classics digests, reflections and reviews
A Personal Backstory When I was a child, I used to asked my mother, Why do women willingly go through the troubles of pregnancy, the agony of birth pangs, only to give birth to a child at the risk of their own lives? I asked because the only idea I had of childbirth came from the movies, where childbirth was almost always the cause of pain and death for women. […]
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Last week, a Catholic blogger Eamonn Clark responded to my blogpost titled “In Defense of Sola Scriptura”, which I wrote five years ago to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. At the end of his post, Clark wrote, “I remain unconvinced”. I can only smile and say that the feeling is mutual. Clark quoted my arguments at length and responded to them point by point. For that I’m grateful. […]
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History must be illustrated by the laws, and the laws by history. When I read Montesquieu, I envision him holding the globe in his hand, or rather in his mind, as he studies the history of mankind, the laws and customs of nations and peoples around the world. The Laws are deposits of wisdom, and indirect reflections of the characters and histories of the peoples. If one comprehends the spirit […]
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Preface Mark Twain once quipped, “A classic is something that everybody wants to have read and nobody wants to read.” Darwin’s On the Origin of Species is a classic. I’m pleasantly surprised that it is not as boring and dry as I expected, but quite the contrary. It’s fascinating to observe how Darwin works, how he collects facts from nature and draws inferences, how he judges between diverse theories and […]
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Opinion of the Court 1. The Constitution of the United States does not protect a right to (obtain) abortion, neither explicitly nor implicitly. 2. There are other rights not mentioned in the Constitution, but the Court has judged them to be protected by the Constitution, such as the right to obtain contraceptives and right to same-sex marriage. 3. Abortion is fundamentally different from those rights. It concerns not only a […]
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On the Subversion of the State Government The legislature of the United States are vested with the great and uncontrollable powers of laying and collecting taxes, duties, imposts, and excises; of regulating trade, raising and supporting armies, organizing, arming, and disciplining the militia, instituting courts, and other general powers; and are by this clause invested with the power of making all laws, proper and necessary, for carrying all these into […]
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The Executive not only dispenses the honors, but holds the sword of the community. The legislature not only commands the purse, but prescribes the rules by which the duties and rights of every citizen are to be regulated. The judiciary, on the contrary, has no influence over either the sword or the purse; … It may truly be said to have neither force nor will, but merely judgment; and must […]
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