These People All Know Each Other
“Charles Krauthammer used to pride himself on not going to cocktail parties, instead preferring to be at home with his wife quietly reading, writing, doing whatever. And he was probably better for it.”
Erich J. Prince
Blues Run the Game
Merion West editor-in-chief Erich J. Prince reflects on the famous Jackson C. Frank song, the life of the songwriter, and the age-old question: What value is there in a change of scenery?
You Can (and Perhaps Should) Repeat Yourself
“And, relatedly, one also begins to wonder if there are certain ways of phrasing the key points that have already been formulated, capture them perfectly, and, thus, cannot really be improved upon.”
Bruce Springsteen Turns 75
“It is just Springsteen and his sparse vocals seeming to sing out into the empty expanse of the American West and its sprawling landscapes where hope—at least until the final track—is nowhere to be found. One can feel it was recorded in winter.”
Christopher Ruddy: Newsmax Is Eyeing an IPO
“We never relied only on advertising. I think one of the keys to our success is we had a very good and robust mixed revenue model. And that has [helped] us over a long period of time.”
Reading Alasdair MacIntyre’s “After Virtue” in Modern New York
“The change with After Virtue, however, is that in an important sense [MacIntyre] turns against modernity as a whole. He argues that the move to modernity involves the destruction of morality—that in modernity we no longer know what we’re talking about when we deploy moral language.”
When Glen Campbell Sang “Galveston”
“But with that said, what has always bothered me about the story told in ‘Galveston’ is that there seems to be so much of life left unruminated over, a fact remediated only slightly by the mention of the seascape at the end of the song (and ‘the sea waves crashing’ in the Campbell version).”
On the Music of John Prine
“For me, though, there is one Prine song I find the most philosophical, though many of his songs do indeed have that bent…The song is ‘Fish and Whistle,’ the first track on his 1978 album Bruised Orange…”
On Not Responding to Email
“Henry David Thoreau, writing in 1854, remarked: ‘I never received more than one or two letters in my life…that were worth the postage.’ What would he make of the modern email inbox?”
Former Congressman Jody Hice: “Sacred Trust”
“Obviously elections are political in terms of who wins and loses, but the process should not be political.”
Slavoj Žižek: “Christian Atheism: How to Be a Real Materialist”
“In all other religions, you have people who become atheists. Only in Christianity, God himself goes through this experience.”
Lord Conrad Black: Insights from the Ancient World
“There is such a thing as progress. I am no Pollyanna, and human nature doesn’t change much, but there’s undoubtedly progress.”
The Politicians Who Almost Never Were
“Although these no doubt play a role, even a cursory glance at recent election results (not to mention those of the past) makes clear that variables beyond the control of the candidate are often determinative, as well as that the best man does not necessarily win.”
Daniel A. Cox: Taking the Pulse of Gen Z
“One of the really significant differences in terms of how young people are being raised today and their formative and teens years and previous generations is how slowly they’re reaching major milestones, such as getting married [and] owning a home, the sort of signs of adulthood…”
Taking a Second Look at Nikki Haley
“It is true that one of the most important rules in politics is that ‘You can’t lose your base,’ but it is also true that in order to win competitive elections, broadening one’s base is essential, and Ambassador Haley might be able to accomplish that.”
Young Voters Do Not Belong Inevitably to the Left
“However, outside of the contemporary United States and United Kingdom, a look at the composition of certain right-of-center political movements casts doubt on the reflexive association many hold between young people and voting for the Left.”
Slavoj Žižek: “Freedom: A Disease Without Cure”
“So you see why people are not satisfied: I don’t propose simple solutions. In my old age, I’m returning from Marx to Hegel.”
Wessie du Toit: When a Society Decenters Leisure
“Meaningful work is as important to life as leisure, I think. I just think that we’ve lost the balance.”
The Press Mustn’t Ignore America’s Gang Problem
“There is a formula—unfortunately, I have noticed—when it comes to many in the reality-denying national press: Make a few accurate micro-points but use them to arrive at a conclusion that no reasonable person should believe.”
Urgently Reconsidering the Doctrine of Multiculturalism
“As is sadly often the case, it is only when an issue becomes overwhelmingly acute or when it is too late to correct course, that those once derided as alarmists are dutifully acknowledged to have been correct all along.”
Samuel G. Freedman: What a Young Hubert Humphrey Can Teach Us
“Humphrey’s insurgency at the convention basically lashed Truman to the mast of [Humphrey’s] own civil rights agenda. And desegregating the armed forces was arguably the single most important civil rights cause of that moment in time.”
Matt Johnson: “How Hitchens Can Save the Left”
“There really hasn’t been anybody like him since he passed…This is why there are these long compilations of ‘Hitchslaps’ on YouTube. It’s why most of the tributes to him focus on his rhetorical prowess—and just his brilliance on the debate stage.”
Clay Routledge: Breaking Ground in Psychology, Outside of the Academy
“Regulating your own emotions is something most people are capable of doing…It doesn’t require you constantly expressing [a problem], thinking about it, [and] sharing it with everyone…There’s something about not fixating too much on your own problems and really dwelling on them but, instead, doing s
Shawne Merriman: From the NFL to “Xtreme Fighting”
“One thing I’ve learned [from] being in combat sports is that it’s internationally watched everywhere, in every country.”
Should You Read the Same Book Twice?
“Amid this exchange about the importance of recentering the essential literature of our history, I posed to Mac Donald a question that has been on my mind since my days as a student at The Haverford School: Should one make a habit of reading the same book twice?”
Waller Newell: The Characteristics of Tyranny
“We will be nothing like the way we are now. It will be like a night and day transformation. And it always does require violence because, as you said, that class or race enemy that stands in the way of future bliss simply has to be gotten rid of.”
Faisal Saeed Al Mutar: Iraq, 20 Years After the Fall of Baghdad
“There is a lot of hope. Every time I go there and meet with the new generation, I think that they definitely want for their country to be a successful one. And that’s the conversation in Iraq. Most people have now forgotten about the war.”
How Do They Still Have Jobs?
“By any normal definition of the role of a Cabinet member, Secretary Mayorkas would have either resigned voluntarily or have had his resignation requested by the President.”
Democrats’ Endless Anti-Institutionalism
“However, it has now become clear that once in power, Democrats, with a few notable exceptions, have largely sought to remove any impediment to realizing their agenda regardless of how time-honored or important a given tradition might be.”
Tabia Lee: What Happened at De Anza College
“There [are] ways to teach about the past that are humanistic; that are agency-focused; and that are focused on generative things rather than destructive things—rather than dismantling things and tearing things down with no plan forward of what happens after the destruction.”
A Once Unnecessary Reminder: Criticism Produces Good Works
“My own song ‘Alabama’ richly deserved the shot Lynyrd Skynyrd gave me with their great record. I don’t like my words when I listen to it. They are accusatory and condescending…”
A Government Is More Than Capable of Addressing Multiple Crises At Once
“So, to be clear, I largely favor reducing the power of the very federal government being discussed in this piece, but that is quite different from arguing that, at its current scope and scale, it is somehow incapable of addressing multiple priorities at once.”
John Cribb: What We Can Learn from Abraham Lincoln
“All of the sudden, I was on the phone with Mike Pence… ‘I just finished Old Abe last night, and I had to track you down and tell you how much I loved it, and it’s the best book about Lincoln I’ve ever read.’ And, for ten minutes, he just wanted to talk about Lincoln.”
Lance Morrow: “The Noise of Typewriters”
“You could read my book…as a kind of homage to the magazine.”
William Jacobson: What Happened to Campus?
“I’m not optimistic at all that campuses can be reformed. They certainly cannot be reformed from within…Academia is gone. It is a monoculture. It is a hermetically sealed bubble.”
Fetterman v. Oz (And a Love Letter to a Conflicted Pennsylvania)
“Not everything stays the same, and, in many cases, it probably should not.”
Dr. Stanley Goldfarb: The Activist Class Takes Aim at Medicine
“It’s career ending, really…Anybody who tries to [speak out] will be shunned.”
Dimorphism
“And that we might as well stop killing one another,/because everyone who lived during the French Revolution is dead anyways.”
Heather Mac Donald: Medicine Under Fire
“Scientific conferences are being determined based on sex and race. It’s going to slow down medical progress, and it is also going to put physicians in the ER and the operating room who are not the top qualified.”
Woodmont
Holmesburg: Calling for an Apology from the City of Philadelphia
“My father’s skin is in those pharmaceutical companies.”
Peter Buxtun, the Hero of Tuskegee, 50 Years On
“In later interviews, Buxtun would shrug off the accolades he later received for his whistleblowing. ‘I don’t want to be embarrassed by an oversupply of compliments. I am who I am,’ he would tell bioethicist Carl Elliott in 2017.”
Stephen Hicks: Challenges in Contemporary Education
“The ten out of a thousand entrepreneurial ideas that are amazing—we’ll find out what those are. And they will be the ones that dominate [in] the next generation.”
Will Marshall: Where Are the Moderates?
“I don’t see a full, vigorous pivot by this President (and this White House) back toward the themes and approaches that Joe Biden articulated in his 2020 presidential race.”
Harris Poll’s Will Johnson: Why Polling Still Matters
“At the end of the day, it’s a pretty simple business that we’re in: We want to understand culture, we want to understand consumers’ thinking, and we’re just trying to answer why’s.”
Stephen Hicks: Lessons from the Canadian Trucker Protest
“Every generation, we need to learn and relearn how thin the line can be between having a basically liberal society and a basically authoritarian society.”
Dwight Evans: The VICTIM Act and Combating Crime
“No one is exempt from being a victim of some sort of crime. And it’s very appropriate that I use that title [of victim] in terms of the VICTIM Act.”
Pat McCrory: How to Get a Handle on the Crime Surge
“My wife and I used to go vacation in San Francisco. We don’t anymore…This is what’s headed toward the rest of the nation.”
James Lindsay: “Counter Wokecraft” and Responses to Institutional Takeover
“You have to have a steel spine in your liberalism. ‘What kind of government did you create, sir?’ ‘We created a republic, if [you] can keep it.’ The ‘if you can keep it’ part requires a steel spine.”
Editor’s Choice: The Best Interviews of 2021
Here are our editor’s choices for his favorite interviews of this past year.
Editor’s Choice: The Best Articles of 2021
“As is tradition at Merion West, here are our editor’s choices for his favorite Merion West articles of this past year.”
Sean Spicer: The Steele Dossier and “Radical Nation”
“I got the call on January 10th [2017] from CNN and then BuzzFeed about them running with this hoax. I pointed out at the time that it was wrong. I could demonstrably prove it was wrong. And yet, they stuck by it…”
Warding off Scurvy
“Because there’s little more to friendship than warding off scurvy or having a catch.”
Anne Kim: The AP Exam and the Standardized Testing Debate
“I think the downside of going test-optional, the downside of ignoring what assessments tell you, means that you might end up ignoring the underlying structural problems and never fixing the inequities.”
“Is Nothing Sacred?”
“And this is exacerbated by a situatedness in a contemporary culture that has removed the sort of guardrails that would tell a would-be troublemaker that to defile something like a grave or a tribute to those lost in a mass casualty terrorist attack is unacceptable…”
she asked me to get her a green card
“Although I would have liked to have taken a photograph, my camera was full, and they’d already walked away toward a shop with a sign advertising Calzones.”
Politics: Not an End in Itself
“As such, politics has eclipsed its primary purpose—namely, to provide the means by which people can seek out and, in turn, live good lives, lives that have nothing to do with politics.”
How Things End
“As Joshua Foa Dienstag reminds us, the essential tragedy of being human (or being anything, for that matter) stems from the passage of time.”
Kay Hymowitz: The Devaluation of Higher Education
“This brings in the status issue again, doesn’t it? Because there are so many careers that people just wouldn’t consider because how would they tell their friends?”
The Press and Violence against Asian-Americans
“It seems as though they will do anything to avoid actually backing approaches that would begin to remedy these problems, all of which start with taking a harder-line on those who routinely commit violent crimes.”
Gov. Brian Kemp: How to Stand up to Corporate Pressure
“We lost the All-Star Game, but I think we won the battle because that fight has moved to other states now because we are on the right side of this issue, and we push back so hard.”
Mary Harrington: Family Formation in the 2020s
“The long-term problem there is that if your feminism becomes associated with anti-natalism, sooner or later it’s going to trigger a backlash, and that backlash is not going to look very nice for women.”
Independent Wealth: a Prerequisite for Speaking Up?
“This point deserves all the more consideration today, at a time in recent history that has become uniquely critical of concentrated wealth, both of the inherited and earned variety.”
Elena Thérèse-Rose: Making Catholicism Shareable (Especially on the Web)
“Secondly, I’d say good advice is to gain familiarity with the saints and to perhaps gain some friends among the saints because often they are the best examples.”
When They Say Abortion and Capital Punishment Are One and the Same
“One cannot help but wonder if this is little more than a tactic adopted by supporters of abortion to seek to discredit pro-life activists by implying that their entire worldview rests on a contradiction.”
Jonathan Church: Getting to the Bottom of the Robin DiAngelo Craze
“I go through a whole analysis of that and why—statistically speaking—you’re basically making a very broad statement about white people in general based on one observation in one Jeopardy! episode.”
Editor’s Choice: the Best Interviews of 2020
As has become something of a tradition each year at Merion West, here are our editor’s choices for his favorite interviews of this past year.
Editor’s Choice: the Best Articles of 2020
“As is tradition at Merion West, here are our editor’s choices for his favorite Merion West articles of this past year.”
Rep. Denver Riggleman: Reflecting on His Two Years in D.C.
“And I’ll have to say this: This was the worst job I ever had, but it was one of the best things I’ve ever done.”
“The American People”—a Phrase Worth Discarding
“…there are perhaps a few other aspects of the phrase that ought to make it first on the chopping block when considering which expressions really out to be expunged immediately from our national discourse.”
Rep. Susan Wild’s Bipartisan Initiative for Pandemic-related Child Care
“For Rep. Wild, this bill might also provide a foundation for downstream economic normalization; if child care is more accessible, the argument goes, then it becomes less burdensome for parents to return to work, seek out new potential employment, or continue their own education.”
“Holding the Powerful Accountable”—Empty Words?
“The holding the powerful accountable phrase resonates as it does—and, presumably, is chosen by the news media’s back-patters—because it is, indeed, precisely what a news media should be doing.”
Interview: Rep. Susan Wild on How Congress Can Respond to the Pandemic
“The problem is, though, we can’t rely on volunteerism, donations, and gifts for much longer because—quite frankly—most of these places are getting pretty tapped out.”
Interview: Rep. Jody Hice on “Defund the Police” and Big Tech Censorship
“But there is no question that we’ve got some major issues, and free speech is so dependent these days on these big tech companies, so they have to be very careful that free speech is protected. And, of course, there’s a pattern now that shows otherwise…”
And They’ve Come for the Founders
“However, as one watches the Founders find their way into the crosshairs of so many, perhaps the obvious needs to be restated.”
Columbus Belongs Not Only to History
“And one example of this—among others—is how prominently he features in a particular tradition of philosophy: that of philosophical pessimism.”
Going Deeper Than a Famous Quotation or Two
“By inviting further exploration of a quotation’s origin, we might re-discover great and complicated thinkers, who, it turns out, have far more to offer than a single phrase.”
Merion West: Why We Do What We Do
“Just as some married couples renew their vows, we, as a publication, will take a moment to do the same and explain why we’re still doing what we’re doing.”
Editor’s Choice: The Best Interviews of 2019
As is tradition at Merion West, here are the editor’s choices for our favorite Merion West interviews of 2019.
Editor’s Choice: The Best Articles of 2019
As is tradition at Merion West, here are the editor’s choices for our favorite Merion West articles of 2019.
Why Yasmine Mohammed Is Speaking out Against Islam (Part II)
“Actually, the two things that ex-Muslims let go of—the very last two things that they let go of—are eating pork and anti-Semitism. It’s because both of these things are so ingrained in us from such a young age.”
Why Yasmine Mohammed Is Speaking out Against Islam
“What I was not prepared for was the tsunami of just hate and pushback and disdain that would come from people I thought were my people: people that believed in enlightenment values, Western values, and liberal values.”
Rep. Denver Riggleman: Bringing Internet to Rural Areas
“If you have to take your kids and you have to go into a parking lot of a library in order to do homework, that is not something that they want to have to deal with.”
Rep. Madeleine Dean: Making Community College a Priority
“[Some of my students] couldn’t do all three: commute, work, and schoolwork. So, I saw the affordability problem growing and growing in that setting, but I hear it also from my constituents in every higher education setting.”
Interview: Rep. Jeff Van Drew on Getting the Two Parties to Work Together
“America is an experiment in democracy like none other. I do believe in American exceptionalism. They spoke about many things, but one of the things that they spoke about was the fact that we should never be overly reliant on political parties.”
Georgia’s AG: Fighting Gangs and Human Trafficking
“Like [how] the Southern District of New York became the hub for financial crimes, the Northern District of Georgia has become a hub for online financial crimes and cybersecurity because it all runs through our network.”
Gov. Brian Kemp: His Approach for Georgia
“And things like rural broadband, having quality health care, just a good quality of life, good ability to get a great education—whether it’s going into a technical field college or university setting. We had a lot of different options for folks, and we’re slowly moving the needle.”
What Happens to Those Who Investigate Government Corruption
“I knew the consequences of looking into public corruption. You’re not going to make many friends, and you’re certainly going to make many enemies.”
Sen. David Perdue: Making Washington More Results-Oriented
“We need to go back to what the Founding Fathers and Mothers had in mind: a citizen-legislator—somebody that comes here, tries to get results, and then goes home and lets the next person try.”
One-on-One with Rep. Dwight Evans (Part II)
“I don’t know who you think you’re talking to, because you don’t understand, I’m not your typical Democrat.”
Interview: Rep. Madeleine Dean at Border Detention Facilities
“They slid a note, children with a note under the door and said, ‘How can we help you?’”
One-on-One with Rep. Dwight Evans
“I have no differences when people produce outcomes.”
Wayne Messam, The Florida Mayor Running for President
“And some talk is floating around right now about merit-based immigration. Individuals like my parents would have been at the bottom, the end of the line, and would perhaps never have had an opportunity, and yet they helped build the agriculture sector.”
One-on-One with Howard Dean
“So I’m going to answer your question, but I want to preface it by saying most people do not vote on policies. They think they do, but they don’t. Even smart, educated people who think they do even more so don’t.”
Interview: Nicholas Christakis on His Latest Book
“When I’m speaking of a good society, I’m not necessarily speaking of a good society in the 21st century. I’m speaking of a kind of good society that we have a blueprint to make, that is, in turn, written in our genes.”
Interview with Senator Isakson: Putting Veterans First
“One thing is for sure in Washington is, no matter how tight or tough times are, veterans are a class to themselves; they are an issue to themselves. Partisanship rarely ever creeps into the VA.”
Interview with Mike Gravel: His Priorities in Running for President
“So Buttegieg, in what that reveals of him, is that he’s a classic puppet of the military industrial complex.”
Interview: A Pulitzer Prize Winner’s Advice to Young Journalists
“Photojournalism—and photography in general—is based on a trusting relationship: the relationship between the photographer and the subject. And, in order to really get several layers deep, the photographer needs to reveal their sensitive side.”
Interview with Former Rep. Tom Davis: Can Earmarks Fix Congress?
“In my district, I wasn’t just Tom Davis—I was ‘Mr. Woodrow Wilson Bridge.’ I was the guy who closed Morton and got 3,000 acres donated to the county. Those were the kinds of tangible efforts where people may not like my party, but they saw some redeeming qualities in me to keep me around.”
Lincoln Chafee Joins Erich Prince: Lessons from Running for President
“In my opening statement I said, ‘In thirty years of public service, I never had a scandal.’ The murmur of boos in the audience—I guess they saw that as a dig at the other candidates.”
Interview: Vice President Mondale Comments on Today’s Democratic Party
“I told one of the other senators, ‘You’re a very pleasant, sweet person. But deep down, the public wants a son-of-a-gun. You’ve got to get stuff done.’”
Interview: One-on-One with Congresswoman Susan Wild
“Most of all, I just want my constituents back home to know that I’m working for them, and that I’m not thinking about contributions from a big corporation when I’m in a committee hearing and questioning witnesses and when we’re voting on matters that are important to the working families in my dist
Interview: One-on-One with Congressman Jody Hice
“There’s not a single one of us who has not made mistakes in our lives, and we have a number of people who were in jails and prisons that made mistakes that they regret.”
Norman Ornstein Joins Erich Prince: “It’s Even Worse Than It Looks”
“It’s harder to demonize somebody if your kids are playing on the soccer field together, and you’re out there on a weekend afternoon.”
Reps. Madeleine Dean and Mike Thompson Comment on Gun Violence
“It’s hard to point to me as an anti-gun person. I’ve got a gun safe full of them! Every year, when we have the competition for skeet, trap, and sporting clays, Democrats vs. Republicans, I always walk away with the trophy.”
Interview: Greg Lukianoff on “The Coddling of the American Mind”
“On campuses so far, I have been pleasantly surprised that I have been invited to talks that have been well-received and civil.”
Editor’s Choice: The Best Political Speeches of the Past 55 Years
A few recent political speeches worthy of the history books.
Interview: Rick Ungar on His New Project “The Daily Centrist”
“My reputation is, ‘Every conservative’s favorite liberal.’ That’s because I don’t hate people because I disagree with them.”
Douglas Lain Joins Erich Prince: Running a Boutique Publishing Label
“Around that time, there was the 2008 financial crisis. A lot of people in New York publishing were let go, and my contract with Macmillan seemed to be in jeopardy.”
Interview: Jonathan Haidt on What Underlies Polarization in America
“In a sense, the Founding Fathers feared democracy because of the tendency of people to be carried away by their passion and easily led astray by demagogues, and I think that our modern polarization, augmented by social media, could well bring their worst fears to reality.”
Helen Pluckrose Joins Erich Prince to Tell Areo’s Story
“…Areo is bipartisan; it doesn’t take a side. I personally find that I agree with about 25% of the pieces I put out. The other 75%, I think they’re good, but I’m not convinced by their arguments ultimately.”
Prof. Randy Barnett Joins Erich Prince to Discuss “Con Law”
“You can’t take politics out of the judicial process because judges are human.”
Editor’s Choice: The Best Articles of 2018
A look back at our editor’s choices for our favorite Merion West articles of 2018.
Editor’s Choice: The Best Interviews of 2018
A look back at our editor’s choices for our favorite Merion West interviews of 2018.
Interview with Nassir Ghaemi: Can Mental Illness Make More Effective Politicians?
“One of the basic concepts I had was that if there are some benefits to having some depression manic symptoms; the corollary is that there are some limitations to being normal and mentally healthy.”
My Time in the Senate: An Interview with Saxby Chambliss
“Any bill that’s passed by 100% Republicans and no Democrats or 100% Democrats and no Republicans is not the best piece of legislation that could have been forged.”
Susan Wild: Why I’m Running for Congress
“I have taken a pledge not to accept any corporate tax money. One of the first and most important reasons I took that pledge is because I think that the influence of ‘Big Pharma’ is far too great in our legislative body in Washington.”
Interview: How Dollars and Cents Propel Sensational Media Coverage
“I suggest that the ebbing of polarization has already been occurring. We’re just not aware of it because of what’s presented to us in the media. If you look at the polling numbers, Democrats and Republicans are minorities; the plurality of Americans identify as independents.”
Joe Lieberman: Staying above Partisanship
“The last four or five years I was in the Senate, there was simply no Democrat more conservative than any Republican and no Republican more liberal than any Democrat. And that’s just wrong. It’s unnatural.”
An Interview with Gov. Pat McCrory
“In fact, one of my best training grounds was being a basketball referee. That taught me how to make tough decisions under tough circumstances where you already knew you were going to make half the people mad most of the time.”
The Man Who Chronicled the Abuses at Holmesburg Prison
“So unless you are Seymour Hersh, who has The New York Times backing him, or some young activists or aspiring journalist who’s willing to work an issue, [thorny issues such as these medical experiments] can fall through the floorboards.”
Turning the Page in Brazil: An Interview with Priscila Chammas
“The vast majority of political parties in Brazil have no ideology whatsoever. They are crony parties who trade political and economic favors, and they do so with those who offer more, regardless of principles or values.”
What is Virtue? A Talk with Professor Christian B. Miller
“I have no desire to be president for example. But in that one aspect, I’m motivated or inspired to have my character better reflect [Lincoln’s] character. Not bring him down to my level but bring my character up to his level.”
The Biggest Problem When It Comes to Polarization
“As Mayor Koch used to say: ‘If you agree with me on 9 out of 12 issues, vote for me. If you agree with me on 12 out of 12 issues, see a psychiatrist.’”
Civil Liberties in a Polarized Time: An Interview with Nadine Strossen
“In Congress, no matter how strongly I agree with somebody on some issues, I’m going to strongly disagree on others. But, it is this stance that has enabled the ACLU to work in odd bedfellow coalitions to advance our agenda.”
What Feminism Means Today: Speaking with Dr. Christina Hoff Sommers
“[Feminism today sometimes] sees the world as a zero-sum struggle between Venus and Mars. But most women want equality, not war. Men aren’t their adversaries. They are their brothers, sons, husbands, and friends. We are in this together.”
Can a Photograph Change History? Sitting Down with Ron Haviv
A photograph Ron Haviv took at age 23 would be cited by George H.W. Bush when the President called for the American invasion of Panama. Since then, Mr. Haviv has traveled from conflict to conflict zone, producing photographs of some of the late-twentieth century’s most difficult periods of violence.
Sparing Women and Children from Violence: Speaking with Dr. Samantha Nutt
“[People] want to give back, they want to help out, and the mistake is in presuming that the most effective and transparent way of helping is to do the work ourselves—to get on a plane to see and participate in it being done.”
“No Labels”: An Interview with Joe Lieberman
“The last four or five years I was in the Senate, there was simply no Democrat more conservative than any Republican and no Republican more liberal than any Democrat. And that’s just wrong. It’s unnatural.”
Jim Martin: Being a “Red State” Democrat
“True patriotism is the guy, man or woman, who shows up at the post office every day to be a postal clerk… I dislike and disapprove of those people who wrap themselves in the flag claiming to be patriots when they’ve…done nothing to help move this country forward.”
Political Profile: An Interview with Lincoln Chafee
“There are more wedge issues that divert our attention from the real issues. That’s what I found during my time in the Senate…But the Republicans wanted to send their Republican candidates out to campaign about gay marriage and abortion and flag burning. It’s all about control of the Senate.”
Interview: Pulitzer Prize-Winning Photographer of Seton Hall Dorm Fire
“It was critically important to me then, and it’s still critically important to me now that I do not take advantage of the subject of any photograph…for my benefits or for my agenda. We saw some really tough things, and it could have become gratuitous.”
Colorado Today: An Interview with Gov. Hickenlooper
“The negative ads we’ve kind of moved into, starting in the nineties, have gotten worse and worse. You never see businesses do attack ads, right? If Coke did an attack ad against Pepsi, Pepsi would have to attack Coke…. You could suppress down an entire product category.”
FEMA Director during Katrina: How Prepared Are We for Disaster?
“When you think about what we have here—FedEx, UPS, Red Cross, Salvation Army, Walmart, Costco, Sam’s Club—you’ve got all these places that have networks that can be used to do distribution…I truly see the private sector as part of the first responder network.”
Interview: The Man Who Photographed Tiananmen Square
“To tell you the truth, I am drawn to these dangerous events even though they scare the hell out of me. I am sure a shrink would have a field day with that…I guess there is an adrenaline rush in trying to capture images under dangerous situations and making it out alive.”
Interview: Jenny Wilson Wants to be Utah’s Senator
“People working at the local level are indeed the people who understand how to make the federal government more responsive…”
The Victim Culture Produces No Winners: Heather Mac Donald’s Take
“But instead, universities have been captured by a destructive ideology of victimhood that insists that to be a female or a minority on an American college campus is to be the target of endless, nonstop oppression.”
Free Speech on Campus (and Elsewhere): An Interview with Eugene Volokh
“Let’s say somebody is solidly in favor of abortion rights. She feels very strongly. Okay? But how can she learn to persuade anyone on the issue if she never even hears the other side of the argument?”
Interview with Charles Wheelan: Let’s Get More Independents in American Politics
“You cited the race between Romney and Obama and that the Independents seemed to choose one or the other. My question for the political scientists would be: ‘Who was the Independent in that race?’”
Interview with Bush Sr. Speechwriter: From Barbara Bush to the Tea Party
“The Bush period and the approaches we took then, in many respects, are directly related to an era of American politics that came and went.”
Leisure: When It Becomes an Unexpected Curse
“It’s what Irving Babbitt meant when he wrote that happiness is to be found in work if at all. Or why John Adams would write that he was happiest on days he felt most purposeful.”
An Interview with David Shafer: His Vision for Georgia
“People behave themselves for one of two reasons: love of God, or fear of punishment. There’s not much that politicians can do about the former, but the latter is in our wheelhouse.”
Interview: Jay Bahadur, The Man who Chronicled the Somali Pirates
“My point was always, ‘Look, this is the hook.’ Piracy is the hook, if you want to get people interested in Somalia’s problems and the region’s problems; you’re not going to get them to read a World Food Programme treatise.”
Interview with Stephen Halbrook: The Supreme Court and Guns
A woman, who had a Pennsylvania carry permit, gets arrested in New Jersey, not knowing that they don’t issue carry permits—and certainly not to out-of-state residents.
Interview: Jewish Activist Rebecca Wald is Working to End Circumcision
“I think it’s awful. It’s shocking what people are willing to accept just because everyone else in their community goes along.”
Political Journalism: Rarely Scratching the Surface of Life
“But the columns that stick with us most of all rarely touch on the polls or the name-calling. Instead, they might be retired Philadelphia Inquirer staff writer Bill Lyon’s ‘viewpoints’ columns, which chronicle the dissolution of his memory as he suffers from Alzheimer’s.”
From Theater Major to NYC Council: An Interview with Jumaane Williams
“I changed my major from theater to film because, in many of my auditions, I was typecast as a drug dealer or a murderer, and that changed my perception of what people thought a black man was.”
Interview with Sen. Isakson: Combating Veteran Suicide and Addiction
“I’m a Vietnam era veteran myself. The stigma of suicide today is only a fraction of what it was back then…Times are changing, and we are trying to meet those changes to get people taken care of in a timely way.”
Polling is Alive and Well: An Interview with Gallup’s Editor-in-Chief
One pundit said that “data died” after the 2016 presidential election. Gallup’s editor-in-chief doesn’t think so.
From Prague Spring to Now: An Interview with Larry Reed
“By and large, as people mature and learn about how the real world works, they tend to become more pro-liberty. I know a lot more former socialists than I know former libertarians.”
Nixon Staffer: The Similarities Between Watergate and Mueller
“Normally you have separation of powers, and you have supervision, but with special prosecutors you don’t have very much supervision. That’s the great danger.”
Addiction Specialist: The Real Cause of the Opioid Crisis
In an attempt to fix the stigma, my field started overpathologizing normality in an unconscious attempt to make everybody feel more empathy towards people who are mentally ill.
President of Civil War Museum: Similarities Between the Elections of 1860 and 2016
The American Civil War Museum president S. Waite Rawls discusses how both 1860 and 2016 witnessed fractured political parties, anti-immigrant sentiments, and clear divides in voting patterns between different geographical factions of Americans.
You’re Probably Not Actually a Libertarian
Most college students claiming to be libertarians are actually just traditional conservatives misidentifying themselves. It’s because universities still take libertarian arguments seriously.
The Breakdown of American Culture: An Interview with Prof. Amy Wax
On the current trend towards drug liberalization: “Everybody I know who functions at a high level in society is fairly reliable and trustworthy. My husband is an oncologist, and I can tell you that hardworking cancer doctors don’t spend their free time getting high.”
An Interview with Dave Rubin: We Need to Listen to One Another
Dave Rubin of The Rubin Report discusses the left’s opposition to free speech, polarization, third party candidates, and finding common ground in an interview with Merion West.
Interview: Actor Antonio Sabàto Is Running for Congress
“I came to this country from another country, and I struggled. I used to dream about coming to this country as a child, and I probably love this country more than many people who were born here.”
An Interview with Anti-Aging’s Pioneer
“This field is still considered by most to be something that is not really science, something that is not really possible, and we really have to change that.”
Interview: Rep. Jason Altmire on Being a Congressional Moderate
“It’s been proven that the more centrists there are in Congress, the more bills get passed and are enacted into law.”
The Speech That Would Have Been Read If the Moon Landing Failed
Did you know the Nixon Administration prepared a speech that would have been delivered if Apollo 11 had ended in disaster?
Zoltan Istvan: Why Are We Not Investing in Anti-Aging?
We have a healthcare system that does not believe that the normal human lifespan can or should be extended.
An Interview with Aaron Spring
Aaron Spring, the Fordham student asked to leave a university coffee shop for wearing a “Make America Great Again Hat” answers whether businesses should be allowed to discriminate against people they disagree with politically and whether he would consider returning to the coffee shop.
Merion West Interviews Zoltan Istvan, Candidate for Governor of CA
Transhumanist and libertarian, Zoltan Istvan, discusses his vision for the state of California and why he believes he should be its governor.
Merion West Interviews Shiva Ayyadurai
Shiva Ayyadurai has decided to challenge Elizabeth Warren for her Senate seat. He makes his case in this Merion West interview.
Ben Shapiro on the State of Modern Conservatism
“I think you have to separate conservatism from reactions to the Left. I don’t think they’re quite the same thing. Conservatism is starting to get more popular because of reaction to the Left.”
Tim Young is Transforming Conservative Comedy
Conservatism and comedy don’t usually go together. Tim Young is challenging that notion.
Why Are there No Skyscrapers between Midtown and the Financial District?
Is there a better explanation than the traditional answer of bedrock? Some experts claim the origin of the gap in the skyline actually is more related to demographics and discrimination.
Does the TSA Go too Far?
Has the federal government not yet overstepped its boundaries when it uses radiation to strip-search its citizens each time they fly and frisks them as they go to football games?
The Power in Photographing Tragedy
People often want to help others in the abstract but never quite get around to it. Can we use photography to encourage them to start helping?
The Loss of Intellectual Humility
It’s amazing how unwilling people are to reconsider their beliefs, even in light of persuasive new evidence to the contrary. Here’s one answer of why.