Part One: Intrigued By a Rising China During the first two weeks of June, my brother and I traveled to China on a vacation. This was the first trip either us had ever taken to Asia. We had each been to Europe – I was there in 2000 on a study abroad program in Spain […]
Policy and Culture
The Permanent Things Rock On
This past weekend, I attended a meeting of The Philadelphia Society in Atlanta, Georgia. As a member of this organization founded in 1964 by exemplary statesmen William F. Buckley, Jr. and Russell Kirk, I was especially looking forward to the Society’s celebration of the 60th Anniversary of the publication of Kirk’s The Conservative Mind. Due […]
Health Care Solutions for Everyone
Over the past few years, the entire country has been debating health care in our country. Those on the left say that our health care is so expensive that government must intervene in the marketplace and provide health care for those who can’t afford it. Many on the right, who believe in limited government, simply […]
Team America: World Police. That was a joke.
In the 2004 film, Team America: World Police, the United States’ anti-terrorist force “Team America” goes around the world kicking terrorist ass. While Team America is portrayed (correctly) as a force for good, taking out bad guys, they also wreak a lot of havoc and create unintended consequences. The film was directed and written by Trey […]
Miscellaneous tidbits from China
Traveling to China with my brother Tony earlier this summer was great. And I had fun writing about what we did during our 12 days. However, there were lots of tidbits I didn’t include because they weren’t part of the day-to-day itinerary of the new and interesting sights and sounds. They were more a […]
Interview with a Florida Conservative
I just came across this in my old files. In late 2009, I had a friend from out of state interview me for a profile he was doing for members of another conservative organization. I never personally published it, but as I just re-read it I thought maybe some of my friends might find my […]
Obama Making Best Case for Conservatism – Will We Seize the Moment?
In the history of the conservative movement, our philosophy has been better defined by our opposition. During the Cold War, Soviet tyranny made the best case for limited government both abroad and at home. And Ronald Reagan seized on their bad example. During the 1990s, Bill Clinton’s infidelities made the best case for social conservatism. […]
American Complacency Being Put to the Test
At what point will Americans stop being complacent about government intrusion in our lives and start waking up? Or have we hit the point where we are simply too complacent and there’s no turning back? Have we reached a point where, collectively, we believe our “leaders” our wiser than us and so we assume the […]
Marriage: Leave it to the States
In the past week, the debate over whether to allow same-sex couples to marry has once again heated up. This is mostly because two cases on this subject have reached the Supreme Court, which heard oral arguments this past week, with decisions due sometime this summer. As these cases played out in our national media, […]
Recovering from Election 2012
Over the past several weeks, I’ve been reading about how Barack Obama won a second term. I’ve been reading a lot of sources – from the left, the right, and the “mainstream media.” But mostly I’ve also been reading reflections from many different people – including from various conservative friends across the country who are […]