Believers won the latest battle concerning the free exercise of religion in these United States. The Supreme Court again proved amicable in its 7-2 decision in American Legion v. American Humanist Association, ruling that the 40-foot Peace Cross standing on a public cemetery for nearly a century can remain, largely because it was erected in [...]

I provide the following glossary as a service to those unwoke, unhip noctambulants who, like me, find themselves obliviously sleepwalking through the dreamscape of contemporary American culture. I provide for your edification, fellow somnambulists, the following terms taken from the argot of those who place themselves at the vanguard of the current reproductive rights/reproductive justice [...]

In one of the most infamous “Nixon tapes,” recorded by one of the most unjustly hated presidents in U.S. history, Nixon is captured conversing with Evangelical leader and “America’s Pastor,” the Reverend Billy Graham, immediately after the National Prayer breakfast on February 1, 1972. Noting the changing of the guard in the American power structure, [...]

Recent news stories make one wonder if our legal system is abandoning our traditional Anglo-American principles of justice and instead becoming increasingly unreasonable, unprincipled, and allowing itself to become a tool for furthering political bias, revenge-seeking, and “making examples.” We can start off with the spectacle of the two-year-long investigation of the 2016 Trump presidential [...]

The June 21 decision by an English Court of Protection judge to order a Nigerian woman, in the fifth month of pregnancy, to have an abortion against her own and her family’s wills, stirred criticism. A three-judge Court of Appeal overturned the decision June 24. Apart from the barbarism of forced abortion—hitherto the preference of totalitarian [...]

Some time ago I argued in a magazine column that liberalism has developed in recent decades from a rigidly secular political philosophy into a this-worldly religion with its own more or less developed though unsystematic dogma based on faith and a reciprocal concept of heresy, its own unwritten creed and sacramental system, a loose rhetorical [...]

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (joined by Justice Sotomayor) wrote the dissenting opinion in last week’s Supreme Court decision upholding the presence of Bladensburg’s Peace Cross on public land. The Court, fractured about the basis for its ruling, nevertheless managed to cobble together a 7-2 split (with Justices Breyer and Kagan as part of [...]

The religious right has often been looked down upon by many Americans involved in the political scene. For them, it shouldn’t exist. According to the secular liberal tradition, the public square is supposed to be value-neutral. Any religious intrusion into political matters is to be discouraged. The secular left is especially fearful of mixing politics [...]

Thomas Paprocki, the bishop of Springfield (the state capital of Illinois), has issued a decree barring the Illinois State Senate President and House Speaker—both ostensibly Catholics—from receiving Communion in the diocese.  The June 2 decision took place in response to enactment of abortion legislation codifying in state law an unlimited abortion liberty through birth, in [...]

Yogi Berra said, “It ain’t over till it’s over.” It’s a logic that would be refreshing these days. Here’s a variation that may help with some current controversies: if you want to end an argument, finish it. In other words, one way to end some arguments used for certain causes would be simply to follow [...]

My readership and the traditionalists in my parish exploded at the recent Catholic Herald article, titled "The Catholic turn to socialism is something to celebrate." I am surrounded by socialists at work and have a lot of time for those with their hearts in the right place, especially regarding social justice. That said, I thought [...]

Bishop Miler Magrath (Maolmhuire Mag Raith) of Ireland (1523-1622) wrote his own epitaph for the tomb in Cashel in which he was finally laid in his one-hundredth year.  The syntax is convoluted as was his life: “Here where I am placed I am not. I am not where I am not. Nor am I in [...]

Speaking at the University of Notre Dame in October 2016, just a few weeks before a national election that seemed sure to put a second Clinton in the White House, I noted that [Q]uite a few of us American Catholics have worked our way into a leadership class that the rest of the country both [...]

Rebuking our former governor (and current Vice President), our mayor in South Bend tells us that it is his Creator who made him gay. Although he cites neither Scripture nor philosophical argument, Mayor Buttigieg bases this assertion presumably on his own experience. The common argument, which the mayor alludes to, is that having discovered strong [...]

Carlos Maza is a nasty little man who goes by the nom-de-tweet Gaywonk. A gay guy with pronounced gay-voice, he has been stalking and trolling conservatives for many years. He stalked me a few years ago when he was a "reporter" for the hard-left Media Matters. He came after me on Twitter, harassing me, calling [...]

One of the heated intra-conservative debates of late is over the benefits of different pro-life political strategies. Should the pro-life movement push for more moderate bills such as 14-week bans, or should it adopt Alabama’s approach and ban nearly everything? Should it adopt an incrementalist approach or an absolutist approach? There is a large consensus [...]

The rank confusion spawned by the push for transgenderism is a direct result of the contemporary feminist movement, which came to the fore and started to transform American life fifty years ago. It is one of the most insidious effects of feminism and underscores the urgent need to put forth a reasonable, non-feminist—indeed, non-ideological—understanding of [...]

My grandfather’s nickname was David Lloyd George because he looked and spoke rather like the man. I was three days old when the former prime minister died, on the day that would have been my late grandfather’s birthday. After the Versailles Conference, where he had sat between Woodrow Wilson and Georges Clemenceau, Lloyd George commented [...]

Recent news reports reveal that communist authorities are demolishing Catholic churches and shrines in China. All this is happening despite communist propaganda assuring outsiders that religion can be freely practiced in China. Western observers thought that if they could just wish hard enough and offer concessions, the Chinese leadership would change for the better. Red [...]

The political landscape in Canada is rapidly changing. In addition to the conservative governments of Manitoba and Saskatchewan, there is a blue wave sweeping across the Dominion. Right-of-center parties are gaining more and more ground: Doug Ford in Ontario last year; Jason Kenney’s recent win in Alberta; Blaine Higgs in New Brunswick; François Legault in [...]