“The only idea they have ever manifested as to what is a government of consent is this: that it is one to which everybody must consent, or be shot.” -Lysander Spooner The Obama administration’s drone war has come under recent attack and rightfully so. A recently released Justice Department memo reveals the justification used by [...]
The massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT, permanently altered the dynamic of the gun control debate in America in a way that other recent mass shootings simply could not. No, it may not have had the shock factor that Aurora had, as Sandy Hook was not our first experience with a school [...]
Guest Columnist Michael Diamond, Co-President of SPEAR Response to “A Little Bit of Common Sense” Reinvest Vanderbilt is happy to see debate developing on campus around the issue of energy investments in Vanderbilt’s endowment. As such, we welcome the Torch’s entry into this debate in the editorial of the February 2013 issue of the Vanderbilt [...]
Over 1,400 students and alumni gathered in Washington, D.C. for the 2013 International Students For Liberty Conference. The annual conference offers students the opportunity to learn from the best contemporary thinkers in the libertarian community, network with representatives from prominent local, national, and international organizations, and meet other student leaders from around the world. The [...]
On February 11th of this year, Pope Benedict XVI made an unprecedented announcement that rocked both the secular and the spiritual communities—that as of February 28, he would no longer hold the office of pope. Stepping down in the name of his health and advancing age—and, some say, due to the stress of several recent [...]
Over twenty percent of Americans now claim no spiritual allegiance. So says a number of Pew studies conducted over the last few years. Americans are increasingly dissatisfied with religion, or at least organized religion. While the country has always been home to a strain of anticlericalism, what is being seen today is unique in a [...]
The tragedy which occurred at Sandy Hook Elementary School will live in perpetual infamy, seared into the collective conscience of a nation. Yet as the initial shock of tragedy begins to fade ever so slightly, it is important to reflect back on the events of that fateful day. Could the massacre have been stopped? What [...]
As heartbreaking as November’s election was, Republicans do not have to sulk and begin the long wait for 2016. President Obama’s first term, while not successful by any means, offered a few glimpses of hope that have the potential to make his second term bearable for Republicans, and perhaps could even be seen in a [...]
In the few months since the November 2012 presidential election, the state of Texas has been ablaze with that ages-old and quintessentially Texan question—to secede, or not to secede? Deeply frustrated by the re-election of President Obama, many conservative and Republican Texans have been throwing around the idea more and more seriously, citing the supposed [...]
In the aftermath of the horrific mass shooting in Newtown, Connecticut that took the lives of twenty young children and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary school on December 14th, 2012, there has been an overwhelming outpouring of sympathy, grief, and support from people all over the United States and the world. Along with this [...]
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