- Big Law and Local Government June 22, 2021 by W. David Montgomery - What is a small town or county to do when it is invaded by national pressure groups with unlimited resources? That is the problem faced by Talbot County on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, but the ramifications of the question extend nationwide. The target in Talbot County is a memorial located on the grounds of the county courthouse to local men who fought for the Confederacy, comprising a statue and a base with the names of the 84 “Talbot Boys”. There have been sporadic efforts local efforts to remove the statue. One was resolved with a compromise in 2004 to add a statue of Frederick Douglass, who grew up in Talbot County. In 2017 the County Council, under the leadership of its African-American president Corey Pack, voted unanimously to keep the statue. The leader of the local NAACP was never completely satisfied, but the matter lay quiet until last summer.
- Thinking About Things: With Mainstream Journalism Mostly Dead, Where Can One Find Real Journalists? June 8, 2021 by John DeQ. Briggs - I am not sure when journalism became more about collaborating with a predetermined narrative than about uncovering actual facts. I remember in the early days of Donald Trump thinking that his constant invocation of the words “fake news” was nothing more than a wildly exaggerated and misdirected appeal to his base and their obvious animosity to “media elites.” But I do know that being isolated and hunkered down for most of calendar year 2020 gave me a keen awareness that there were competing narratives on television that did not depend on the truth of any actual facts on the ground. This was not a sudden revelation, but a slow and iterative circumstance that developed into a crisis in much the same way that a frog can be put in water and the heat turned on. By the time the water is about to boil and kill the frog, the frog becomes aware of the change, but too late to prevent the conclusion: no escape from boiling to death. And so it was, for me at least, in being in the middle of the rising temperature of the heated news narratives. At one extreme there was MSNBC and Rachel Maddow and…
- Observations on Gun Violence in the US May 25, 2021 by Matthew Daley - A reader has asked for my thoughts on gun control. What follows is an effort both to educate and to stimulate a dialogue on gun violence in the United States. While it does offer opinions and proposals, I have tried to base these on objective data and unbiased research. Let’s begin with the Second Amendment, which is not a model of artful drafting. It simply says: A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed. In the 2008 Heller case (decision and discussion of same here), the Supreme Court held that “The Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess a firearm unconnected with service in a militia, and to use that arm for traditionally lawful purposes, such as self-defense within the home.” This was the first time since the 1939 case United States v. Miller that the Supreme Court had directly addressed the scope of the Second Amendment. Subsequent precedents all emanated from the inclinations of the lower courts and had limited authority
- President Biden and the Catholic Church May 11, 2021 by W. David Montgomery - “Literally everyone knows that the Church considers abortion murder and not a “right.” Spare us the “right wing” garbage. The president is a dissenting Catholic in grave error who is causing scandal. He must not present himself for communion until he is reconciled.” Chad C. Pecknold, Associate Professor of Theology, The Catholic University of America President Biden speaks openly about his faith. He presents himself as a devout Catholic who attends mass regularly, prays the rosary, and relies on his faith in his political life. In contrast, the chairman of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) Committee on Pro-Life Activities states that “The president should stop defining himself as a devout Catholic and acknowledge that his view on abortion is contrary to Catholic moral teaching.”
- Letter from London: The Passing of Prince Philip April 27, 2021 by Guest Author - Editors’ Note: Our publication schedule did not let us release this tribute on the day of Prince Philip’s funeral, but we think that continued reflection and admiration of his life is fitting. It's more fitting to speak of the Duke of Edinburgh's passing than of his death, and so evoke the sweep of his life and his considerable achievements instead of marking his end point. His achievements were indeed notable, most of all his steadfast support for the Queen: it's hard to fight alone. That Elizabeth has managed to personify and unify the British nation over a disparate seven decades certainly had something to do with the support of her consort. He brought to this role an honorable military record: a graduate of the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth where he won awards as top cadet; combat naval service in World War II, with a Mention in Dispatches; and he only reluctantly left active duty in 1951 to help with royal affairs. One compensation: though he left active service as a Lieutenant Commander, he made Admiral of the Fleet in 1953 upon his wife's rise to the throne.
- Thinking About Things. On American Diversity and its Origins April 13, 2021 by John DeQ. Briggs - Author’s note. This article turned out to be quite different from what I expected to write when I started. I intended to write a rumination about diversity in America and whether it has evolved from a good thing to an arguably bad thing. But in researching the topic, and at the behest of my sister, I read the book that is the subject of this article and the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to bring to this readership a précis of the book, with minimal commentary so that all readers will at least have a common baseline understanding of the fascinating impacts of American diversity over the last 400 years. With such a common understanding, any discussion of diversity should be much more knowledgeable, and certainly more interesting. The book is American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America by Colin Woodard. I am only going to summarize ten of these, putting to one side for now the purely Canadian “First Nation.” I should add that I am providing Woodard’s view of events, some controversial, not my own. His approach is original and insightful, but not always necessarily correct.
- Editor’s Note March 30, 2021 by The Editors - This week we are fortunate to have three timely feature articles. The first two, by guest columnist Elizabeth Ochoa and editor David Montgomery deal with the phenomenon of being “woke”and how it is taking over private affairs and public policy. The third by Matt Daley corrects a grossly distorted discussion of gun violence in the Washington Post. Do not miss the sidebar with John Briggs’s recommendations of a number of articles on wokeness and the rise of illiberal attitudes and policies that are Worth Reading.
- Our Lady of the Perpetually Offended March 30, 2021 by Guest Author - Many of us fondly remember the old Saturday Night Live skit of “the Church Lady,” performed by Dana Carvey in drag. We laughed at the arrogance, smugness and zealotry of the fundamentalist church lady dispensing her judgmental criticism of those whose lifestyle, behaviors and speech she disagreed with and roundly condemned as the work of Satan. Those of us who have lived in small towns have known exactly that type of person--who wanted to assert their will and beliefs on everyone else in town, and anyone who deviated in any way would be viciously labeled, gossiped about, shamed and shunned, causing fear and misery to others while gloating in their power to control others. Shirley Jackson brought this psychological phenomenon to light in her chilling short story The Lottery. (After reading it, one cannot help being reminded of Christ’s admonition “thou who has not sinned, cast the first stone.”)
- Where Will It End? March 30, 2021 by W. David Montgomery - It is extraordinary how in the past year the terms “woke” and “critical race theory” have gone from producing blank incomprehension in 99% of the population to capturing the attention of a vast majority. Rod Dreher’s book Live Not by Lies, with its theme of how big business imposes soft totalitarianism based on woke sensibility and white guilt, has become a best seller. Public schools are being outed for indoctrinating students with false versions of American history and imposing woke views on sexuality. The new Administration’s actions affecting the military, health, education, and religion appear to have turned control of wide swaths of public policy over to its most extreme Progressive elements. It would be possible to spend 24 hours a day reading reports, analysis and arguments about these topics. There are some brilliant one-liners, clear and accurate descriptions of the origins and meaning of wokeness and critical theory, and well-stated concerns about where our country is heading. Yet I see few, if any, convincing proposals for how to turn the tide.
- Muddled Thinking on Gun Violence March 30, 2021 by Matthew Daley - We offer for our readers’ edification an OpEd by Eugene Robinson in the Washington Post that illustrates the muddled thinking and arguments often advanced by media outlets. Its fundamental fallacy is aggregating gun deaths of all types and cherry-picking data on the prevalence of guns in other countries to claim that the vast oversupply of guns in the US accounts for the claimed disparity in gun deaths. Here is what he missed or obfuscated: Most gun deaths in the US are suicides and if Robinson could wave a magic wand and eliminate all guns, there would still be a substantial number of completed suicides. Look, for example, at the suicide rate in Canada where per capita suicide attempts have paralleled those in the US. Indeed because of Canada’s more restrictive gun laws, the percentage of attempts using firearms is about twenty percent lower than it is in the US, but the per capita aggregate number of suicides is very close to the US. People who do not have guns but who wish to commit suicide are often successful in finding alternative methods.
