Joseph Knippenberg

Edmund Burke once said: Boldness formerly was not the character of Atheists as such. They were even of a character nearly the reverse; they were formerly like the old Epicureans, rather an unenterprising race. But of late they are grown active, designing, turbulent, and seditious. I wonder what . . . . Continue Reading »

Never mind the red herring in this defense of the contraceptive mandate (which applies whether or not you take federal money), the argument itself is quite breathtaking.  The argument goes something like this: when you take money from the federal government, you sell your soul to the [fill in . . . . Continue Reading »

My friend Jordan Ballor takes the occasion of this conversation at the American Enterprise Institute to revisit a question he (and we ) have canvassed before .  His answer, which I find attractive, if not altogether satisfying, is that libertarian political philosophy can be regarded as . . . . Continue Reading »

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has predictably upheld the district court decision declaring California’s Proposition 8 invalid.  Given the composition of the three-judge panel (a Carter appointee, a Clinton appointee, and a Bush 43 appointee), this outcome was never in doubt. I . . . . Continue Reading »

According to a study described by this New York Times article , our constitution is increasingly out of step with its counterparts around the world.  Where once ours was the model, now people are looking to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (which, if memory serves, was more or less . . . . Continue Reading »

Yesterday, while I was listening with students to the oral arguments in the Hosanna-Tabor case , I noticed something I hadn’t caught before.  Here’s Leondra Kruger, Assistant to the Solicitor General, responding to a question from Chief Justice John Roberts: The government’s . . . . Continue Reading »

Many—including Max Boot , Bill Kristol , Jonah Goldberg , and our own Matthew Cantirino —have remarked critically on the way that President Obama appealed to the manifest virtues of our military in his State of the Union Address . Let me join the chorus. What the President was reaching . . . . Continue Reading »

Newt Gingrich brought the audience to its feet with his comeback to CNN’s John King in the last of the South Carolina debates.  Francis Beckwith thinks that Gingrich should have said something a bit different: The Speaker is, of course, correct that “every person in here knows . . . . Continue Reading »

Rob Boston, of Americans United, tells us that five members of our founding generation—Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, and Paine—were so religiously unorthodox as to be unelectable today. I’ll grant him Tom Paine (who probably wouldn’t have been electable even in his . . . . Continue Reading »

Powerline’s John Hinderaker calls our attention to this Presidential Proclamation on the 39th anniversary of Roe v. Wade .  From the Administration that more than any I’ve seen embraces the so-called nanny state, especially in ways that offend the consciences of sincere religious . . . . Continue Reading »