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Conservatives Tag

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on November 11, 2014 18 Comments
PJ Media's Bill Whittle outlines his top five conservative principles in the latest edition of Afterburner. Whittle articulates the nexus of culture, politics, and American values succinctly on a regular basis. Seeing as Republicans just took control of the Senate, it's a good time to reflect on what we believe, why we believe it, and then proceed in a manner befitting that foundation. As Whittle says, "Conservatism kicks ass. You really should give it a try." Take a look:

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on August 12, 2014 8 Comments
Lois Lowry's well-loved classic, The Giver, hits the silver screen Friday, August 15. Well produced, beautifully filmed, and featuring big name celebrities like Meryl Streep, Jeff Bridges, Taylor Swift, and Katie Holmes, the cinematic adaptation of The Giver has created a buzz in the conservative community, but does it live up to the hype? I cringed when I heard the conservative community touting The Giver as a great film. I read the book in grade school, loved it, and naturally assumed the desperation for an ideologically friendly film would've produced the epic suckage we've come to see in releases like Atlas Shrugged. I figured rather than making a movie that subtly blended favorable ideological tones with great story telling, we were getting yet another awful conservative film; one so hell bent on brow beating conservatism, it sucked the joy right off the screen. I was very wrong. Set in a community genetically and physically designed to achieve absolute equality, the film opens with three teenagers preparing for their assignment day. "From great suffering came a solution, communities," Meryl Streep's character explains. Everyone in the community is assigned family units, clothes, jobs, and pretty much everything else that could possibly be assigned. Designed to be devoid of almost all emotion, the entire community merely exists. There is no love, no human connection, no pain, no living. Sameness was meant to protect humanity from pain, jealousy, envy, greed, the unexpected, and everything that ails the human condition. As events unfold, it's evident that despite their best intentions, the desire for sameness comes with calamitous consequences.

Posted by Amy Miller on August 04, 2014 64 Comments
Over the past few years, social conservatives have found their lifestyles (and in some cases, their livelihoods) under full assault by a very vocal, activist minority in the left. Progressive ire directed at the pro-life, pro-family, etc. crowd is nothing new, but with the advent of platforms like Twitter and Facebook, it's easier and faster to sling mud with few consequences. The Sunday Edition of the Dallas Morning News republished an essay by National Journal and Atlantic editor Jonathan Rauch about conservative Christians' "great secession" (his words, not mine) from the culture. Via the Dallas Morning News:
I am someone who believes that religious liberty is the country’s founding freedom, the idea that made America possible. I am also a homosexual atheist, so religious conservatives may not want my advice. I’ll give it to them anyway. Culturally conservative Christians are taking a pronounced turn toward social secession: asserting both the right and the intent to sequester themselves from secular culture and norms, including the norm of nondiscrimination. This is not a good idea. When religion isolates itself from secular society, both sides lose, but religion loses more.
Jonathan Rauch is a liberal. A gay, atheist liberal who writes for mainstream media outlets. But this article isn't about Jonathan Rauch, and it doesn't matter what he believes. The important thing to glean from articles like this one---even if something strikes a well-tuned nerve---is that there are people out there who aren't as gay, liberal, or faithless as Jonathan Rauch who are noticing these things too.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 20, 2014 23 Comments
University of North Carolina at Wilmington professor Michael Adams has won his discrimination lawsuit, in a jury verdict rendered today. The judge now will rule on damages. The Jury Verdict form and Judgment are embedded at the bottom of this post. Adams was the professor who wrote the viral response to another professor who called Adams an "embarrassment" to higher education. The case involved claims that Adams was subjected to discriminatory retaliation for expressing his Christian religious and politically conservative views. We have uploaded the Amended Complaint and Answer to the Amended Complaint. Alliance Defending Freedom, which represented Adams, described the case as follows:
Dr. Mike Adams, a criminology professor at the University of North Carolina–Wilmington, frequently received accolades from his colleagues after the university hired him as an assistant professor in 1993 and promoted him to associate professor in 1998. At the time he was an atheist, but his conversion to Christianity in 2000 impacted his views on political and social issues. After this, he was subjected to intrusive investigations, baseless accusations, and the denial of promotion to full professor even though his scholarly output surpassed that of almost all of his colleagues. In a lawsuit filed against the university on Adams’ behalf, Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys contended that the university denied Adams a promotion because his nationally syndicated opinion columns espoused religious and political views that ran contrary to the opinions held by university officials.
The jury found that Adams' "speech activity [was] a substantial or motivating factor in the defendants' decision to not promote" Adams, and that the defendants' would not have reached the same decision "in the absence of the plaintiff's speech activity". Adams v UNC - Wilmington - Jury Verdict Form Answers The Judge now will resolve the damages, as set forth in the Judgment:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 15, 2014 15 Comments
Almost a year ago I reported on how the case if Teresa Wagner, a Conservative Iowa law professor denied new trial in political discrimination case:
The lawsuit by Teresa Wagner against the former Dean of the University of Iowa’s College of Law has received a lot of attention, a tortured procedural history (including a prior appeal) and confusing results. In the latest twist, a judge has denied Wagner’s motion for a new trial (full opinion embedded at bottom of post). The lawsuit concerns claims by Wagner that she suffered discrimination based on her conservative political views, resulting in her being denied a promotion (she’s still employed).
Paul Mirengoff of Power Line describes the outrageous facts behind the case:
Wagner was already the associate director of the law school’s writing center. Moreover, she had taught legal writing at George Mason University Law School, edited three books, practiced as a trial attorney in Iowa, and written several legal briefs, including one in a U.S. Supreme Court case. In addition, the faculty-appointments committee at the University of Iowa College of Law recommended her appointment as a full-time instructor.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 19, 2013 7 Comments
The Cornell Review, the conservative newspaper on campus, has a long history of serving up great interns for Legal Insurrection. You may remember Kathleen McCaffrey who was the first Legal Insurrection writer (other than me) and to whom we bid farewell in May 2012 after 1.5 years and over 300 posts (and who recently got married, congratulations!); Michael Alan (who wrote from time to time, and also took the video of the Syracuse Honor Flight return), and of course, Laurel Conrad our current intern, and President of the Cornell Review. So it is with much pleasure that we note The Cornell Review has received the Buckley Award from the Collegiate Network, part of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, which supports conservative students on campuses around the country. [caption id="attachment_71186" align="alignnone" width="350"](L-R: Collegiate Network program officer Lillian Gerken; Cornell Review President Laurel Conrad and Editor-in-Chief Michael Navarro; Intercollegiate Studies Institute Pres. Chris Long) (L-R: Collegiate Network program officer Lillian Gerken; Cornell Review President Laurel Conrad and Editor-in-Chief Michael Navarro; Intercollegiate Studies Institute Pres. Chris Long)[/caption] Here's the statement read at the award ceremony:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 06, 2013 35 Comments
One part of my communications with Brown Prof. Naoko Shibusawa has stuck in my mind:
"You can quote those two lines. Those only."
Shibusawa is the person featured in my post Tuesday night, Brown U. divestment committee faculty member signed 2009 letter calling Israel Apartheid state.  The post started by referencing her support for the Brown shout-down of Ray Kelly expressed in her Letter to the Editor of the Brown Daily Herald:
"... I want to point out that every movement toward social justice in U.S. history has included “misbehavior.” “Misbehavior” is a tactic of the disempowered toward disrupting the status quo.... So unlike [Biology Prof. Ken Miller who denounced the shout-down], I applaud the student protesters for their moral courage in a righteous cause against racial profiling and brutal police tactics and for their resolution in the face of the harsh criticisms they have since endured. I am proud of you. You inspire me to try to be a better teacher, scholar and person.
Shibusawa initially told me by phone “I don’t know what the purpose is [of my call] and what you want to do” and “I’ve checked out your blog.” She continued, that it “looks like you want to portray me as some sort of extremist” but “I believe in social justice.” Shibusawa then said, “You can describe me as extreme.” Fair enough.  But then the follow up email, telling me what I was allowed to say about the conversation (emphasis added):

Posted by Leslie Eastman on September 11, 2013 13 Comments

As Americans are debating over how to react to the situation in Syria, there have been some fascinating developments elsewhere in the world well worth noting. For example, one of Scandinavia's most nanny-state governments has had an election that tilted their state dramatically rightward: Conservative Party leader...

Posted by Leslie Eastman on November 16, 2012 24 Comments

As an amateur Egyptologist who occasionally writes about Egypt at the Temple of Mut, my specialty is mummies. So, I know dead things and can say with certainty: The Tea Party is NOT dead. I have been a Tea Party activist since the first nationwide series...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 01, 2012 96 Comments

Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day has proven something I've noticed before. Conservatives are very good at buycotts, but very bad at boycotts. There have been attempts by some conservative and religious groups to boycott various businesses over political issues. But I can't think of one, at least not recently,...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 19, 2012 50 Comments

With friends like this, those who want to defeat Obama don't need enemies. Having savaged Newt Gingrich for months, S.E. Cupp now is coming to the aid of Ann Romney by praising Ann for "marrying up": As a thirtysomething, city-dwelling, hypereducated, independent-thinking  woman, I suppose I should...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 11, 2012 111 Comments

What do 2008 and 2012 have in common? The war on conservative women CNN commenter Hilary Rosen lit into Ann Romney for never having worked a day in her life: And Rosen is doubling down on Twitter: Ann Romney inaugurated her own Twitter account with a response: Update:  Rosen, a...

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