Ordinary people in such positions - working at firms, companies, or chains - have the absolute right to have their voice in the public square.
— Ben Domenech
The firing of Kevin Williamson from 'The Atlantic' on the day he was set to give an opening Q&A in their offices was sadly unsurprising given the pattern of these types of hires.
A smart, intellectual magazine is a difficult thing to run because of the need to manage conflicting personalities and opinionated writers who clash constantly, whose clashes make the publication better. It is exhausting and draining, and honestly, the only thing that's harder is probably running a university.
Jindal's record in Louisiana is controversial, in part because, in a state which has historically favored patronage culture and a bureaucracy that offered uninterrupted employment for those who backed the right horse, he aimed to destroy the old spoils system.
The radicals who perpetrated the Charlie Hebdo attack were not motivated by Western imperialism but by members of a free society violating Islamic law.
Try to name any meaningful thing Hillary Clinton accomplished in her role as Secretary of State. The small things she did accomplish have almost universally turned out badly.
Trump represents a vibrant and fed-up mass of people who see the Republican Party as standing for nothing, so they have turned to someone who can beat the party by standing for anything.
Ever since the 1980s and the Moral Majority, evangelicals have been loyal to the Republican Party, giving their votes in return for promises on abortion, family, and other arenas of policy which promised them protection for their churches and their priorities.
I think that one of the errors that social conservatives made - particularly Christian social conservatives - was a belief that they needed to use the power of government to try to shore up the various things that they believe make up a life well-lived.
I came from a religious, homeschooled background; I had conventional views across the board.
Being a bureaucrat means never having to say you're sorry.
Careful authors and journalists cultivate relationships with a wide variety of sources so as to avoid bad information or being led down an inaccurate path. Gossip columnists don't particularly care if the path is inaccurate, so long as it gets attention and results in more fuel for the fire.
When the holidays approach and the weather turns cold, you spend your nights watching and rewatching saccharine movies until you fall asleep, hoping for some gleam of happiness or catharsis that never comes, a version of life that looks like a Hallmark movie or where your idealized prince finally shows up.
I will not apologize ever, for any reason, for publishing the views of people who don't make a living in politics about why they plan to vote a certain way.
Sometimes, quarterbacks just get hurt. So do running backs, so do linemen, so do wide receivers. Blaming innovative schemes for these injuries is shortsighted.
I love football. But it goes through periods of poor play.
We need a Moneyball revolution in the NFL. We need Spread teams and Run and Shoot teams and Option teams.
You shouldn't have to be a chair at a think tank to speak your mind.
Writers who do crap work believe they have turned in spun gold and all their little darlings must be defended.
The world of campaign consulting is full of hype. It is designed to offer those desperate for an edge on their opponent the promise of a silver bullet and a consultancy willing to go to any lengths - including all those things you'd like to do but can't - in order to win.
The lesson of the Scott Walker, Rick Perry, and Bobby Jindal failures is simple: You can't run a presidential campaign from the undercard stage.
Our leaders do us no service when they fail to recognize that the threat the so-called Islamic State and its allied terrorists represent is a civilizational, not a geopolitical, conflict and can only be understood through that lens.
In 2008, many Democrats and Republicans believed Hillary Clinton to be a responsible public leader - a firm hand on the wheel, experienced in matters of diplomacy, conflict, and national interest. The 3 A.M. phone call was a question mark with Barack Obama, but not for Hillary Clinton.
The government in Havana is best understood as a cross between violent left-wing radicals and organized crime.
If you're a conservative who thinks the culture wars are over (they're never really over, of course), then you are a lot more open to the idea of a unprincipled blowhard who promises he's got your back on political correctness.
What we try to do at 'The Federalist' is to provide opinion and analysis that brings in a lot of different perspectives from across the Right. You'll see, a lot of times, us running an article that argues one side of something and then an article that argues the opposite.
I know that charges of plagiarism are serious.
It'd be nice to claim that the American press, while maintaining objectivity and balancing against bias, is still inherently American - that they are patriots who love this country even as they report on its defects.
Reviewing Michael Wolff's 'Fire and Fury' presents a challenge for those of us tired of a media environment where the dominant voices consistently try to have it both ways.
We all consume Netflix and other streaming services in different ways. Sometimes, it's a movie you're really going to focus on; other times, it's background noise to something else, where you won't really pay attention.
Every day, we publish articles at 'The Federalist' with which I disagree.
Conservative voters will put up with a lot of things in the culture that disagree with their views. They have proven time and again they will roll their eyes at actors and musicians saying negative things about the presidents and candidates they vote for and still consume their product.
If your team is good, you watch all the games - but if they're no fun to watch? You have a plethora of options. Just switch to Netflix.
You should never meet your heroes.
When contrarian voices are elevated to publications once viewed as places where contending ideas shared space, organized online backlash is now inevitable.
Writers who do great work must be coddled and encouraged.
A repeated problem with the Obama administration has been the lack of understanding that contracts only matter if they are enforceable - and if there is a party willing to do the enforcement.
American policymaking in the Islamic world must begin with a foundation of respect for Muslims, especially when they tell us about their faith.
The 'freedom agenda' of George W. Bush's second inaugural was a noble concept - but in practice, it offered ignoble results.
Trump is playing to an audience of people who think of themselves less as Republicans and more as Americans - moderates, conservatives, and independents - who feel that the Republican Party has completely ignored their priorities and beliefs and insulted them along the way.
Unilateral sanctions on Cuba have been oppressive and largely ineffective, and that's why the public largely supports lifting them.
Evangelicals have, for decades, believed that the country was more conservative than not, more Christian than not. The bipartisanship on religious liberty and the civic faith of the country was conducive to that. Now they've woken up to a reality in the Obama years that this was a polite fiction.
I stopped being a Republican because of the Iraq War.
While I am not a journalist, I have, myself, written more than one thing that has been plagiarized in the past.
It'd be nice to say that American media doesn't hate this country.
One of the differences between what happens when an author and a gossip columnist sit down to write a book is that the former tends to make every effort at disguising and protecting their sources, while the latter doesn't particularly care.
The goal of any worthwhile and effective journal of opinion analysis in navigating what is an increasingly tribal and divisive period in American history should be to promote real debate. That does not mean retreating to our corners and pretending that, if we ignore the perspectives we don't like, they will magically go away.
Scarcity of quarterback talent ought to inspire innovation in a sport that desperately needs it.
For years, the NFL was the one league apparently immune from ratings downturns of any significance.
I've rooted all my life for a marginal team.
