In case you missed it, the WSJ had an interesting item recently on China’s continuing enforcement of their one-child policy. It seems that many Chinese elite have been flouting it and the government has cracked down, revoking the scofflaws’ Communist Party membership. Don’t be . . . . Continue Reading »
I’m not the resident math-guru here at First Things . So I’ll be interested in what Amanda (with her CUA math and English double-major background) might have to say about this review by Jim Holt of John Allen Paulos’s Irreligion: A Mathematician Explains Why the Arguments for God . . . . Continue Reading »
Gordon Brown, the British prime minister, has written an op-ed in the Daily Telegraph announcing his support for organ donation without consent. Or, rather, “implied consent,” meaning that patients and their legal representatives will have to register their refusal to donate, via some . . . . Continue Reading »
My friend, the pseudonymous author Spengler , sends this note for posting on the First Things blog : Andrew Higgins’ January 11 report in the Wall Street Journal of the re-discovery of a Koranic manuscript archive long thought lost has prompted hundreds of blog comments. It is a momentous . . . . Continue Reading »
This animal study may pave the way for wonderful medical treatments. From the story:Scientists have created a beating heart in the laboratory in a breakthrough that could allow doctors one day to make a range of organs for transplant almost from scratch.The procedure involved stripping all the . . . . Continue Reading »
Well, that’s not really my call. But Olbermann thinks nothing of electing candidates for the title on his unwatchable, histrionic TV show. Most recently, he decided that the worst person in the WORLD is Wendy Wright , president of Concerned Women for America (CWA) . Even if CWA is not your . . . . Continue Reading »
This could get ugly. Prime Minister Gordon Brown has supported “presumed consent” to organ “donation.” And this in a country that also allows Futile Care Theory, particularly for those with “mental incapacities.” The danger is obvious and acute, don’t you . . . . Continue Reading »
“A woman, especially, if she have the misfortune of knowing anything, should conceal it as well as she can.” Fortunately, Jane Austen did not heed her own advice, and six stunning novels are the result. As part of its new Sunday drama series, premiering tomorrow at 9 pm (EST), . . . . Continue Reading »
I agree, Jody, that there is an interesting and important connection between the division in the Church over liturgy and the division in the Church over moral issues, and that it’s no accident that those who support traditional morality also support the traditional liturgy while those who . . . . Continue Reading »
This morning I awoke to this very caring—yet disturbing—column (“Searching for Dignity in Old Age” published in the Tampa Tribune), awaiting perusal in my e-mail. Real estate developer Jim Dyal writes movingly of his intense grief at the increasing debility and dementia of . . . . Continue Reading »