Clarence Thomas: the Movie by Myron Magnet

Clarence Thomas: the Movie by Myron Magnet

But as the movie ends, Pack points out that Thomas has written over 600 opinions—30 percent more than any other sitting Supreme Court Justice. And, taken together, they add up to a magnificent effort to restore the Framers’ Constitution, as perfected by the Bill of Rights, the Reconstruction Amendments, and the Nineteenth Amendment, unraveled by so much Supreme Court mischief.

I definitely want to see this video and maybe show it in a history class as the life of Clarence Thomas is a perfect encapsulation of race relations in the 20th century.

America Needs a Miracle by Andrew Sullivan

America Needs a Miracle by Andrew Sullivan

If humans simply cannot help their tribal instincts, then a truly multicultural democracy has a big challenge ahead of it. The emotions triggered are so primal, that conflict, rather than any form of common ground, can spiral into a grinding cold civil war. And you can’t legislate or educate this away. 

Andrew Sullivan is always thoughtful and willing to buck the tide of liberal orthodoxy. His suggestion that the only cure for polarization in America is Jesus is simply jaw-dropping.

The 1619 Project Depicts an America Tainted by Original Sin by John McWhorter

The 1619 Project Depicts an America Tainted by Original Sin by John McWhorter

Surely, non-black people will feel a little guiltier about "the black thing," and internalize a reluctance to assign black people true culpability out of a sense that "they" have been through too much to be expected to perform at the level of other people. Few things more crisply demonstrate that the Civil Rights revolution has gone off the rails than that so many smart black people actually see this condescending poster child status as civic improvement.

Meanwhile, black people will internalize an even deeper sense that America is not great and doesn't like them, in the only country they will ever know. We are now to instruct black kids just a few years past diapers in this way of thinking—in studied despair over events far in the past, and a sense that it is more enlightened to think of yourself as a victim than as an actor. At no other point in human history have any people, under any degree of oppression, conceived of this kind of self-image as healthy—and no one could effectively argue that they were missing something that we have just figured out.

John McWhorter has a real problem with the 1619 Project's focus on slavery as the foundation for American civilization.

Why Bad Things Must Happen to Good People by Nathaniel Givens

Why Bad Things Must Happen to Good People by Nathaniel Givens

If you can predict the system, then you can work the system. If you know the rules, then life is just a game. The fact that we never know how bad it could get continually reminds us how real this is—like a voice declaring “This is not a drill” when the alarm sounds. Everything is on the line.

This world is so bad that we can’t make complete sense of it. From our mortal vantage point, the connection between good behavior and the blessings that result from it are not self-evident. Only when virtue and self-interest are decoupled do we have the chance to legitimately, authentically choose virtue. 

Very interesting and original argument for the existence of evil, whether man-caused or natural.