July update
Enjoying Independence Day
Christina had an article in the Washington Examiner yesterday about how people sometimes say that we should feel guilty about patriotic holidays becoming times for celebration with friends, or shopping, or dressing up—instead of meditating on the sufferings of previous generations. As she argues, the reason previous generations went through what they did was precisely so that we can enjoy our holidays doing nothing in particular. So enjoy yourself!
TOS-Con 2022
I had the honor this month to speak at TOS-Con 2022, giving the audience a preview of my forthcoming book Freedom’s Furies, with a presentation about Isabel Paterson and her influence on Ayn Rand. I also got to sit on a panel with Peter Boghossian and Ayaan Hirsi Ali, which was a great honor; I’ve admired Ali for a long time, and wrote about her (and another TOS-Con presenter, Yeonmi Park) for The Objective Standard a few years ago. I think these and other presentations will be posted online in the coming weeks.
Briefing in the Indian Child Welfare Act case
The Goldwater Institute filed its brief in the Brackeen case, challenging the constitutionality of the Indian Child Welfare Act. Joined by Cato and the Texas Public Policy Foundation, the brief is filed on behalf of several families whose rights have been violated in various ways by ICWA. The brief is written in an unusual Q&A format, in layman’s terms, to answer some of the most frequent questions about ICWA. You can read the brief here and learn more about the case here.
More about Brackeen
I also talked with Joe Getty of the Armstrong and Getty Show about the case, and with Andy Caldwell on his show.
Should libertarians support “conservative” Supreme Court justices, or “liberal” ones?
The UnPopulist asked me to answer this question, and I came back with an appropriately legalistic response: it depends. Excerpt:
One way to read this is that both “liberals” and “conservatives” have important contributions to make in protecting liberty. Those labeled “conservative” have typically been protective of more categories of individual rights—preserving private property, free speech, gun rights and religious liberty—while remaining willing to invalidate government racial preferences and government bureaucracy. They have also been more regardful of the autonomy of states, a principle that can help promote freedom by preventing Congress from imposing one-size-fits-all mandates on the country. “Liberals,” meanwhile, have been more concerned about the rights of the accused, the rights of personal privacy, and the rights of students and prisoners, although their conservative colleagues have often joined them in doing so.
Speaking of the Supreme Court
Armstrong and Getty asked me to come on to talk about the gun rights case. So I did—and while I was on the air, the Dobbs decision was announced. And just about a minute after I had said the decision would not come out that day! Anyway, I may not be a good psychic, but I did my best as a lawyer to talk about both cases, and you can listen here.
As for the Dobbs case, I have little to add to what you’ve seen elsewhere except this: Justice Thomas is absolutely and dangerously wrong in his assault on substantive due process in his separate opinion. Substantive due process is not only a perfectly legitimate constitutional theory, but the oldest and most important of all our constitutional guarantees, as I explained in this article.
What do the Supreme Court opinions hold in store for creationism?
The folks at Panda’s Thumb asked me what I thought the future would look like as far as creationism in the classroom is concerned. As I explain here, the abandonment of existing Establishment Clause jurisprudence, and the elevation of history over conceptual analysis, are probably bad signs for the future.
Christina on state constitutions
Christina joined some friends for a discussion about the role of state constitutions in protecting individual freedom, particularly in cases where federal courts fail to do so:
Two new books about art
In the Objective Standard, I reviewed Luc Travers' Stories in Paint and Sandra Shaw's Windows on Humanity. The first is an invitation to people who might feel that they don't "get" art; the latter is a philosophical study of ancient art from the cave man days to the fall of Rome, as viewed through the art of the Egyptian, Greek, and Roman cultures. Excerpt:
Nobody entering an art museum should have to arrive armed with a “grounding in art theory, art history, and knowledge about the cultural and art historical contexts” before being able to comprehend and evaluate the pieces inside. But such information can and should help enrich the experience—an experience that properly starts with such simple questions as: What is this artwork saying—and what do I feel about it? By giving us doorways into a wider world of art and ideas—and doing so without the backing of any major publishing houses—Travers and Shaw have not only done us all a great service but have testified to the enormous value of art in all our lives.
New York City Haiku
My poem “New York City Haiku” is available in Ekphrastic Review today. The poem was inspired by the lovely painting “Braille to the Night” by Casey Baugh, which I talked about a couple months ago. The poem didn’t start out as a series of haiku, but ended up that way, and I tried to make the poem as a whole into a kind of haiku, also, so that in addition to being stacked haiku-style stanzas, the poem contains a volta that mimics the juxtaposition of traditional haiku.
Podcasts! Podcasts! Podcasts!
I recently talked with the Federalist Society about Frederick Douglass’s fascination with photography, and they’ve posted that podcast here.
I think it’s one of the more interesting podcasts I’ve done, because it’s an under-explored subject. Douglass was really into photography—not only was he apparently the most photographed American of the century, but he was fascinated by the philosophical implications of photography. What does it mean about mankind that we make pictures? Douglass made that the focus (ahem!) of a number of lectures about photography—and that’s what we discuss in the podcast.
I also joined The Hero Show to talk about Isabel Paterson, the journalist and economist who wrote the libertarian classic The God of the Machine. Paterson is one of the three main characters in my forthcoming book, Freedom’s Furies, and I talk a little in the podcast about what you can expect to see in that book when it comes out this fall.
Then I and PLF’s Anastasia Boden talked with Andrew Heaton on his podcast about substantive due process. We get into some fascinating philosophical weeds here, but it’s behind a paywall. Worth it, though!
Earl Wild’s Rachmaninov transcriptions
In addition to the new Eric Clapton album, my latest musical obsession is Earl Wild’s piano transcriptions of Rachmaninov’s songs. Wild, who died in 2010 at the age of 95, lived a truly remarkable life; according to Wikipedia, he was the first pianist to perform a recital on U.S. television (in 1939), and also the first pianist to stream a performance over the internet (in 1997). His transcriptions of Rachmaninov’s songs are quite lovely, and have all the charm and none of, shall we say, the whiff of vermouth and ostrich feathers that so many through-composed classical songs have. I mean, I love Schubert as much as the next guy, but Mendelssohn was on to something better when he wrote songs without words. Appropriately enough, one of the lovelier of Wild’s transcriptions is called “O, Cease The Singing”:
Independence Day
Every year, Christina and I spend July 4 in a different state. This year it’s Utah’s turn, so we’re off to Zion and Bryce…