David French

CP Guest Contributor

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Jun 11, 2014
Liberal, Intolerant Universities: Do They Really Believe This Nonsense?
Many years ago — early in my litigation career against campus censorship and repression — I challenged in court a policy that confidently declared, "Acts of intolerance will not be tolerated."
Jun 6, 2014
Can We Criticize the Behavior of a Parent in Distress?
Our moral obligations do not cease when we are under the most extreme forms of pressure. In fact, that is arguably when our moral commitments matter most. C. S. Lewis described courage as "not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at its testing point." In other words, we don't even know if we possess a virtue unless that virtue is tested.
Jun 4, 2014
A Matter of Honor: Why So Many Soldiers Are Angry at the Bergdahl Deal
I've spent the last two weeks on vacation - the first real family vacation since shortly after I returned home from Iraq in 2008 - and I tried as much as I could to truly "unplug." When the Bergdahl deal was announced, however, I failed utterly. The story infuriated me.
May 8, 2014
Manufacturing Scientific Consensus; In Four Easy Steps!
Among the many virtues of aggressive litigation - in addition, of course, to the fundamental goal of obtaining justice for your clients - is the ability to gain knowledge. Through sworn testimony, compelled document disclosures, and other features of the discovery process, one can learn about institutions and attitudes at a level far deeper than can the typical pundit or journalist.
May 2, 2014
Don't Insult Brendan Eich by Comparing His Plight to Donald Sterling's
After I wrote my post on Wednesday arguing that Adam Silver made the right call in banning Donald Sterling, I got a surprising amount of comments and e-mail from conservatives arguing that if I was for Sterling's ouster, then I was merely supporting the notion that "thoughtcrime" could end careers — with Brendan Eich the typical counterexample.
Apr 23, 2014
Why Parents Are So Afraid: The Overprotected Kid Syndrome
Last month Hanna Rosin penned a much-discussed article entitled "The Overprotected Kid," lamenting how parents have worked mightily to strip virtually every perceived risk from childhood without actually making childhood that much safer. I suspect the main effect of the article has been to give worrying, fearful parents one more thing to be afraid about — whether they're too fearful.
Apr 9, 2014
When Does Intolerance Work?
In the wake of the Mozilla controversy, the Duck Dynasty controversy, the Chick-fil-A boycott/buycott, and the countless examples of intolerance and intimidation against conservatives on campuses across the country, it seems rather clear that — as Michelle Goldberg notes in The Nation – there is a "growing left-wing tendency towards censoriousness and and hair-trigger offense."
Apr 3, 2014
A Few Thoughts on Fort Hood and Why Our Soldiers Should be Armed
I distinctly remember the first Fort Hood shooting. I was driving to a speaking event in Dallas when my phone started ringing off the hook. The Third Armored Cavalry Regiment — my unit during my Iraq deployment — is based out of Fort Hood, and my friends were doing their own, informal "100 percent accountability" call to make sure we were all alive and unhurt. I can remember feeling simultaneously relieved that my friends were all okay and enraged that other soldiers had been shot down in cold b
Mar 13, 2014
Atheists Demand Grieving Mom Take Down Cross Remembering Her Son
Last week a "humanist" group filed a lawsuit in Prince George's County, Md., demanding the removal from public land of a 40-foot cross memorializing the 49 local soldiers who gave their lives in the First World War. Across the country in Lake Elsinore, Calif., a judge ruled against a proposed monument that would have depicted a soldier kneeling before a small cross marking the grave of a fallen comrade (something soldiers actually do, by the way).
Feb 26, 2014
Is Bad Theology Partly Responsible for Hobby Lobby's Plight?
I'm not referring to Hobby Lobby's theology, but rather to a common Protestant mistake that's plagued Christian life for generations.