David J. Theroux is Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Independent Institute.

The world-renowned astrophysicist Siegfried Fred Singer (1924–2020) passed away on April 6, 2020, at the age of 95. Fred was Emeritus Professor of Environmental Science at the University of Virginia, and since 1993 we were proud to have him as a dear friend and Research Fellow at the Independent Institute.

After failing at numerous radio jobs in the 1970s, in which he tried out various styles, including his first broadcast gig at KUDL in Kansas City, the famed talk-radio giant Rush H. Limbaugh III (1951–2021) began his real radio-broadcast career when he hosted a daytime talk show that innovatively mixed conservative politics and humorous...
Read More »

In his monumental book, Inventing the Individual: The Origins of Western Liberalism (Penguin, hardcover 2014; Harvard University Press, paperback 2017), American-born, British intellectual historian Sir Larry Siedentop (Keble College, Oxford University) argues that Western “classical liberalism” has been the child of Christianity. That is, the Judeo-Christian principles, understandings and intuitions, that evolved from the...
Read More »

I was privileged to present a tribute at the memorial celebration for the life of Wolfgang Dieter Tede, on Saturday, October 19, 2019, at the St. Francis Yacht Club in San Francisco. He was a member of the Board of Directors of the Independent Institute for over twenty years, and here is an edited...
Read More »

Our dear, longtime friend Cassandra Chrones Moore passed away on Sunday, July 7, 2019, at Stanford Hospital. Her husband, Thomas Gale Moore (founding member, Board of Advisors, Independent Institute), and her children, Charles and Antonia (Tonia), were at her side. Hospitalized the previous Friday, she died of aortic valve stenosis, a heart condition that...
Read More »

I had the distinct privilege of delivering the eulogy (with my brother Gary) at the memorial service for my late father, Paul Richard Theroux, on Saturday, June 23, 2018, at Sylvan Abbey Funeral Home, in Clearwater, FL. Here is an edited version of my presentation: The Christian Sabbath is Sunday, the traditional first day...
Read More »

From the satirical vaults of 2005 by an unknown author who we wish we could credit, but most likely someone who was working for the government: Scientists have discovered the heaviest element yet known to science. The new element, Governmentium (symbol=Gv), has one neutron, 25 assistant neutrons, 88 deputy neutrons, and 198 assistant deputy...
Read More »

Our very dear friend and Founding Member of the Board of Advisors of the Independent Institute, Michael Novak, passed away at the age of 83, on February 17th. A man of immense generosity, integrity, joyfulness, and good will, Michael was one of the most important scholars, theologians, prolific authors, and public intellectuals of the...
Read More »

The powerful, new, documentary-film version of Peter Schweizer’s bombshell, New York Times-bestselling book on the massive corruption, cronyism and hypocrisy of Bill and Hillary Clinton and the Clinton Foundation, Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich, has premiered on YouTube for selectively...
Read More »

As the culture wars intensify in America, let’s consider some of the roots of these contentious conflicts. With the “Age of Enlightenment” of the 17th and 18th centuries, a “modern” narrative was invented to explain the history of the West, the wider world, and humankind’s place in the universe. This narrative claimed that liberty,...
Read More »