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Matthew Schmitz is a former senior editor of First Things. 

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Abortion and Gentrification

From First Thoughts

Today the invaluable Chiaroscuro Foundation has a new map out illustrating New York abortion rates by zip code over a ten year period. Greg Pfundstein explains the chilling data over at NRO: New York is one of the states with the most complete abortion license in the nation. Beyond the fact that in . . . . Continue Reading »

Skyscrapers and Steeples

From First Thoughts

Rod Dreher recently asked , “Who was it that said you can always tell what’s most important to a society by the use to which they put their tallest buildings?” I don’t know who it was, but he didn’t live in New York. Rod’s observation may hold in small towns or . . . . Continue Reading »

In Defense of Decency

From First Thoughts

Hadley Arkes has an interesting piece up at the Right Reason  site wondering if Justice Scalia and Anthony Kennedy aren’t finally converging on a shared standard of decency: Close to ninety per cent of the households in America have access to cable, and viewers may readily switch back . . . . Continue Reading »

Tying the Tubes

From First Thoughts

For a month we have been hearing about the moral unnaturalness—-the incomprehensibility and perversity—-of the traditional Christian opposition to birth control. But occasionally someone forgets about the party line and admits, sotto voce, that there is something to the traditional . . . . Continue Reading »

Christian Union on R.R. Reno

From First Thoughts

A profile of our editor R.R. Reno has just been posted on the site of the Christian Union, an organization that seeks to bring the light of the gospel to students attending Ivy League schools. Both the profile and the organization are worth a look . . . . . Continue Reading »

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Dog House

From First Thoughts

Via Matt Milliner comes this delightful story of a young boy who asked Frank Lloyd Wright to design a house for his dog: Wright designed Berger’s family’s California home in the Marin County town of San Anselmo, prompting the then-12-year-old Jim Berger to ask his dad if Wright would . . . . Continue Reading »

The Left-Right Anti-Yglesias Alliance

From First Thoughts

Charles Murray’s Coming Apart  has reminded us yet again that fewer and fewer Americans are getting married, and that those who do marry are waiting longer than ever to approach the altar. (Though it should be pointed out that the average age of first domestic union has remained . . . . Continue Reading »