By now you’ve heard that Notre Dame football star Manti Te’o has a fake dead girlfriend. Did he perpetrate a hoax or fall victim to one? Did the media fail to do its job? These are interesting and important questions, but the most troubling revelation may be what the story reveals about ourselves. The online...
Year: 2013
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Four more years: Obama’s second inauguration
It started well. Incredibly well. A senator from Utah mentioned to me afterward that the President’s introductory paragraph “could have been written by good ‘ole Dr. Arnn.” However, just like the weather, it all went downhill from there. The remainder of the speech could be compared to an ugly casserole, full of watered-down Dewey, Croly,...
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Four more years: Obama’s second inauguration
The inauguration was not Obama’s party. I didn’t go to celebrate his policies of change and I didn’t go to affirm his “visions of hope.” I went because it was only the 57th time in world history that power of such magnitude was transferred or reaffirmed peaceably between opposing parties. Men and women who clash...
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Galloway v. Simpson
Capulets and Montagues, Hatfields and McCoys, Jets and Sharks — intense factional rivalries have dominated human history and culture from time immemorial — even prompting James Madison to comment on the “violence of faction” in Federalist No.10. Despite the fine Georgian architecture, statues of historical icons, and a commitment to the good, the true, and...
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Chris Van Orman: A passion for chemistry
Chemistry students at Hillsdale College know that if they need a handful of Runts to give them a sugar boost for their day along with extra clarification on advanced inorganic homework, there’s only one professor to go to: Dr. V, as he is so fondly referred to by his students. Christopher Van Orman, dean of...