Author: Adam Lee

Atlas Shrugged, part II, chapter IV Rearden is winning plaudits for the innovative “la la la, I’m not listening to you” defense strategy he deployed at his trial. Even the government overseer at his mills, the boy Rand nicknames the Wet Nurse, is coming to admire him: The Wet Nurse asked him at the mills,…

The most important changes don’t come in the form of attention-grabbing headlines, but subtle trends that quietly gather momentum until, by the time they finally burst into public view, they’re unstoppable. Such is the case with the most important, and paradoxically most underappreciated, trend in American religion today: the long-term, across-the-board decline of Christianity and…

Last year, I wrote about the continuing exodus of members from the Catholic church, and apologists’ fumbling suggestions for how to reverse the trend. I noted with amusement that there was an elephant in the room – the church’s retrograde doctrines which drive away young people – which the apologists were carefully tiptoeing around while…

Atlas Shrugged, part II, chapter IV The date of Hank Rearden’s trial has arrived, so it’s time for the obligatory Dramatic Courtroom Scene. The first thing we learn, as spectators file in, is that the Constitution has apparently been revoked, because there’s no longer a right to trial by jury (which is guaranteed in Article…

Can’t we have a calm, reasoned, civil discussion about whether I should stop punching you or not? I mean, sure, I may currently be sitting on your chest aiming one punishing blow after another into your head, neck and shoulders. I’m willing to grant that reasonable people may differ about the ethics of this behavior.…

Big news today! I’m very pleased to announce that I’ve published my first original column for the Guardian, the venerable progressive newspaper, in their Comment is Free opinion section. The column is titled “‘Help, help, I’m being repressed!’: How conservatives make a mockery of the oppression of religious minorities. It concerns those American Christian conservatives…

I’ve been gripped by the stories and images coming out of Ferguson, Missouri since last week. This suburb of St. Louis has been wracked with unrest since Michael Brown, an 18-year-old African-American teenager, was shot to death on a city street by a police officer – while he was standing with his hands raised in…

Last Thursday, my wife and I attended one of the National Moment of Silence rallies that were held across the country to protest the shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, and all other deaths from police brutality and overreach. This one was at Union Square in Manhattan. There was an immense, diverse crowd; the…

Atlas Shrugged, part II, chapter IV After unleashing a tirade at his family during Thanksgiving dinner, Hank Rearden decides he’s had enough of them. He stands up and announces that he’s going to New York, knowing that Lillian understands exactly what this means: “Why do you wish to go to New York tonight?” “I think,…

Last week, this comment was left on an older post. I wouldn’t normally approve proselytizing like this, but since the author identifies himself as an 11-year-old homeschooler, I decided to give it a pass and write him a reply. We may be familiar with these arguments, but it’s likely that he’s never encountered a real…