Daniel doesn’t like Dr. L’s linking up of anti-capitalism to isolationism. Unfortunately, he passionately exaggerates, to the point of disfigurement, Dr. L’s discussion of a certain anti-capitalism as a ” variant ” [my bold] of the “postpolitical fantasy” . . . . Continue Reading »
In an interview with U.S. News and World Report , Deal Hudson, the director of Catholic outreach for George W. Bush’s 2000 and 2004 presidential campaigns, explains why he thinks Obama’s language about “common ground” is disingenuous but effective. Dan Gilgoff: The Obama . . . . Continue Reading »
Gil Kerlikowske, President Obama’s drug czar, like those of Clinton and Bush before him, claims that marijuana has no medicinal value. From the story: “Legalization is not in the president’s vocabulary, and it’s not in mine,” he said. Kerlikowske said he can understand . . . . Continue Reading »
Language symbols convey the existence, in the experienced world, of a sense perception that is purposefully designed to reconstitute, for the listener, an engendering reality. The truth of these symbols, even if they explicate a non-existent reality, belongs to the non-existent . . . . Continue Reading »
Just received this calendar in the mail from a place called Bridegroom Press . It came with a cover letter by Steve Kellmeyer that included these comments: “As someone who has promoted indulgences in the past, we thought you might appreciate finding out more about this way of helping . . . . Continue Reading »
You’ve all read What Truths We Hold , haven’t you? An important piece by Fr. Bernard J. Coughlin, S.J., the former president and current chancellor of Gonzaga University in Spokane: The president says: “We must find a way to live together.” All the while, the infant in the . . . . Continue Reading »
No one thought it would succeed. Even the executive producer doubted that an “American Idol-style competition for dancers” would work on television. Dance may be, as German musicologist Curt Sachs claimed, the “mother of the arts” but it has always been considered a highbrow form with . . . . Continue Reading »
I have very slightly paraphrased—left out a “the”—an essay by Terry Mattingly on the sometimes tense relationship between ethnic Orthodox (Eastern Orthodox Christian) and converts (mostly from evangelical and mainstream Protestant churches). The tendrils of the story are long . . . . Continue Reading »
A bill in Congress would outlaw invasive medical research on chimpanzees. This is folly. Chimps are highly intelligent and social creatures, and we should not use them in research blithely. But chimps are the closest genetically to humans in the natural world, meaning that in limited circumstances . . . . Continue Reading »
President Obama does not know what he is talking about on health care. During last night’s press conference, he both accused physicians of performing unnecessary surgery because of the money—which if true, his reforms wouldn’t fix—and exhibited a profound cluelessness . . . . Continue Reading »