“We’re not mad Frankensteins working away in our laboratories to create designer babies. We are only allowed to look for major diseases which cause handicaps.” That is, until they realize how much money could be made creating designer babies. I have a suspicious feeling that, as . . . . Continue Reading »
My friend Anthony, his finger ever on the pulse of . . . something . . . sent me this item from The Daily Mail: Is the Shroud of Turin really a self-portrait of Leonardo da Vinci? I don’t know, but maybe the answer to that question is also the answer to this one. I hadn’t considered . . . . Continue Reading »
An Asia Times dispatch today from Francesco Sisci, author of the essay “China’s Catholic Moment” in the June-June issue of First Things, observes that Chinese premiere Hu Jintao next week embarks on a state visit to Italy, the first for a Chinese leader in a decade. The visit, . . . . Continue Reading »
There are several interesting posts up at the blog The American Catholic on the Declaration of Indepenence and the American Revolution . Buried within the comments are some expressions of displeasure with the supposedly liberal, post-Enlightenment origins of the American Revolution. This is a . . . . Continue Reading »
Unfortunately, not a parody . . . . . Continue Reading »
Last month, Alan Potash, the Midwestern regional director of the ADL, wrote the Omaha World-Herald to declare that “freedom of speech does not extend to racist groups.” As Eugene Volokh points out , this is particularly dangerous for a Jewish organization to hold, given the decades-long . . . . Continue Reading »
Yes, Jody rightly draws attention to the role of anti-Semitism in the sort of modern conservatism that sees history, tradition, and place as anchors of sanity. By my reading, however, that role is complicated and full of ironies. One irony comes from the Stalinist era. “Rootless . . . . Continue Reading »
This morning, I sat next to an autistic man on the metro. We chatted a bit, and then he grabbed a scrap of paper and scrawled on it: “JOBFAIR=1979” “GAO=2009” He then concatenated the numbers, and wrote: 19792009 His pen lingered above the piece of paper for thirty seconds or . . . . Continue Reading »
The latest issue of Society is out and I have a review essay in it of Barry Bercier’s provocative The Skies of Babylon: Diversity, Nihilism, and the American University. Below is a brief excerpt of my contribution to the issue: At the very end of The Closing of the American Mind, Bloom . . . . Continue Reading »
My problem with your localism , Rusty, is the Jews. But, then, it’s always the Jews, isn’t it? Or the blacks, or the foreigners, or the diseased. The problem usually comes down to the Jews, though. In the experience of Western civilization, the Jews have proved for a long time the stone . . . . Continue Reading »
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