At his New York Times blog, Ross Douthat has been doing a yeoman’s work, making me almost regret my critique of his essay on gay marriage by offering a patient, sophisticated case for preserving the “ideal” of heterosexual marriage.Specifically, I was pleased to see him affirm my . . . . Continue Reading »
[Note: Every Friday on First Thoughts we host a discussion about some aspect of pop culture. Todays theme is “Renaissance woman” lists . Have a suggestion for a topic? Send them to me at jcarter@firstthings.com.] Over the past few weeks we’ve had a series of posts on what . . . . Continue Reading »
Abortion? Gay marriage? Meh, small fish. So saith Glen Beck. (Note: The transcript is included at the end of this post.) To be fair, Beck isn’t a conservative so I can’t expect him to support the conservative position on gay marriage. He’s also not the kind of guy who is able to . . . . Continue Reading »
I’ve known David Malpass for more than twenty years. He was a comrade-in-arms in the supply-side wing of the Republican party as an official at the Reagan Treasury Department, and later a colleague at Bear, Stearns (he was chief economist while I was fixed-income strategist). He’s . . . . Continue Reading »
Our writer Mary Eberstadt asks “Is This Kid Making Me Miserable?” in a reflection on the errors of the new fad to claim that being a parent makes you unhappy. That, she argues, is to get things complete backward. The New York Times looks at the world’s ugliest animals , which . . . . Continue Reading »
In the last few days, various human rights organizations have criticized the Wikileaks posting of thousands of secret documents about U.S. operations in Afghanistan. Amnesty International and others point out something that should have been obvious to Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks. Many . . . . Continue Reading »
An odd article appeared in todays Ottawa Citizen , giving account of the research of Dr. Georg Northoff, a neuroscientist at Ottawas Institute of Mental Health Research. After a recent period of investigation, Northoff proclaimed that while God may well exist, the theistic domain will . . . . Continue Reading »
As an addendum to David Goldman’s column today about the publicly employed and the under-employed , I give you this graph : Then again, David’s plan to put “less-educated workers” fixing roads and bridges might lead to more stuff like this : A road contractor hired to paint . . . . Continue Reading »
Wisconsin Diocese offers birth control insurance, but warns employees not to use it , declares a local newspaper, reporting on the Catholic diocese of Madison’s bowing to a state regulation requiring health plans to cover contraception. [E]mployees will be expected to employ their consciences . . . . Continue Reading »
“Heres a Rooseveltian way to address unemployment now at 1930s levels: Lets create a National Infrastructure Corps to make urgently-needed repairs to roads and bridges, and put to work the disproportionately blue-collar army of unemployed,” writes David Goldman . . . . Continue Reading »