Posts by Allen Mendenhall

Bill Buckley, like the Genie, could shift personas without ever losing his essence.

We return, always, to the sea. Not because we must, but because it reminds us that time flows rather than marches, carrying forward what needs carrying, washing away what needs washing away.

This, perhaps, is the narrative we want to believe about ourselves, our jobs, our families, our country: that preparation is protection, that if we just work hard enough, hurt long enough, want it badly enough, we will be rewarded with certainty.

True academic freedom requires not only the absence of formal censorship but also the presence of structural safeguards against soft totalitarianism at the commanding heights of higher education.

Love is not the absence of breaking but the promise to keep building and believing that something can be made whole even after it has shattered.

Love is not the absence of breaking but the promise to keep building and believing that something can be made whole even after it has shattered.

Now that the school year has receded into the hazy distance, our household has turned its attention to the languid pleasures of baseball, particularly the Atlanta Braves.

Now that the school year has receded into the hazy distance, our household has turned its attention to the languid pleasures of baseball, particularly the Atlanta Braves.

Since universities shape the ideas that ripple through society, they remain vital institutions; however, any national renewal should focus only on those that prove their worth through self-sustaining efficiency and real value, rather than propping up failing ones.

Maybe she had begun to glimpse the truth that life is the greatest performance of all, and that her chosen and unchosen role was to become, alas, more fully herself. 

Maybe she had begun to glimpse the truth that life is the greatest performance of all, and that her chosen and unchosen role was to become, alas, more fully herself. 

If you haven’t heard the news, some literary treasure hunters discovered eight previously unknown short stories by Nelle Harper Lee.

Remembrance is not only about the past. It’s also about the values we carry forward: what we choose to see, what we decide to question, and how we recognize our place in the larger American story.

Remembrance is not only about the past. It’s also about the values we carry forward: what we choose to see, what we decide to question, and how we recognize our place in the larger American story.

The Romantics taught me what my daughter seems to know instinctively: reverence is found in moments of pure attention, when time folds upon itself.

As American strategic interests in the Western Hemisphere face unprecedented challenges from revisionist powers, UFM presents us with an opportunity.

Our legislators would be well-advised to advance SB248, which represents a reassertion of constitutional principles that have become attenuated through decades of bureaucratic accretion.

Market liberty is not a luxury; it is the very oxygen of prosperity.

The Mises Institute remains one of Alabama’s underappreciated intellectual assets, overlooked even by many Auburn students and locals who seem unaware of this significant resource in their immediate vicinity.

The victories will fade into data and figures, but the echoes of these moments – the flashes of brilliance, camaraderie, and fight – will live on in the hearts of those who watched and cheered, who, years from now, will tell their own grandchildren stories of this unique team. War Eagle! 

This prompts a question for Alabama and our ecosystem of publicly subsidized universities: What administrative, constitutional or legislative means might replicate Florida’s nascent academic renaissance?

Maybe renewal begins not with new policies but ancient prayers spoken in one voice. 

How do we build a future of flourishing rather than decline?

Digital vigilantes brook no clemency, academic tribunals subordinate truth to predetermined verdicts, and the machinery of cancellation serves not justice but raw power.

While the ballot box has its season and the campaign trail its purpose, there remains this other, quieter necessity: the patient cultivation of ideas, like gardeners tending delicate shoots that may not flower for years.

The pomp and grandeur of the recent presidential inauguration – a great day! – can obscure the fact that our fledgling republic initially operated without a chief executive. George Washington, revered as the first president, did not take office until 1789.

Alabama needs not an extraordinary, once-in-a-lifetime crusader but a diligent, dutiful and hardworking governor who grasps that universities require both nourishment and pruning.