For decades, one of the best ways to sell a movie was to say that it was being protested by Christians. It was a narrative, a useful trope, by which it was announced that an established story, known to all, was being replayed one more time: Brave, speaking-truth-to-power artist attacked by prissy, . . . . Continue Reading »
James Piereson of the Manhattan Institute has a brilliant article in the current issue of Commentary , ” Lee Harvey Oswald & the Liberal Crack-Up .” You are readily forgiven if, at first, you wonder if Piereson is not making some improbable connections. Stipulating (as the lawyers say) . . . . Continue Reading »
Over on Catholic World News , a fellow who goes by the name of Uncle Di reflects on the way that clerics in recent decades have abandoned revealed truth and saving souls in favor of sundry causes of social justice. He recalls a 1942 essay by C.S. Lewis, “First and Second Things.” Lewis . . . . Continue Reading »
In last Sunday’s New York Times Magazine , Peter Beinart continued his musings about the Democratic Party that once was and may be again. Lifted up were the figures of George Kennan and Reinhold Niebuhr who, says Beinart, represented a kind of moral realism, or even just plain morality, that . . . . Continue Reading »
Last week, all week, was Vienna. Which, for readers of this site, had the advantage of a full week of Joseph Bottum’s inimitable reflections on what struck his fancy and elicited his considered fears. He was supposed to have been in Vienna as well, but last-minute editing of a new issue of . . . . Continue Reading »
The Ethics and Public Policy Center sends along word that, on April 20, in the Royal Castle in Warsaw, the Polish Minister of Culture and National Heritage, Kazimierz Ujazdowski, presented First Things board member George Weigel with the Gloria Artis Gold Medal, Poland’s highest honor in . . . . Continue Reading »
It is death by philosophy, it is murder by decree, and the curiously named "freedom to die" becomes a freedom only to die. Wesley Smith reports on the case of Andrea Clark, down in Texas¯where a state "futile-care law" has allowed the bioethics committee at St. . . . . Continue Reading »
So, on the repeated¯and repeated, and repeated¯recommendation of literary friends whose judgment I usually trust, I’ve spent the past few weeks reading comic books. Or, rather, graphic novels , though, I confess, even after I finish them, they still seem to be just comic books: Alan . . . . Continue Reading »
Darfur is finally bubbling back up into the view of the American media. Yesterday, the UN issued its first sanctions over attacks in Sudan’s western region. Al Qaeda has named Darfur as a new battleground in its war against the West. The NATO meeting scheduled for Thursday has the . . . . Continue Reading »
There are pro-life arguments¯or perhaps that’s the wrong word. Talking points, maybe, or tropes or rhetorical gestures. Anyway, there are things one hears in pro-life presentations that I’ve never understood the force of. That many of the suffragettes and early feminists (and even . . . . Continue Reading »
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