Pat Shoulders was elected to a second term. It wasn’t even close — not that the next two runners up were at all impressive either. This speaks rather poorly of my fellow alumni (or at least the approximately 9% that bothered to return a ballot).

Apparently one of Justice Thomas’s quotes from Kelo is getting around. Via Volokh: My friend and fellow lawprof Rick Garnett, who teaches at Notre Dame, writes: Here’s an e-mail I got from a student of mine today . . . I picked my 20 year old sister up from the airport today and she was...

RealClearPolitics has highlighted an article that Judge Michael McConnell wrote in The American Enterprise back in 1995. In the article he argued that the Establishment clause was being used as a sword against religion. McConnell’s thesis: History shows clearly that the establishment clause of...

You have probably heard of Gerardo Flores by now, but if you have not, I’m here to fill you in. Flores was recently found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison for helping his girlfriend, Erica Basoria, “abort” her twins. Texas law states that “causing the death of...

John West, associate director of the Center for the Renewal of Science and Culture at the Discovery Institute, has replied to my “fulminating” essay, posted to Dispatches, In the Agora and the Panda’s Thumb, on ID and “divine design”. You’ll recall that Mr. West had...

Rumor in the literary circles is he’s planning a trashy romance for 2006 (feel free to offer potential titles).

Ever wonder about the root of “secular”? In the mid-eighth century the term secular was applied to the clergy who served in the world (saeculum), whether as priests, bishops, archbishops, or popes. The term regular was applied to those who observed the monastic rule (regula).

Professor Carl Esbeck–a professor of mine in law school–has written a brief article in Liberty Magazine discussing the current status of church/state relations. In his article he addresses, in a very reasonable, readable tone, some of the most pervasive red herrings that predominate today’s...

Adam’s post below about nicknames for Evansville reminds me that my fair city already has a perfectly serviceable name, one it shares with a city made famous in a certain musical: “River City.” (I also note the following paragraph in the C&P article: The Canadian city this month...

In an attempt to differentiate it from the dozens of other economically-peaked, mid-sized cities competing for jobs, investment, and college graduates, Evansville is considering (registration required to view the Courier & Press online) a “branding” effort, an idea taken from a recent...