First Thoughts

Windsor, Marriage, and Religious Freedom

Is the Supreme Court trying to redistribute human dignity from opponents of same-sex marriage to supporters? Continue Reading »

First Links—3.30.15

The New Modesty in Literary Criticism
Jeffrey J. Williams, The Chronicle of Higher Education

The Crazy Old Lady Who Lived in the Desert
Rod Dreher, The American Conservative

Twilight Zone of Antiquity
Dominic Green, Standpoint

Paschal Homilies
Sandro Magister, Chiesa

Germanwings and Evil

In the days since audio was extracted from the black box recorder of crashed Germanwings flight 4U9525 suggesting that copilot Andreas Lubitz deliberately downed the plane, investigators and journalists have rushed to find an explanation for his actions. Continue Reading »

First Links — 3.27.15

Married Monasticism
Hunter Sharpless, Ethika Politika

It's Not Vatican II's Fault
Stephen Bullivant, Catholic Herald

Better Dead Than TED
Bill McMorris, The Washington Free Beacon

The Same Thing, But Different
Hadley Arkes, The Catholic Thing

D.C. City Council Violates Catholic Schools' Right to Free Exercise of Religion

One might think that the District of Columbia, our nation’s capital, would be particularly vigilant in defending the freedoms fundamental to American life. Unfortunately, the District’s City Council has now seen fit to intervene into the life of religious institutions and insist that such institutions handle some topics in ways amenable to the Council’s opinions. Continue Reading »

First Links—3.26.15

Lost Classroom, Lost Community
Will Seath, Fare Forward

The Lives of the Saints: Hagiography Through Tolkien's Eyes
Nicholas Kotar, Orthodox Arts Journal

Scientology's Enturbulating Lingo
Britt Peterson, The Boston Globe

On Trans
Miller Oberman, Poetry Magazine

Peter Thiel's Non-Conformity

“If I could go back and give advice to my younger self, it might be this: Competition is for losers.”That’s the epigraph to an essay by Peter Thiel in the Spring issue of the Intercollegiate Review. It’s entitled “The Competition Myth,” and it lays out Thiel’s thesis in his book Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future. Thiel is an entrepreneur and a capitalist, but his wisdom derives not so much from Adam Smith as from Ralph Waldo Emerson. Continue Reading »

Upcoming Events—3.26.15

A list of upcoming events of interest in New York City and elsewhere.

Pro-Abortion Extremism in the Senate

The Senate Democrats are filibustering a bill to aid victims of sex trafficking, demanding that any help to victims of sex trafficking must be bundled with (extremely unpopular) government funding of abortion. Continue Reading »

Conscience and Its Enemies

I was recently interviewed by C-Span about my book Conscience and Its Enemies. For any readers who might be interested, here’s the video: Continue Reading »