Jay Sekulow’s Vanity Band
Jay Sekulow is one of the most powerful & influential attorneys in the nation. He also has a vanity band, which is, in my humble opinion, quite good.
Author: Jon Rowe
Jon Rowe is a full Professor of Business at Mercer County Community College, where he teaches business, law, and legal issues relating to politics. Of course, his views do not necessarily represent those of his employer.
St. George Tucker and the Theology of the Common Law
Thomas Jefferson disagreed with Blackstone’s notion that “Christianity is part of the common law.” Legal jurist St. George Tucker may have provided an Enlightenment alternative to Jefferson’s notion while revising Blackstone for America.
Education and Making a Good Living
How necessary is to go to college in order to make a good living? Are we getting what we are paying for? Who doesn’t need to go to college in order to make a good living, indeed, even to get rich? Those are the issues I explore here while reflecting on Bryan Caplan’s new book that argues for austerity in education and how a friend of mine is doing quite well in business without a college degree.
God, Aliens and Evidence
I note the recent story about UFOs and consider burdens of proof required to convince of their existence and compare with burdens of proof in the debate over theism.
Human Rights & God
Is “God” a necessary component to undergird universal human rights? And if so, what kind of God best serves the purpose and how compatible is the biblical God, and/or God of the various orthodox traditions with said purpose?
Fourteenth Amendment, How I Love You, But You Are a Mess
I discuss the difficulties of constitutional interpretation of the 14th Amendment as it relates to the fundamental rights to be free from both racial and religious discrimination.
Dr. John Sarno, RIP
A pioneer in mind-body medicine has just passed away. What he could purportedly do is both fascinating and amazing.
John Quincy Adams on Special Revelation & Canon
John Quincy Adams, as a Calvinistic Christian, was open to the notion that John Milton, Homer and Virgil were divinely inspired along the same grounds he believed the inspired parts of the biblical canon were. He also endorsed the notion of a “partially inspired” biblical canon.
A Proposal for Bible Study as Part of K-12 Curriculum
This started off as a joke when I proposed it; now I’m serious and think it would make for a good course.
Krugman Channels Rawls in Sympathy for the Free Trade Losers
Paul Krugman still defends free trade, but does so while channeling John Rawls in favor of the “free trade losers.”
American Creation: Ben Franklin Quotation that Typifies the Zeitgeist that Caused the Great Enrichment
Peter Thiel is fond of noting the incredible technological progress the modern world experienced starting around 1800 and ending, in his opinion, 1969 (with the moon landing, and the field of information technology excepted). Niall Ferguson recently gave a Ted Talk on what he views as “6 Apps” that caused modernity’s material progress. And most recently Deirdre McCloskey has written about this “great enrichment” that didn’t start to take off until around 1800 and arguably continues to this day (even if Thiel and others argue we stopped progressing as we should in 1969).
Jonathan Rowe: “Did the Ancient Jews in fact have a Republic?”
Did the Ancient Jews have a “republic”? I don’t think they did. But what about contemporary leading theologians?
Moore’s Law Investing Strategy
A Princeton professor has demonstrated that you can’t pick stocks that “beat the market.” The future, by in large, is unpredictable. Except one area of the future, is predictable. For a possible investing strategy that relates to that predictable area of the future, read on.
The New Atlantis’ Contentious Report on LGBT Issues
My informed understanding of The New Atlantis’ report on sexual orientation and gender identity that purports to speak “scientific” truth to political power. But is that what it is really doing? Read more to find out.
Steven Pinker on the Brain
One of the world’s leading experts on the brain speaks and connects his knowledge to an argument for atheism.
Mental Illness & Demons
Sometimes mental illnesses have been metaphorically described as “demons.” “Mental illness” may well be a metaphor too. As I have concluded, there is truth in metaphor.
On Sullivan on Plato on America
Andrew Sullivan’s comments on Plato and American democracy need a little unpacking.
Balkin on Barnett’s New Book
Jack Balkin demonstrates that Randy Barnett’s originalism is more “liberal” than “republican.”
Samuel Langdon: “The Republic of The Israelites An Example To The American States” (June 5, 1788)
The notion that the Ancient Hebrews had a “republic” is more a creation of “Whig” and “Enlightenment” thought than something supported by the biblical record as it was traditionally understood until figures in those later historical periods began re-imagining the theology.
