As you could probably discern from my recent post about the Gurkha and the forty thieves , I’m absolutely fascinated by examples of modern-day heroism. Such stories strike against the notion—dominant in advanced Western societies—that crime and violence are problems that should be . . . . Continue Reading »
The American Society of Clinical Oncology is urging its members to be more candid with their dying patients and to discuss end of life issues sooner. From the story:Patients don’t want to hear that they’re dying and doctors don’t want to tell them. But new guidance for the . . . . Continue Reading »
Early human trials with adult stem cells extracted from bone marrow have not worked as well as hoped. From the story:So it was with high hopes that researchers transfused stem cells into patients suffering from heart failure — people whose hearts, weakened by heart attacks or other conditions, . . . . Continue Reading »
In his column today, Michael Gerson discusses the relationship between Catholic Republicans, the Roman Catholic Church, and the Tea Party. I think he provides a decent summary of Catholic social teaching. He also makes the following observation: Catholic social teaching is simply not . . . . Continue Reading »
I love the Green Bay Packers and when they won the Super Bowl it made me happy.This is a hard admission for a college professor to make, because football is not “cool” in the humanities. Baseball is marginally acceptable and the Olympics more so, but the National Football League?There . . . . Continue Reading »
Two months ago I wrote of the Canadian Association of University Teachers’ efforts to “investigate” the supposed violation of academic freedom at overtly christian universities. Shortly thereafter CAUT approached my own employer, Redeemer University College, for the same reason. . . . . Continue Reading »
As The New York Times notes , “Some of the world’s pre-eminent experts on bias discovered an unexpected form of it at their annual meeting” when University of Virginia social psychologist Jonathan Haidt polled the attendees at the Society for Personality and Social . . . . Continue Reading »
Although he doesn’t use the phrase, Douglas Wilson explains what happens when conservative’s lack a robust moral imagination : One of the biggest problems that conservatives have is that of sharing the liberal view of history. They both believe the same thing is inevitable, but one is . . . . Continue Reading »
T. Kenneth Cribb on the moral imagination of Ronald Reagan : In 1977 Reagan told Dick Allen, his long-time foreign policy advisor: “My idea about the Cold War is that we win and they lose.” It is almost impossible to convey to you today what an unthinkable thought that was in 1977, or in . . . . Continue Reading »
Russell Kirk on the moral imagination : The moral imagination aspires to the apprehending of right order in the soul and right order in the commonwealth. This moral imagination was the gift and the obsession of Plato and Vergil and Dante. Drawn from centuries of human consciousness, these concepts . . . . Continue Reading »
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