The Outstater
A Social Contract: Health and Human Capital ‘SALUS POPULI suprema lex esto” (Let the health of the people be the supreme law) was Cicero’s test of good government. It is the core social contract of our society, both the justification and the limit of state power. But an adjunct of this foundation, Dr. Berry Keating, will argue in Read the full article…
The Outstater
Our Cultural Disconnect WITH THE 250th ANNIVERSARY of the Declaration of Independence ahead of us, we asked our assistant, Grok, to review recent polling on what American youth know about this founding document. I leave the results with you to decide whether we have reached a state of total cultural disconnection: The Annenberg Public Policy Center’s Civics Read the full article…
The Outstater
Redistricting Disassembled O, beware, my lord, of jealousy;It is the green-eyed monster, which doth mockThe meat it feeds on.” (Othello 3.3.165-167) THERE IS A WAY to make sense of the Republican rift over redistricting. You start by eliminating all the stated explanations: Which leaves us with what is at the heart of every political story — Read the full article…
McGowan: Other Pitchers Who Could Hit
by Richard McGowan, Ph.D. Now that the final 2025 MLB baseball game has been played, fans can start dissecting the past season. Of course, that also means examining the media coverage of the season, especially during the playoffs. Some observations easily avail themselves. If Ohtani’s greatness is owed in part to his being a two-way Read the full article…
The Outstater
A Defense of ‘Christian Nationalism’ THE GENERATION now managing our words — the activist journalists and social-media influencers — seem to think nothing happened before they were born. No, they can’t really believe that on mature reflection, but they do act like that in practice. And with that state of mind comes the compulsion to rename Read the full article…
Franke: The Thankful Month
by Mark Franke Thanksgiving Day seems late this year and by the calendar it is. Contrast that with my general sense of time’s moving much too fast, especially as I am looking at leaves still on the trees and thinking in terms of mid-October. If I am not confused enough, I have four and one-half Read the full article…
