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Protesting Too Much

From First Thoughts

At National Review Online over the weekend, the familiar-to- First Things -readers George Weigel published a talk he gave recently in Green Bay, Wisconsin, in the course of which he argued: The argument today isn’t about assimilation. The argument today is about who “gets” America: . . . . Continue Reading »

Defining Bigotry Down

From First Thoughts

At a blog called Above the Law, which presents itself as a site for serious news and commentary on legal affairs,  blogger Joe Patrice opines that Trinity Western University in British Columbia should not have its new law school accredited by the powers that be in Canada who are responsible . . . . Continue Reading »

Woe Betide the Lefty?

From First Thoughts

As a fellow left-handed person, I cannot subscribe to Russell Saltzman’s lament in his “On the Square” essay today. I don’t really know anything about the comparative life expectancy (or accident-proneness) of lefties and righties. But I do know that whenever I am in a . . . . Continue Reading »

Joseph Bottum, Weary and Wearisome

From First Thoughts

Joseph Bottum, once the editor of this magazine, has unburdened himself of a change of mind on the subject of same-sex marriage, in Commonweal (and thereby earned himself also a grateful, and perfectly timed,  pilgrimage by a New York Times writer to his home in South Dakota). Others who . . . . Continue Reading »

Getting Charles Chaput Badly Wrong

From First Thoughts

Charles J. Reid, Jr., who teaches law at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota, recently posted something at a blog (tellingly called www.religiousleftlaw.com ), which the National Catholic Reporter picked up and ran as an op-ed, in print and online , under the title “Archbishop . . . . Continue Reading »

Is Reza Aslan Off the Hook?

From First Thoughts

It looks like I really stirred things up yesterday with my post ” Reza Aslan Misrepresents His Scholarly Credentials ,” especially after Drudge linked to it in the afternoon. Some folks in the comments and on Twitter thought I had destroyed Aslan’s credibility in toto —which . . . . Continue Reading »