The Latest

• Near unanimity — and bad news for lower courts — in latest batch of N.C. Supreme Court opinions

  The N.C. Supreme Court issued not a single dissent today in its latest batch of nine opinions. The seven justices agreed unanimously in eight cases. In the ninth case, Justice Paul Newby agreed with his colleagues in the result but wrote a concurring opinion because he reached his decision for…

  Mitch Kokai, August 17, 2018, 452 words

• Martin Center column highlights UVa furor over faculty hire

  John Rosenberg writes for the Martin Center about the latest controversy at Mr. Jefferson’s university. Unlike last August, however, when hundreds of white supremacists, many of them armed, descended upon what Jefferson called the “academical village” of Charlottesville, this year’s invading alien force consists of only one unarmed man,…

  Mitch Kokai, August 17, 2018, 228 words

• Identity politics and the damage to college degrees

  Liz Wolfe writes for the Federalist about the impact of identity politics on a college education. Elite colleges aren’t designed for critical thinking or open inquiry anymore. According to Catherine Rampell at the Washington Post, “A fifth of undergrads now say it’s acceptable to use physical force to…

  Mitch Kokai, August 17, 2018, 217 words

• Warren and nationalization

  Kevin Williamson writes for National Review Online about U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s support for government control over much of the nation’s economy. Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts has one-upped socialists Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: She proposes to nationalize every major business in the United States of America.

  Mitch Kokai, August 17, 2018, 264 words

• Attacking the you’re-on-your-own narrative

  Jay Nordlinger of National Review Online takes aim at a popular, and highly misleading, attack on conservative public policy. One line in particular grabbed me by the throat. It comes from [Marco] Rubio himself, who denounced — get ready — “the radical you’re-on-your-own individualism promoted by our government…

  Mitch Kokai, August 17, 2018, 268 words

• New Carolina Journal Online features

  John Trump and Kari Travis report for Carolina Journal Online that a leading state lawmaker points to recent turmoil as evidence that North Carolina needs to reform its alcohol laws. Roy Cordato’s Daily Journal highlights a flaw in the Trump administration term “reciprocal trade.”…

  Mitch Kokai, August 17, 2018, 43 words

• Southern Regional Council will Honor Nancy MacLean for Controversial Book: Democracy in Chains

  In Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America, Duke University historian Nancy MacLean attempts to smear James Buchanan and other public-choice economists as racist authoritarians who, with financial support from the nefarious Koch brothers, conspired to deliver America into the hands of a cabal of…

  Jon Guze, August 16, 2018, 388 words

• The Left’s agenda and free speech are incompatible

  Peter Burfeind expains in a Federalist column why the political Left never can support full-fledged free speech. Commentators keep on pointing out examples of the Left’s antagonism toward free speech as if this were inconsistent with its first principles. It’s not. Leftism cannot be for free speech. Why?…

  Mitch Kokai, August 16, 2018, 275 words