While the ACLU and Americans United for a Naked Public Square were holding a press conference that was described as a “victory party,” others were more carefully reading the court decision in the Dover, Pennsylvania, case about Intelligent Design. There is, for instance, this by William . . . . Continue Reading »
One Christmas topic I’ve never written about is Christmas movies—mostly because I just don’t know very much about them. Here, however, are a few films I’ve rented this week and hope to watch between Christmas and New Year’s. I may have made a mistake or two in the . . . . Continue Reading »
Every academic knows how completely in thrall to identity politics and quotas our universities are. I heard a refreshing comment on this recently at a physics research talk. The speaker was a scientist originally from the Soviet Union, now at an American university famous for its liberalism and . . . . Continue Reading »
There is the ameliorative left and then there is the transformative left. The former wants to work for reform that is possible, while the latter will settle for nothing less than everything and therefore ends up with nothing. This is the argument of Joseph Heath and Andrew Potter in Nation of . . . . Continue Reading »
Cal Thomas, whose column runs neck-to-neck with George Will’s as the most widely syndicated in the country, enters a dissent from the current “Christmas wars.” Thomas doesn’t give a fig whether the salesperson in the mall wishes him “Merry Christmas” or . . . . Continue Reading »
There was a woman screaming on Park Avenue yesterday morning, flecks of furious saliva spraying from her twisted mouth as she raged into her cell phone, "It’s not my fault." Over and over, like the high-pitched squeal of a power saw cutting brick: It’s not my fault and a run . . . . Continue Reading »
The question is: How do immigrants become Americans? Now, I cannot claim any expertise on questions of immigration policy. I have not explored the vast bodies of literature in sociology, political science, history, and economics devoted to questions of immigration in the United States. Nor have I . . . . Continue Reading »
"Christmas is coming," my daughter sang in that piercing, glass-shattering treble of eight-year-old girls. "Christmas is coming, my father’s getting fat. Please put a penny in the old man’s hat." So I gave her a stern and serious lecture about honoring her parents, . . . . Continue Reading »
If you believe some news accounts, it is all a grab for money and power. The subheading of the Washington Post ‘s story on the excommunication of a priest and six lay people in St. Louis reads, “Archbishop Demands Control of Catholic Parish’s Assets, Property.” Greedy, . . . . Continue Reading »
Ah, Christmas time, that fecund moment most welcome in the bleak of bitter winter! Ah, Advent days, so rich, so ripe, so opulent in golden light, while like a pall of poverty the hoary frost and thin-crust snow lie hard upon the cold-pressed earth! Ah, Yuletide, when for the briefest instant in the . . . . Continue Reading »
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