Home | Think Outside Politics

Apr 4, 2019
5 min

Reparations Redux - A Response to My Critics

Earlier this week, I published a piece encouraging President Donald Trump to endorse a policy of reparations for slavery. I expected that this idea would ruffle feathers on both sides of the political aisle, and it certainly did. Reagan Republicans predictably recoiled from what they considered the policy’s “collectivism,” and Democrats instinctively hated the idea that Trump could be a moral leader on any issue. However, some of the objections were substantial, and I deal wi

Trump Should Endorse Slavery Reparations

Norman Young

Apr 1, 2019
4 min

Trump Should Endorse Slavery Reparations

Last year, President Donald Trump led my party, during its lame duck session, in making a bold move on race issues. In late December, less than a month before the Democrats took over the House, the Senate passed, the House approved, and Trump signed the First Step Act, a prison reform bill. This was a startling move for Trump, who styled himself a law-and-order conservative, and who proved willing to enforce laws in ways the Democrats would often criticize. And yet, despite h

Norman Young

Mar 17, 2019
4 min

The Pagan Root of Identitarian Violence

Human beings desire immortality. For some people, this desire manifests itself in a weird faith that technology will soon be able to preserve (or download) their brain. For others, the desire finds fulfillment in a religious belief that the soul is eternal or in a hope for supernatural bodily resurrection. But, even for those who lack any sort of faith, religious or otherwise, they still get a sense of immortality from the continued existence of their culture, social group, o

The Democrat Version of 'All Lives Matter': 'All Hate Matters!'

Norman Young

Mar 9, 2019
2 min

The Democrat Version of 'All Lives Matter': 'All Hate Matters!'

If you just read news headlines, you might think there was a recent spate of homophobic, Islamophobic, and antisemitic hate crimes in America which Democrat leaders responded to with appropriate condemnation. You might also wonder how in the world, in 2019, 23 Republican Congressmen got away with openly refusing to condemn hatred. Of course, all of that would be “fake news.” What really happened is that one Democratic Congresswoman, Representative Ilhan Omar, pushed her party

John C. Calhoun Joins Social Media to Defend Abortion

Norman Young

Mar 5, 2019
4 min

John C. Calhoun Joins Social Media to Defend Abortion

Democrats are on defense about abortion. Ever since Governor Ralph Northam made some uncomfortable comments in defense of a late-term abortion bill in Virginia, Republicans have attacked Democrats mercilously. In February, Senator Ben Sasse forced Senate Democrats to go on record in support of infanticide by sponsoring legislation to protect infants born alive during failed abortion procedures. Donald Trump recently published regulatory changes to the Title X federal grant pr

An American Saint and Evangelical Idolatry

Norman Young

Jun 25, 2018
6 min

An American Saint and Evangelical Idolatry

An American Saint and His Disciples Martin Luther King Jr. is the only American figure (other than a founder) who has a day set apart by the federal government for his remembrance. He is surely the closest thing America has to a saint-figure. He was saintly not only because he was a preacher and a martyr, but because he stood against a culture that was blind—often willfully blind—to the blatant injustice of segregation laws which forced second-class status upon black American

STAR WARS: The Last Interesting Character

Norman Young

Dec 21, 2017
10 min

STAR WARS: The Last Interesting Character

[SPOILER ALERT} Let’s begin with the two most exciting moments of The Last Jedi. First is the fight scene between a dozen or so imperial guards and a Rey/Kylo duo. Second is where Vice Admiral Holdo splits the First Order Dreadnought in half by jumping to lightspeed. These scenes were fun to watch, unlike scenes of Luke fishing and milking thala-sirens. However, some poor choices by the writers stripped these exciting moments of needed emotional content. Kylo and Rey’s fight

“The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles but to irrigate deserts. The right defense against false sentiments is to inculcate just sentiments. By starving the sensibility of our pupils we only make them easier prey to the propagandist when he comes. For famished nature will be avenged and a hard heart is no infallible protection against a soft head.”

C. S. Lewis

Return to Top