March 20th, 2013
J. Max Wilson has written an excellent post on the limits of the LDS doctrine of prophetic fallibility at his site Sixteen Small Stones. It is absolutely true that the church does not believe that its prophets and apostles are infallible. There is no infallibility doctrine. The prophets are undeniably human beings and subject to normal [...]
March 14th, 2013
When I was an undergraduate at Cornell , then Yale and a graduate student at Oxford, then Yale once again, the American university was an exceedingly lively place in which students were encouraged to explore a diversity of perspectives. The people in charge were, by and large, New Deal liberals — moderate in manner, open [...]
February 17th, 2013
Last fall France’s Chief Rabbi, Gilles Bernheim, published a courageous and incisive argument against homosexual marriage and adoption. In December Pope Benedict publicly praised the Rabbi’s essay in the strongest terms. That essay has now been published by First Things magazine somewhat abridged and lightly edited. It was translated from the French by Ralph Hancock, [...]
February 17th, 2013
John Dehlin asks Professor Hancock if he can sympathize with Mormon Progressives who have brought up controversial statements or positions of past church leaders in an honest effort to understand the truth. Dehlin believes that Church leadership treated these members unfairly or even hostilely, in some cases. He asks Dr. Hancock if he can understand [...]
February 12th, 2013
By Alan Williamson The recent sea change regarding social acceptance of the idea of same-sex marriage (SSM) — and the influence this increasingly has had on a good number of active LDS members’ views — has inspired me to commit a few thoughts to paper. I do not profess to be either an intellectual [...]
Our Latest Podcasts
- Caffeine: The Drug of the Productive May 24, 2013 Peter Lawler
- Being Bourgeois and Bohemian Just Isn't Enough May 22, 2013 Peter Lawler
- The Risk Factor of Loneliness May 19, 2013 Peter Lawler
- The Obama Administration's Neo-Puritanical Repression May 16, 2013 Peter Lawler
- Men Fading Badly? May 10, 2013 Peter Lawler
- Dave Carter : Sagacity and Smiles in Seattle May 25, 2013I sometimes wonder if the increasing frequency and quality of these Ricochet get-togethers will prompt my doctor to announce that they are bad for my health. Anything this enjoyable, this edifying, and this stimulating is bound to run afoul of a law or six at some point, for it seems that every time I think it can't get any better than the most recent […]
- Law Talk With Epstein & Yoo : All Tapped Out May 25, 2013Direct link to MP3 fileSure, everyone's talking about the Obama Administration scandals from a political perspective, but this week on Law Talk with Epstein and Yoo (guided by the steady hand of host Troy Senik), you'll get the complete analysis from the angle that really matters: the legal one. Also, the professors weigh in on the over/under on Er […]
- Roman Genn : Happy Birthday , Bob! May 24, 2013[…]
- Jim Lakely : Left-Wing Think Tank Hoist By Its Own Corporate Funding Petard May 24, 2013Considering what I do for a living, it was so very tempting for me to cackle with glee upon seeing this story the other day in The Nation (of all places): âThe Secret Donors Behind the Center for American Progress and Other Think Tanks.â I will resist, but the irony is thick â and the schadenfreude is calling to me louder than a two-for-a-dollar cheese […]
- Adam Freedman : A New Religion Case Heads to the Supreme Court May 24, 2013Earlier this week, the Supreme Court agreed to review a Second Circuit decision holding that a town in New York State violated the First Amendment by opening its Town Board meetings with prayers. The Second Circuit's decision is a twofer, constitutionally speaking: an attack on both religious freedom and states' rights. It should be overturned. The […]
- Greg Lukianoff : The Feds New National Campus Speech Code and the Slippery Slope of 'Harassment' May 24, 2013I recently posted the third installment of my guest-blog for the Louis D. Brandeis Center blog. In light of the recent DOJ/ED mandate that expands the definition of sexual harassment to include constitutionally protected speech, I tease out the historical roots of 'harassment codes' as the primary vehicle used to silence speech on campuses. Here ar […]
- Need To Know with Mona Charen and Jay Nordlinger : The Indispensable Man May 24, 2013Direct link to MP3 fileThis week on Need To Know, Mona and Jay are joined by Robert George, Robert George Visiting Professor at Harvard Law School, and the McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence, and Director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions, at Princeton University.They discuss Professor George's new book, Conscience and I […]
- Fred Cole : Get a Gun, Lady May 24, 2013And so we come to Josephine County, Oregon.The county lost a federal grant, it seems, and had to lay off 23 sheriff's deputies, leaving only six. Two of those six, because of how they are funded, can only patrol some federal forest lands.The culprit, of course, is low taxes. So there's a ballot measure to levy an additional property tax (temporaril […]
- C.J. Box : Pass the Ammunition May 24, 2013Those in the elite news gathering and pundit class often wonder how â and if â national news penetrates throughout the country. They often cite presidential popularity polls as their Holy Grail, since doing otherwise might require them to actually get on an airplane or into their cars and breach the protective New York/Washington bubble where they might […]
- Rob Long : Friday Document Dump. Wanna Bet? May 24, 2013Today would be an excellent day for a document dump.It's the Friday of a holiday weekend, and we've got three (three!) scandals on the hot boil in the White House. We all know there's lots they're not telling us -- new stuff seems to come out every day on all three fronts -- and we also know that the Obama team and the lickspittle press w […]
- Troy Senik, Ed. : A Study in Contrasts May 24, 2013Barack Obama, June 4, 2009, in Cairo: I've come here to Cairo to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world, one based on mutual interest and mutual respect, and one based upon the truth that America and Islam are not exclusive and need not be in competition. Instead, they overlap, and share common principles -- princip […]
- Rachel Lu : The Things You Remember May 24, 2013Do you have a good memory?I find that most people canât answer the question in the abstract. We have good memories for some things and not for others. Among the things I remember well are melodies and verse (Iâm a great asset if youâre going Christmas caroling), and long-ago events. I seem to have better recollection than most people of my early childh […]
- Mollie Hemingway, Ed. : Holder Simply Must Go May 24, 2013Jennifer Rubin makes a compelling case: Attorney General Eric Holder signed off on a controversial search warrant that identified Fox News reporter James Rosen as a âpossible co-conspiratorâ in violations of the Espionage Act and authorized seizure of his private emails, a law enforcement official told NBC News on Thursday. The disclosure of the attorney […]
- Denise McAllister : President Obama and the Big Lie May 24, 2013Less than six weeks after the Boston Marathon bombing, President Obama is sticking to his campaign narrative that America is safer under his administration than ever before and that there have been no âlarge-scaleâ terrorist attacks on the United States since he became president. âSo after I took office, we stepped up the war against al Qaeda but we al […]
- Peter Robinson : Happy Birthday to Us May 24, 2013By the incomparable EJ Hill: Although AWOL a lot in the last week or so--I had a cluster of Uncommon Knowledge shoots for which to research, and not one but two graduations (one from high school, the other from college) and the associated festivities for which to prepare--but may I just say thanks to everyone? The friends I've made here on Ricochet! A […]
- John Yoo : Leaving Drones Flying Blind May 23, 2013Readers and listeners to President Obamaâs speech today at the National Defense University, billed as a major address on terrorism policy, could be forgiven for thinking the speech just a re-hash of old policies. Believe me, Obama seemed to repeat, I really, really want to close Guantanamo Bay. Itâs true, he stressed, I really want to capture, interroga […]
- Ricochet Editor's Desk : Fox News Surveillance Scandal Now Linked Directly to Holder May 23, 2013From Michael Isikoff at NBC News: Attorney General Eric Holder signed off on a controversial search warrant that identified Fox News reporter James Rosen as a âpossible co-conspiratorâ in violations of the Espionage Act and authorized seizure of his private emails, a law enforcement official told NBC News on Thursday.The disclosure of the attorney genera […]
- Don Tillman : Happy Anniversary May 23, 2013I do believe there's an anniversary coming up very soon. How will you celebrate?Here is the Facebook posting: Congratulations Peter, Rob and George! This is just excellent. […]
- Pejman Yousefzadeh : We Passed Health Care Reform . . . May 23, 2013Now, we're finding out what's in it: Some employers are avoiding Obamacare penalties by offering âskinnyâ insurance plans that provide workers with minimum coverage like preventive care but little else, including benefits to help cover hospitals stays.The minimum coverage qualifies as acceptable under the new healthcare reform law, so benefit a […]
- Denise McAllister : John Piper’s Tweet After Deadly Oklahoma Tornado May 23, 2013After a devastating tornado in Oklahoma killed several children at an elementary school, Reformed Baptist minister and author John Piper tweeted this: He later followed it with another tweet: âThen Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshipedâ Job. 1:20.Piper thought he was being comforting. He assumed other people […]
- Ralphism Redivivus May 11, 2013Naturally I appreciate the kind and intelligent attention to my ideas from Peter Lawler, Richard Reinsch, and Carl Scott. (I would not be dismayed in the unlikely event that the term “Ralphism” caught on, though I might have suggested a term more along the lines of “the Hancockian wisdom.” But be that as it may…) […]Ralph Hancock
- “Gay Marriage” and the End of Lockean Conservatism (Part 3, Conclusion) January 31, 2013Finally, as an example of such vision of substantive goods (as evoked by Roger Scruton, above), let me share a tidbit from an important essay against same-sex marriage (made world famous by the Pope’s high praise) authored by France’s chief Rabbi Gilles Bernheim. I have just finished translating this essay, very soon to appear in […]Ralph Hancock
- “Gay Marriage” and the End of Conservative Lockeanism (Part 2 of 3) January 30, 2013(This is a continuation of a post from yesterday; it will make most sense in that context.) When Maggie Gallagher answers John Corvino’s individualist argument for “gay marriage” (in Debating Same-Sex Marriage), she relies mainly on a good and important argument for man-woman marriage based upon universal human and social necessities: “Marriage is a word [.. […]Ralph Hancock
- “Gay” Marriage and the End of Conservative Lockeanism (Part 1 of 3) January 29, 2013Tom West – who, I want to make clear at the outset, can easily run circles around me in his knowledge of Locke’s writings – does well to remind us of the (now) conservative, pro-family conclusions that Locke draws from his very modern philosophical premises. And these conclusions are (or should be) still relevant to […]Ralph Hancock
- Politics and Christianity: The Rule and The Exception (Continued) December 11, 2012(Please read my previous post first, if you haven’t.) Try to follow me here: Christianity, I was arguing, necessarily implies an ambivalence towards any moral-political culture. On the one hand, it reinforces much conventional moral content by declaring it to be the object of a divine command: Thou shalt not steal, commit adultery, etc. At […]Ralph Hancock
- Politics & Christianity: the Rule and the Exception December 10, 2012The essence of Christianity is to love one another, to have compassion, not to judge, but to forgive, to accept – no? Applied to politics, the implication seems obvious: unlimited tolerance, equality of lifestyles, etc: in a word, extreme liberalism. What’s wrong with this picture? Everything, conservatives will say, and they will have a point, […]Ralph Hancock
- Come Let Us Reason Together January 13, 2011The outrage in Arizona has sparked another cycle of mutual recriminations between liberals and conservatives that points up what seems to be a growing chasm running through our political culture. Each side sees itself as faithful to good old American principles, and sees the other side as tending (at least) towards a dangerous extremism. It […]Ralph Hancock
- Propadeutic to a Thumotic and Erotic Ontology December 11, 2010[The following is the preface to my forthcoming The Responsibility of Reason: Theory and Practice in a Liberal-Democratic Age (Rowman & Littlefield)] Propadeutic to a Thumotic and Erotic Ontology. This is the fanciful and facetious subtitle I used to try out on friends when asked about the book I was writing. It was a serious […]Ralph Hancock
- THE CONSTITUTION AT RISK? Founding Principles and Today’s Politics November 13, 201017-20 November 2010 A Conference Hosted by the Tocqueville Project of Brigham Young University, with Funding from The John Adams Center for the Study of Faith, Philosophy and Public Affairs and The Sutherland Institute. Is the Constitution as understood by the Founders at risk? If so, then how so, and what caused this? And would […]Ralph Hancock
- Overheard at Yale: Pomocon Ontology II November 9, 2010[Conclusion of the astute synopsis by Mr. Entel, followed by his even more astute questions:] Plato, Hancock contends, enacts this yoke between being and knowing by seemingly affirming the simple superiority of theory to practice, thus suppressing the question of the relation between the good of thinking and the common good by appearing to answer […]Ralph Hancock
Books by Our Authors
The Responsibility of Reason by Ralph C. Hancock
The Conservative Foundations of the Liberal Order by Daniel J. Mahoney
Modern and American Dignity by Peter Augustine Lawler
Soft Despotism, Democracy's Drift by Paul A. Rahe