Topic: Books

Reason and the Freedom of Speech

– September 11, 2022

“We should by all means distinguish between academic freedom and freedom of speech. But we should be very wary of those who wish to establish a basis for that distinction when they doubt the principled commitments to reason and truth that are both freedoms’ foundation.” ~ Joseph M. Knippenberg

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A Skeptic Confronts False Prophets

– September 9, 2022

“McWhorter argues that woke racism is a new religion. Like other religions, woke racism has superstitions, a clergy, original sin, evangelical outreach, an apocalyptic vision, heretics, and an eagerness to supplant earlier religions.” ~ Joshua Mitchell

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Climate and COVID ‘Science’

– September 4, 2022

“The belief that science is a source of complete and godlike knowledge is not merely mistaken, it’s a toxic fuel of authoritarianism when it’s combined with the false understanding of social problems as being a science project to be ‘solved’ by persons in power.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux

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Bourdain by Laurie Woolever: A Review

– August 30, 2022

“Bourdain is an honest, expansive, funny, tragic, heartfelt, and meaningful account of the life of a man who changed forever what Americans think about food, and the diverse people around the world who cook and sell it to us.” ~ Baylen Linnekin

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No, There Is Not a “Neoliberal” Poltergeist in Higher Ed

– August 27, 2022

“Without meaningful mechanisms to check for wastefulness and accountability, the competition for scarce university budget resources leads to sacrificing educational quality in favor of expanding enrollment.” ~ Phillip W. Magness & Robertas Bakula

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Higher Education is Complicit in the Politicization of Science

– August 23, 2022

“We are entering our own period of Lysenkoism, Staddon fears. Those who espouse politically correct narratives get ahead, while those who challenge them are ignored or censored.” ~ George Leef

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What is Market Urbanism?

– August 15, 2022

“Scott Beyer’s Market Urbanism offers welcome analysis and policy solutions, clearly explaining how free market alternatives can make our cities better for all their citizens.” ~ Robert F. Mulligan

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Review: It’s Not Free Speech

– August 15, 2022

“Unlike Lisbon in 1755, our universities are not yet ruined, but they certainly might be if we allow them to be subordinated to politics in the way that these authors recommend.” ~ Steven McGuire

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Gulliver’s Travels in Washington, D.C.

– August 9, 2022

“Perhaps, like the King on the Island of Laputa, our elite need a reminder of the danger of wielding such power. Unlike Swift’s protagonist, we are not gullible.” ~ Caroline Breashears

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How Thomas Aquinas Desacralized the State

– August 8, 2022

“McCormick illustrates that Aquinas’s De Regno provides us with a politics that takes liberty and virtue seriously—but always together and never apart. And that should matter to anyone, religious or otherwise, who refuses both nihilism and collectivism.” ~ Samuel Gregg

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Zero Impact’s Grim Cost

– July 26, 2022

“Once a big bill comes due—in terms of dollars, standard of living, and geopolitical security—people’s commitment to maintaining the planet in a state of Edenic purity begins to wane rapidly.” ~ Richard Morrison

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Revisiting the Sage of Monticello

– July 17, 2022

“Kidd has written an excellent moral and spiritual biography of Thomas Jefferson. Contrary to those who claim Jefferson was a secular rationalist, he shows that the Sage of Monticello took Christianity seriously even as he rejected key tenets of orthodoxy.” ~ Mark David Hall

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