Matthew Schmitz is a former senior editor of First Things.
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Matthew Schmitz
Update: Michigan’s anti-Sharia bill is now one of many items on the calendar for Thursday—-the last day of the year’s session. No indication yet of how likely it is to receive a vote, though on November 29 CAIR Michigan executive director Dawud Walid was willing to . . . . Continue Reading »
The Associated Press reports on a question posted to Justice Scalia at a lecture at Princeton University : Speaking at Princeton University, Scalia was asked by a gay student why he equates laws banning sodomy with those barring bestiality and murder. [ . . . ] “It’s a form of . . . . Continue Reading »
From the Philadelphia Inquirer : A Mennonite-owned cabinetmaker has filed a federal suit charging that the Affordable Care Act’s mandate on contraception coverage violates its constitutional rights. Conestoga Wood Specialties, citing the principles of religious freedom on which William . . . . Continue Reading »
Marshall McLuhan believed that the microphone led to the priest facing the congregation and the end of the Latin Mass, explains Kevin White : In 1974, Marshall McLuhan argued that the microphone was the proximate cause both of the elimination of Latin from the Mass and of the turning around of the . . . . Continue Reading »
The Love and Fidelity Network , national umbrella for campus chastity clubs like Princeton’s Anscombe Society, has issued a press release opposing Harvard’s new BDSM group: PRINCETON, NJ Harvard Universitys formal recognition of the Harvard College Munch last . . . . Continue Reading »
Supreme Court takes up Prop 8 and DOMA: Will political victories endanger equal protection claims?
From First ThoughtsBreaking news from SCOTUS Blog : Prop. 8 is granted on the petition question — whether 14th Am. bars Calif. from defining marriage in traditional way. Plus an added question: Whether the backers of Prop.. 8 have standing in the case under Art. III. The DOMA case, known as Windsor , will turn . . . . Continue Reading »
Prompted by the recent revival of Uganda’s so-called “Anti-Homosexuality Bill,” Saddleback Church’s Rick Warren has once again sent out his 2009 “encyclical video” (interesting phrase, that) to his fellow pastors in Uganda: We can never deny or water down what . . . . Continue Reading »
Noah Millman has offered a thoughtful, clarifying reply to Ross Douthat’s column on declining fertility. Among a host of helpful qualifications and questions, Millman wonders if it really makes sense to speak of a “child-centered” family life : Douthat talks about a cultural shift . . . . Continue Reading »
Scott Johnson publishes an email from Wilfred McClay noting the oddly cool critical reception Dave Brubeck received : I thought the Los Angeles Times obituary was pretty good, and remarkably honest about the shameful and shabby way that the critics stubbornly refused to acknowledge his . . . . Continue Reading »
The icy hand of Bloombergism extends its reach : Pro-smoking protesters rallied Thursday in front of the Bulgarian parliament in Sofia holding banners that read “Ban Increases Number of Smokers,” and “Equal Rights for Smokers and Non-Smokers”. Protesters demanded repeal of . . . . Continue Reading »
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