Via The Arabist , I found this primer on the new Egyptian constitution, by one Zaid Al-Ali at Open Democracy . Very thorough, and plausibly seeking to lay out the good news and the bad, from a broadly liberal perspective. The summation: Altogether, in comparison with Egypt’s constitutional . . . . Continue Reading »
but does anybody see a Republican endgame in the fiscal cliff negotiations that isn’t about intra-Republican positioning and careerism? John Boehner looks like he is just trying to muddle through and get the best deal from Obama under conditions where Obama is more popular, more trusted and . . . . Continue Reading »
So here are some additional reflections on the Christian view of marriage and the family. They are mainly based on what I read in Christopher C. Roberts’ excellent Creation & Covenant: The Significance of Sexual Difference in the Moral Theology of Marriage . Everything I say here is . . . . Continue Reading »
Over the years I’ve come to realize that “relativism” is the wrong way to describe the way in which secular elite culture approaches moral questions. It’s obvious that all things are not permitted, which is why Pope Benedict coined the term “dictatorship of . . . . Continue Reading »
Wesley J. Smith on how Mark O’Brien’s triumph had nothing to do with sex : Mark’s true yearning was not for regular access to sexual release but for full inclusion in a society too often indifferent to the common humanity of its disabled members. Indeed, his personal calling . . . . Continue Reading »
“Only the middle class could act this way toward the middle class, and deem this pandering somehow a forthright and noble condition for an ongoing discussion of justice,” writes the Canadian novelist David Adams Richards in an article on the literary establishment . (My thanks to Tony . . . . Continue Reading »
Today the Catholic Church marks the Feast of the Holy Innocents. Matthew’s Gospel tells us that Herod, after realizing that the magi had deceived him, was “furious” and “ordered the massacre of all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity two years old and under.” . . . . Continue Reading »
My students have been taught that a verb is in the passive voice whenever a form of the verb to be appears. They have also been taught that it is never to be used. They are wrong on both counts. I’ll speak about the use of the passive voice later. For . . . . Continue Reading »
German Family Minister Kristina Schröder, a member of the conservative Christian Democratic Union, has upset fellow party members by suggesting that God go gender-neutral: In an interview with the weekly newspaper Die Zeit in which she discussed gender roles in . . . . Continue Reading »
A new policy collapsing low-ranked universities into more favorably rated institutions has sparked protest in Moscow. The Moscow Times reports: Students and faculty of the Russian State University of Trade and Economics who last week vowed an indefinite strike over . . . . Continue Reading »
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