In the first parsha of Exodus, God speaks to Moses at the burning bush after his flight from Egypt, announcing that He will liberate the Israelite slaves and instructing Moses to return to Egypt to lead the mission. Moses is reluctant to accept, and from Moses’ own mouth we hear the reason for his reluctance: He is kaved peh, heavy of mouth. God seems to acknowledge the impediment, assuring Moses that He “will be with your mouth and teach you... Read more

Conservatives value individual liberty as much as libertarians, but they deny that freedom from coercion is the only form of liberty. http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2012/04/5172?utm_source=RTA+Schlueter+Libertarian+2&utm_campaign=email&utm_medium=email Read more

I was once a libertarian activist. I was on the platform committee of the national libertarian party twice in the late seventies. I used to give introductory talks about libertarianism in people’s homes when I was a graduate student. I would begin these talks by describing the problems that contracts between consenting adults could solve. Often someone would ask, “What about children?” I would always admit that children posed a tough problem for libertarianism, but that we would deal with... Read more

Dr. John Bruchalski is a former abortion provider. He is stopping at Roanoke College on his tour of 26 Medical Schools (including Harvard and GWU) across the country, sharing his experiences as an abortion provider and discussing conscience protections for physicians , health care reform, and patient-center medicine. We hope that no matter what your view on abortion, you will join us for this bioethics and clinical discussion on Wednesday at 6:00pm in Massengill Auditorium, Roanoke College. Write  if you... Read more

Catholicism is not a “religion of the book,” but rather a faith built around word and sacrament — or, if you prefer, text and demonstration. Symbolic acts that convey the truths the Church teaches are of the essence of Catholic practice; this is true of the Church’s public life as well as of its worship. The Church teaches that the just society is composed of a democratic political community, a free economy, and a vibrant public moral culture; the Church... Read more

That is because the attempt to privatize marriage will hinder the ability of marriage to perform its essential public function. Nonetheless, children still need to be attached to mothers and fathers somehow. The state will pretend to get out of the marriage business all right, but then the state inevitably will be caught up in the business of defining who counts as a parent. Up until now, that job has been largely left to Mother Nature, with the state simply... Read more

As a libertarian myself, I have been quite disappointed that the “default” libertarian position on marriage has become little more than a sound-bite: “Let’s get the state out of the marriage business.” With all due respect, this position is unsound. http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2012//5069?utm_source=RTA+Morse+Private+Impossible&utm_campaign=email&utm_medium=email Read more

The negative side-effects of contraception are often ignored in our public discourse, but a truly free decision to use or not use them—and whether to use government to promote them—depends on a frank acknowledgement of their costs along with their alleged benefits. http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2012/03/5041?utm_source=RTA+Holloway-Safranek+Contraception&utm_campaign=email&utm_medium=email Read more

What is happening to global temperatures in reality? The answer is: almost nothing for more than 10 years. Monthly values of the global temperature anomaly of the lower atmosphere, compiled at the University of Alabama from NASA satellite data, can be found at the website mod=googlenews_wsj http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304636404577291352882984274.html?mod=googlenews_wsj Read more

The state should never force anyone to perform an action he or she believes to be wrong, unless it has a good reason, not merely to have the action performed, but to insist that even those who find it wrong perform it. http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2012/03/5045?utm_source=RTA+Schaengold+Principle&utm_campaign=email&utm_medium=email Read more