“I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue!” I remember very well, when in the summer of 1964, Barry Goldwater made the statement above in accepting the Republican nomination for President. ...
In early December my sister Gracie and I spent a day at the Whitney Plantation as guests of the ACLU of Louisiana. I’d visited before but Gracie had not. If you aren’t familiar with the plantation – about an hour’s drive up the Mississippi from New Orleans – it tells the story of slavery vividly ...
On Oct. 10, I turned to the editorial page of The New York Times and encountered a guest editorial entitled “Pig Farming Doesn’t Have to Be This Cruel.” The writer, Mark Essig, is a swine expert and author of a book with a whimsical title: Lesser Beasts: A Snout-to-Tail History of the Humble Pig. ...
I’ve rarely come across anything more arresting than a sentence that caught my eye last week in The Guardian’s weekly environmental newsletter, Down to Earth: “Eating just one billionaire would do more to prevent climate change than going vegan or never driving a car for the rest of your life.” Who wouldn’t read on? ...
Indulge me, please, as I revisit the topic of stock buybacks. It might seem more appropriate for a publication like The Wall Street Journal, but when you look beneath the surface you’ll see that it’s a moral issue. Buybacks, a common practice among big corporations, are great if you’re on a company’s board, in ...
Louis Michael Seidman, Georgetown University law professor and former clerk for Justice Thurgood Marshall, wrote a compelling article for The Nation recently. I was particularly struck by the opening paragraphs of the article, The Long, Troubled History of the Supreme Court and How We Can Change It. They begin this way: “By ...
I have often written about my aversion to calling our United States “the greatest country on Earth,” as many politicians of both parties are wont to do. It’s an absurd statement to make. The statement begs the question, “by what criteria did we earn ‘greatest country’ status?” Did some respected international institution give us the ...
The recent U.S. Supreme Court decision in the case of Kennedy v. Bremerton School District vexes me, but not because of the legalities or the arguments pro and con. No, I fear for religious seekers of all faiths and creeds. I fear the decision will tempt them to abandon their search for God because it ...
Because my dogs, Sia and Bubba, insist on getting me up by 5:30 in the morning this time of year, I was able to observe the final hours of Boris Johnson’s life as Prime Minister, on the BBC. OK, I know he didn’t actually resign as PM, but he’s toast and everyone knows it. ...
I read lots of commentary last week after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Much of it delved into academic/legal arguments about the correctness of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health decision, including Justice Clarence Thomas’ supporting opinion on the reversal of Roe. Thomas’ opinion seems to rest on his interpretation of ...
