Disgusting: That certain meme asserting that fetuses must be deemed by the law as so much chopped liver—to be treated well, badly, or killed—as the autonomous woman desires. Never mind that the developing baby is a unique individual, or that he or she has a father who might want the . . . . Continue Reading »
Thomas Hibbs has updated his book Shows About Nothing: Nihilism in Popular Culture in light of films and TV shows of the last decade like Christopher Nolan’s movies and AMC’s Mad Men. He says Nihilism has been the reigning philosophy in Hollywood since the 1960’s. By Nihilism, . . . . Continue Reading »
The New York Times—of course!—ran a piece in its Sunday opinion section (originally a blog) by a university professor—of course!—claiming that we are unethical in our eating of plants. Apparently, Michael Marder agrees with the Swiss, which a few years ago accorded legal . . . . Continue Reading »
Last week the UVA Arrow, an alternative student weekly paper here at the University of Virginia, published the following interview (with me!), which I am proud, or at least willing, to bring to your attention. We caught up with Professor Ceaser at his office, legendary for its disorganization, just . . . . Continue Reading »
So this guy named Pete Spiliakos says I haven’t been totally consistent on nullification and interposition. Now I’d say that nullification and interposition are two different things. The first is the alleged legal rights of states to suspend the enforcement of any law a . . . . Continue Reading »
Here’s my first big post on my conservatives. Nothing you don’t already know. Thanks for Carl being so attuned to the week of Wendell Berry, which I’ve been too busy to pay attention to. It goes without saying I’m somewhat less interested in Berry’s lecture than I was . . . . Continue Reading »
Beware. The government is hatching new ways to intrude into our lives, this time, to measure our happiness. Beware! That is an open ended invitation to intrusive bureaucracy.To warn my fellow citizens of the insidiousness of this seemingly benign initiative, I took to the Weekly . . . . Continue Reading »
It goes without saying that Fred Siegel should be reading my Rock Songbook, which underlines the middle-class mediocrity of most rock, even as it defends, with respect to music, the low, the high, and even the middle-brow version of the high. He could go to my last post , about the tensions between . . . . Continue Reading »
. . . is mostly a blistering attack on elitist intellectuals , including Ortega y Gasset and his Revolt of the Masses . You do not want to miss this one, and I’m not sure how long Commentary will let you read it for free. A lot of the essay reminds us just how bad so many intellectuals were, . . . . Continue Reading »
I can only shake my head. Some scientists and bioethicists insist that human behavior, being that we are supposedly mere meat machines, can be reduced to the sum of our biological and chemical interactions. Figure out how those work and it just becomes math—we can . . . . Continue Reading »
Subscribe
Latest Issue
Support First Things
