On Thursday, December 19, 2019, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II delivered her 66th Queen’s Speech. The speech – which followed her last Queen’s Speech by just two months – set out the policy agenda of the newly emboldened Prime Minister Boris Johnson for this term of Parliament. For an explanation of the Queen’s Speech, which opens every session of Parliament, see this article. Today’s speech, which made reference to more than 30 pieces of legislation, touched on the following topics:...

The sixth Democratic primary debate featured seven presidential hopefuls and four references to wine caves. The candidates’ rhetoric should bring the issue of wealth and political power into greater clarity than a Swarovski crystal. The term “wine cave” lit up the internet after Senator Elizabeth Warren used cabernet as a cudgel against South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg. “Mayor Pete” held a closed-door fundraiser at the Hall Rutherford wine caves of California’s Napa Valley, giving her a line of populist attack...

Some weeks ago I met with a priest named Fr. Mike at his office in the local Curia. He is a well-trained lawyer who is now in charge of civil legal affairs for one of the largest Catholic dioceses in Europe. His work deals with donations, inheritances, real estate, and the like. Several ideas from that conversation are still fresh in my mind. One of aspect of our conversation dealt with Fr. Mike’s workload. When I saw the pile of...

In the Christmas season, the secular West begrudgingly nods toward its faithful past. Yet amidst the darkness, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas joined with one the nation’s most distinguished colleges to highlight patibility of faith and reason. Justice Thomas spoke at the dedication of Hillsdale College’s Christ Chapel on October 3, 2019. Thomas told the students that a university chapel joins two of the institutions on which liberty relies: Christ Chapel reflects the College’s conviction that a vibrant intellectual environment...

I just heard some devastating news. Gertrude Himmelfarb, historian, moralist, wife, and mother, has passed. David Brooks has written a touching obituary detailing the life and legacy of this fascinating woman: Economists measure economic change and journalists describe political change, but who captures moral change? Who captures the shifts in manners, values, and mores, how each era defines what is admirable and what is disgraceful? Gertrude Himmelfarb, who died at 97 last night, made this her central concern. She was...

During Christmastime in China in 2015, 1,700 churches were torn down or vandalized, a result of the Chinese government growing increasingly hostile to Christianity. In 2018, The Chinese government raided and shut down churches ahead of Christmas and detained pastors and members caught celebrating. From reports of labor camps in the country to growing surveillance through technology, China is increasingly cracking down on freedom. This is all laid out in a new book, titled Deceiving the Sky: Inside Communist China’s...

When government es sufficiently large, its impact on private citizens is not just harmful; it’s self-contradictory. U.S. policy toward dairy farmers offers a poignant example. Joseph Sunde recently explored one aspect of U.S. agricultural policy: The Food and Agriculture Act of 1977, signed by new President Jimmy Carter, intended to artificially raised the price for dairy products (and led to a 500-million-pound stockpile of “government cheese”). Government intervention in the market, which inevitably confuses price signals, forced U.S. consumers to...

Did liberty increase or decrease in each nation, and globally, in 2019? How has the last decade impacted freedom around the world? The Cato Institute measures the freedom of each nation in the world and publishes the results. “The Human Freedom Index 2019,” written by Ian Vásquez and Tanja Porčnik, ranked 162 countries – and the results are mixed. “The jurisdictions that took the top 10 places, in order, were New Zealand, Switzerland, Hong Kong, Canada, Australia, Denmark and Luxembourg...

Jim Henson’s beloved Emmett Otter’s Jugband Christmas first entered the hearts of Canadian children in December 1977 and made its U.S. debut on HBO one year later. The musical Muppet adventure tells the story of widow Alice Otter and her tenderhearted son, Emmett, who decide the only way they can afford Christmas presents this year is to win a petition – with an exacting entrance fee. Aside from its entertainment value – including a posed by songwriter Paul Williams –...

All of life is God’s gracious gift. This graciousness applies not only to ourselves and our neighbors, each of whom is made in His image and likeness, but applies as well to the whole of creation which was entrusted to the human family’s care and cultivation (Gen. 1:26-31). This gracious gift, both of ourselves and the creation, was marred by our own disobedience, born of ingratitude, and resulted in our separation from that gracious Giver. Sin and death are the...