Annual Slovak Seminar on Free Society

For students interested in joining lights such as Michael Novak, Robert Royal, Bill Saunders, Joe Wood, and Fr. Derek Cross in eastern Slovakia to explore the political, economic, and moral-cultural dimensions of free society in the thought of Popes Benedict XVI and John Paul II, the Federalist . . . . Continue Reading »

Gallagher Wades In

Over at the Corner, Maggie Gallagher (no stranger to controversy herself) wades into the Derbyshire affair, writing forcefully in favor of clear, absolute, and binding moral lines against racist sentiment in conservative precincts: I don’t know in the post-web era if . . . . Continue Reading »

“Ecocide” A Crime Against Humanity

I keep an eye on the anti humanism in radical environmentalism in my work defending human exceptionalism.  I have noted here and elsewhere that the ecocide brigades held a mock trial of fictional Alberta tar sands executives and—surprise!—found them guilty of extracting oil for . . . . Continue Reading »

We Probably Shouldn’t Have Any Children

Elizabeth Kolbert has written a piece for the New Yorker that sketches several contemporary ethical analyses of procreation, leading with Charles Knowlton’s 1832 Fruits of Philosophy: The Private Companion of Young Married People, by a Physician , one of the first books to introduce a . . . . Continue Reading »

On the Square Today

C. Ben Mitchell challenges those who propose to re-engineer the human species : Here is the argument offered by Matthew Liao, Anders Sandberg, and Rebecca Roache. Climate change is the result of human corruption of the environment—so-called anthropogenic causes. Climate change affects food . . . . Continue Reading »

Praying for Harm

“Imprecatory prayers,” which ask God to harm another person, have been affirmed as acceptable speech under the First Amendment, according to a story from  Religion News Service : Is it okay to ask God to do harm to another person? The theology of such “imprecatory prayer” . . . . Continue Reading »

First Links — 4.10.12

I Am Thomas James M. Kushiner,  Touchstone Mitt’s Women Problem Katrina Trinko,  National Review Don’t Know Much About Theology . . . Walter Russell Mead,  Via Media The Disconnect: Why Are So Many Americans Living Alone? Nathan Heller,  The New Yorker Priests in . . . . Continue Reading »