Last month, I was happy to join with former Spanish prime minister Jose Maria Aznar, Nobel Peace Prize laureate David Trimble, Italian philosopher and political leader Marcello Pera, and several other international figures in launching a global “Friends of Israel” Initiative, which debuted in the United States in a July 8 Wall Street Journal op-ed article… . Continue Reading »
A few years ago I had occasion to spend a few days in Vienna. The beautiful city of museums and music remains a favorite but a forlorn one; its charming avenues and architecture and nightly concerts could not fully distract from the sleepy sense of diminishment that hung over the city, like the acquiescence of a cancer patient who has decided to forgo the next round of treatment… . Continue Reading »
The teenaged girl at the next table was typing away on her laptop, which seemed to irritate her parents, though they were trying”in that well-worn and slightly mad aren’t-we-all-having-a-good-time-on-our-vacation? mode of parents”not to show it. “What you doing, honey?” the mother asked. “Telling my friends about this awful breakfast on Facebook,” she answered. “You misspelled putrid,” the father observed, leaning over to look. “Dad,” the girl despaired, “it’s only Facebook.” … Continue Reading »
It’s back-to-school time. Soon, girls and boys will be saying goodbye to summer and heading back to the classroom. But we know that doesn’t mean they’ll get to books and learning. Many of today’s kids are heading to the classroom with their Blackberry or iPhone in hand, Facebook account active, and hyper-sexualized clothing on, even at a pre-pubescent age. Suffice it to say, they face some distractions… . Continue Reading »
Cleaving to the truths of revelation, insisted Pope John Paul II in Ex Corde Ecclesia (“From the heart of the Church”), issued twenty years ago Sunday, energizes the inquiring mind, giving us confidence that truth is worth the effort of discovery. The main thrust of the Pope’s vision contradicted the usual assumption the Church and the university represent antithetical traditions: the Church teaching with authority and shutting down debate, the university encouraging free and open inquiry… . Continue Reading »
Here’s a Rooseveltian way to address unemployment now at 1930s levels: Let’s 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. According to Shadow Government Statistics, a website that constructs alternate data measures, 22 percent of the workforce is under- or unemployed, right up there with the worst of the Great Depression… . Continue Reading »
“If one were permitted to make all the ballads,” said the eighteenth century Scottish politician Andrew Fletcher, “one need not care who should make the laws of a nation.” If he were transported to our time, even Fletcher would be surprised by how much music influences our culture. He would be even more amazed”and thoroughly appalled”by the degenerates who write our nation’s songs… . Continue Reading »
On June 30, 1980, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in Harris v. McRae and upheld the constitutionality of the Hyde Amendment, which had prohibited federal funding for Medicaid abortions since 1976. Three decades later, Harris v. McRae remains the pro-life movement’s most important legal victory since Roe v. Wade created a “right to abortion” in 1973… . Continue Reading »
A too-long-undiagnosed bout with Lyme Disease has left me challenged with arthritis and some neurological damage. The arthritis has its uses: I can predict rain, and the pain gives me something to offer up in prayer, or as penance. Not so the neurological issues. At the peak of my illness I was unable to figure out how to do the dishes … Continue Reading »
I hardly ever lock my door”which makes me, I think, a pretty extreme example of a freeloader. I may be wrong, of course. Perhaps lots of people don’t lock their doors. It can’t be so many that the word gets around. If too many of us didn’t lock our doors, then the criminals would lose their assumption that the average door is locked. But as long as enough people lock their doors, I can ride along on the locked assumption. Even in New York… . … . Continue Reading »
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