“My bonnie lass she smelleth, making all the flowers jealouth.” I’m with you, Anthony . The P.D.Q. Bach concert I saw years ago was excruciatingly funny¯the kind of gasping funny that you can’t hear the next line because you’re still laughing at the last one. And, . . . . Continue Reading »
Regarding Michael Novak’s post about Heather Mac Donald’s discomfort with talk of God: I too have grappled intellectually with how to analyze crucial concepts of right and wrong, good and evil, in a society that seems so pluralistic morally that it frequently appears not to be a true . . . . Continue Reading »
The ancient Roman sage Seneca recounts a popular insight: "You’ve as many enemies as you’ve slaves." People are not automatically antagonistic and resentful, but the arrogance, indifference, and cruelty of the powerful can make them so. Modern American liberalism has tended to . . . . Continue Reading »
Commonweal magazine has posted an item on its blog, replying to my item replying to their items ( here and here ), replying to Charlotte Allen’s item , replying to the last issue of the print version of Commonweal ¯and anyone who can follow all that is smarter than your average bear. I . . . . Continue Reading »
Heather Mac Donald opens up one of the most important arguments necessary for this nation to face soon, that is, What is the relation of atheism to Jewish-Christian belief? Her immediate wish is that there were more respect for atheists within the Republican party, or at least a diminishment of her . . . . Continue Reading »
On August 1, I criticized Pope Benedict XVI’s call for a ceasefire in the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Since then, he has granted an interview to some German journalists in anticipation of his upcoming trip to Bavaria. Asked about the fighting in the Middle East, he said . . . . Continue Reading »
I’m sure that many Americans were, and remain, somewhat bemused at the passions aroused in England over the subject of foxhunting . Those passions raged in the months and years leading to the ban, culminating in an enormous pro-hunt demonstration in London . The passions remain, embedded in . . . . Continue Reading »
I don’t have the computer skills, let alone the patience, to set up my own blogsite. So I am especially grateful to the editors of First Things for their ecumenical hospitality in opening their cyber-pages to voices other than their own during this month of August. In my first foray into this . . . . Continue Reading »
Bobby was already my favorite among the Kennedy brothers, the one I felt a closer bond to. Continue Reading »
I differ with Robert George (and perhaps Patrick Lee) on some foundational issues in meta-ethics, and that is why, I think, they and I disagree in some respects about the dignity of, and respect due to, human bodies, whether dead or alive. Since my view is for some people the less familiar, I ought . . . . Continue Reading »
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