Ed. Note: Fault Lines alumni Mario Machado and Christopher Seaton, who will apparently fight with each other over anything, agreed to debate the following topic: Resolved: Tennessee’s House of Representatives was right to expel the “Tennessee Three.” Chris will take the affirmative and Mario will take the negative. Mario’s argument is below.

Tennessee State Reps. Justin Jones, and Justin Pearson have been expelled from the Tennessee House with Gloria Johnson surviving by one vote. The three are Democrats who had a major beef with what they perceive as inaction from their colleagues with regards to gun reform laws, following a shooting at the Covenant School in Nashville, where three children and three adults were killed. Continue reading →

Ed. Note: Fault Lines alumni Mario Machado and Christopher Seaton, who will apparently fight with each other over anything, agreed to debate the following topic: Resolved: Tennessee’s House of Representatives was right to expel the “Tennessee Three.” Chris will take the affirmative and Mario will take the negative. Chris’ argument is below.

If I’d like to believe one thing about the politicians in Nashville representing my home state, it’s that they’re naturally averse to using the deaths of schoolchildren for political gain. When others in the State House attempt it, a consequence of that behavior should be some form of discipline. That is why, despite the cries of “Racism” at the top of the unduly passionates’ lungs, I stand with Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton and the Tennessee GOP’s attempts to expel Gloria Johnson, Justin Jones, and Justin Pearson—the so called “Tennessee Three.” Continue reading →

There were always leaks, to some very small extent. Whether the leaker was a whistleblower or just a leaker was often a matter of opinion, but there is little doubt that leaks have become far more common and far less justified on whistleblower basis, such as the Pentagon Papers revealing that the government had wasted thousands of lives on a lie. Instead, it’s spiraled down to the leaker’s belief that something isn’t right, or isn’t good, and he therefore isn’t bound by a sense of confidentiality. Or to put it differently, every person whose hands touch a national secret gets to decide for themselves whether they feel like keeping it.

This was manifest in 21-year-old Massachusetts Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira’s decision to put top secret documents online for, well, kicks. Continue reading →

Tucker Carlson was unceremoniously fired from Fox, which tells you how much Rupert Murdoch really wanted him out the door. Don Lemon was fired from CNN, but unless the two join hands for the new Hannity and Colmes, who cares? But as Fox’s top performer, what does Carlson’s tossing mean?

As an entertainer, Bret Stephens catalogues his fall from grace and where he might land. Continue reading →

The purpose of the announcement is to force Stanford Law School to capitulate to the demands of its Black Law Students Association. Or else what?

Stanford University’s Black Law Students Association will no longer help the university recruit black students after the law school’s dean, Jenny Martinez, apologized in early March to Fifth Circuit appellate judge Kyle Duncan.

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There aren’t many avenues available for those falsely accused of sexual misconduct, and since the glory days of #MeToo when a mere accusation was more than enough to destroy a person’s career, and possibly his life, even the limited options have been fraught with the potential to be ruinous. But California legislators have decided that one option, not great but at least available, should be taken off the table.

California lawmakers voted Thursday to protect sexual assault survivors from retaliatory lawsuits, years after a former state lawmaker sued a woman over her sexual misconduct allegations against him. Continue reading →

It was true of the dangerously wrongheaded excuse that black men are justified in resisting, fleeing and fighting with police because of a “reasonable” fear that the cops might kill them. And they end up being beaten, shot, maybe even killed, not for whatever the cause of the interaction was, but because of how they responded to the cops’ commands or efforts to take the person into custody.  It’s not that outrageously wrong police conduct doesn’t occur, but it remains an extreme outlier, happening in an infinitesimal percentage of cases. Unless the guy resists.

This is a panic. A fear born of hyping the extreme cases such that people internalize the false believe that the one in a million case is the norm. Continue reading →

Hey everybody! Did you miss your humble humorist over our little break? I sure missed all of you. I’m currently slammed with work this week, but I couldn’t let an opportunity by to tell y’all a couple of jokes that haven’t caused Dr. S to roll her eyes clean out of her head.

A nun gets into a cab.

The driver says “Sister, I want to ask you a question, but I’m afraid I might offend you.” Continue reading →

Granted, it’s hardly the core problem of dealing with discrimination against transgender people, but it is one of the great many collateral issues that would obviously arise from the dogmatic assertion that transgender women were women, end of discussion.

The lawsuit against the national Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority, its national council president and Smith claims national sorority officials pressured the local chapter to violate sorority rules, including those for voting to induct new members. Continue reading →

Not only is Berny Belvedere a great editor, as I learned when I wrote a few posts for his budding site Arc Digital that made me look far smarter than I am, but he is an honest man and is willing to pay the price for it, even if it costs him followers and readers born of tribal allegiance.

Embodying measuredness or thoughtfulness doesn’t necessarily mean taking a middle position between opposing views, or disarming yourself of rhetorical verve.

Rather, it means that both your epistemic processes (belief-formation) and discourse posture (belief-expression) are characterized by intellectual virtues like reasonableness, openness to evidence, and an uncompromising commitment to the truth.

Continue reading →