutional Accountability Center (CAC) president and founder Doug Kendall told participants in a teleforum sponsored by the American Association of University Women. Kendall, a self-described progressive, was explaining why […]

I’ve had the great good fortune to meet and work with some of America’s nicest and most highly respected public intellectuals. These people have a mission, to advance human freedom and well-being. They do so through their knowledge of human propensities and ambitions. They work to understand society’s organization and coordination and then explain it […]

Here is a true, empirical, statistical generalization. Smart, mature, politically attentive adults gradually move toward a classical liberal philosophy. This philosophy is committed to the ideal of limited government under constitutional constraints, the rule of law, due process, and individual liberty. This includes freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, and free markets.  Independent of their education, through experience and observation, the […]

The half-century between 1912 and 1962 was a period of great wars and economic tumult but also of impressive social cohesion. Marriage rates were high. Community groups connected people across class. In the half-century between 1962 and the present, America has become more prosperous, peaceful and fair, but the social fabric has deteriorated. Social trust […]

The 1973 Yom Kippur War pitting Israel against Syria and Egypt motivated an Arab petroleum boycott, instigating congressional passage of the 1975 Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards. Known by its acronym, CAFE, the program does not man­date that every car sold in the United States be parsimonious but defines an average that each manufacturer’s cars […]

This week’s FREE Insight is by University of Illinois political scientist, Robert Weissberg. Essentially, Bob argues that due to humans’ biological hard wiring, conflict will emerge when an energetic, intrusive state engages in social engineering threatening the values and behaviors that fostered survival of genetic lines.   I had read a far longer version of this argument […]

The most idiotic reason that single mothers give for not marrying is: “I’m too poor to get married!” Evidently these women believe they’re not too poor to educate, house, feed, clothe, and provide a stable home and an enriching moral and cultural environment for a child on their own. The “I’m too poor” defense, documented […]