And I’m not wild about a Constitutional amendment banning gay marriage for a whole bunch of reasons. Still, this shows that many social conservatives do not necessarily buy into the slash and burn approach to the welfare state. (Also see here and here.)

Via LewRockwell.com I came across this essay on “libertarian just war theory” by Wendy McElroy. Her conclusion: “Given these [just war] requirements, a libertarian just war is virtually unimaginable.” I’ve wondered for a while now whether the requirements of just war theory are so strict as to rule out virtually any modern war (see, esp.…

Thomas at Endlessly Rocking has a very interesting series of posts on what he calls the “individualist paradox.” In short, he says that often those who are most vocal in their denunciations of “individualism” in their churches and as a result become converts to another, supposedly less individualistic, tradition are in fact engaging in a…

Reihan Salam, whose LA Times article I linked to a while back, has a post outlining his suggestions for a new class-oriented politics for the GOP. It should, he says, be all about empowering the “aspirational classes,” those who, in John O’Sullivan’s words are striving to better their condition-whether that betterment has to do with…

A surprising article (considering the source) on the Terri Schiavo case at Salon: Today, our humanity is perched on the precipice of a slippery slope. A disabled woman in Tampa, Fla., breathing on her own and cared for by her parents, is to be denied a simple feeding tube, thereby hastening her death and freeing…

The prolific Keith Burgess-Jackson has started another blog – The Conservative Philosopher. KBJ has enlisted several contributers so far, including Bill Vallicella. As a dabbler in philosophy and a student (though not quite an adherent) of conservatism, I’m sure I’ll be visiting regularly. Long may it prosper!

I really want to like this column by Roberto Rivera y Carlo because I think it gets some important things right. Rivera y Carlo criticizes our culture of careerism that emphasizes work over family: In the West, however much we “value” marriage and family, our approach to the matter says that we esteem them less…

An fascinating article from Salon. Maybe they can make common cause with the League of the South? The Vermont economist mentioned in the article, Thomas Naylor advocates a “peaceful, democratic, libertarian, grassroots movement opposed to the tyranny of the United States” and “the Vermont of small towns, small farms, small businesses, local governance, grass-roots democracy,…

Radley Balko has a post very much worth reading on the inevitable consequences of war, no matter how well-intentioned. Some highlights: Let’s look at this in purely self-interested terms. What do you suppose is going to become of this little girl? Think she’ll dismiss her dead parents in light of the larger picture, this grand…

Or at least that’s what Jody Bottum suggests in this article on the President’s inagural speech: No, President Bush’s opponents should be afraid of this speech because it signals the emergence of a single coherent philosophy within the conservative movement. Natural-law reasoning about the national moral character gradually disappeared from America in the generations after…