Matthew Schmitz

( Via Gregory Barr ) . . . . Continue Reading »

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 University’s formal recognition of the “Harvard College Munch” last . . . . Continue Reading »

Breaking 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 »