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Re-Stigmatizing Wealth

An exchange in Boston Review between Richard White and Gavin Jones on wealth during and since the Gilded Age reminded me of a question that arose during the Occupy Wall Street protests: To what extent has the decline of social stigmas contributed to the rise in economic inequality? Few would . . . . Continue Reading »

On the Square Today

Andrew Doran on  Benedict face to face with Islam : In 1095, in a carefully crafted speech before prelates and nobles in Claremont, France, Pope Urban II called Europe to action: A Crusade to aid the Christian empire of Byzantium. Emissaries of the emperor in Constantinople had come to Urban . . . . Continue Reading »

The Gay Animals’ Publicist

“A university academic has criticised David Attenborough’s wildlife shows for not featuring enough gay animals,” reports The Independent . The academic, named Mills, who I hope is a very, very distant relative, writing in the European Journal of Cultural Studies , says ‘The . . . . Continue Reading »

First Links — 2.20.13

Tyranny on Screen Anthony Sacramone, Intercollegiate Review All This in Remembrance Folke T. Olofsson, Touchstone The Audacity of de Gaulle Henrik Bering, Policy Review How Many American Jews Are There? J. J. Goldberg, Jewish Daily Forward Direct Killing as Intentional Killing E. Christian Brugger, . . . . Continue Reading »

The Maybe Persecuted Church

“I do find it a puzzling quality of liberal Christians that they tend to get excited when something that had been a cherished belief or practice of the Church is shown to have been false,” says Rod Dreher , commenting on a new book by a Notre Dame historian who says that the early . . . . Continue Reading »

“Prison and the Poverty Trap”: John Tierney

in the New York Times: ...Eleven years after her husband went to prison, Ms. Hamilton followed his advice to divorce, but she didn’t remarry. Like other women in communities with high rates of incarceration, she faced a shortage of potential mates. Because more than 90 percent of prisoners are . . . . Continue Reading »

A Thicker Understanding of Irony

Irony has been the source of some anxiety lately, from this essay in the New York Times (critiqued  here ), to R. R. Reno’s post last week on the HBO series Girls . (Or maybe this uncertainty has been with us for a while now .) Offering a bit of a different take is this article by . . . . Continue Reading »

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