Wesley J. Smith

Los Angeles is in the process of closing more than 400 “medical” marijuana stores in an attempt to stop the chaos of open marijuana sales.  Good.  From the story:Los Angeles city prosecutors began notifying 439 medical marijuana dispensaries Tuesday that they must shut down by . . . . Continue Reading »

C. Ben Mitchell used to head the Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity and is now a professor in moral philosophy at Union University in Tennessee.  He has a book review, reprinted in the current Center for Bioethics in the Culture newsletter. I am excerpting parts of it because he really . . . . Continue Reading »

The Washington DC City Council has legalized the usual botch of a medical marijuana system—although without the part of people growing their own plants, apparently.  The Washington Post hits a point in this controversy that is too seldom noticed—MM isn’t dispensed in a truly . . . . Continue Reading »

I have never quite understood the media’s vapors over “face transplants.”  After all, if we can transplant a liver or a heart, why not replacing flesh on a face that has been badly deformed by a terrible accident?  There is certainly no substantive ethical distinction . . . . Continue Reading »

I have been heartened by the response to FT’s fundraiser to help defray its costs to host the many First Things blogs.  It is doing so in a manner that offers real value for the buck.  If you go to this link, you can subscribe to First Things magazine for only $19.95 a year.  . . . . Continue Reading »

I was just interviewed by a high school student about how I became involved in anti assisted suicide activism.  It’s a painful story.  I was very happily co-authoring books with Ralph Nader, who had been my hero as a teenager.  I couldn’t believe my good fortune to be both . . . . Continue Reading »

I don’t get paid to blog.  But it isn’t free—for my host.First Things supports SHS and a wide range of other blogging types by supplying us gratis with broadband and the IT necessary to keep things running smoothly. I deeply appreciate this support and the wider audience that . . . . Continue Reading »

I reported here a few weeks ago about a new radical thrust in environmentalism that seeks to hyper criminalize resource development as an international crime akin to genocide or crimes against humanity. At the time, I promised a more thorough analysis.  It is now out in the current Weekly . . . . Continue Reading »

Michael Schiavo has threatened to sue the Schindlers because the family  named its non profit organization the “Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation”—he claims he owns the name. And, true to form, an ever compliant media fronted his cause with an unfair attack on the family. . . . . Continue Reading »

Michael Schiavo has threatened to sue Terri Schiavo’s family because they named their non profit after her—the “Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation.”  (MS claims he owns the name. ) And, true to form, an ever compliant media fronted his cause with an unfair attack on the . . . . Continue Reading »