It is useless, for now, to predict where the six-justice conservative majority on the Supreme Court may be heading. But one possibility is worth noting: If the majority holds firm on just a handful of constitutional questions, it can decisively defeat what I call the coercive equity regime. The . . . . Continue Reading »
Eliminating standardized tests from college admissions won’t be the boon for minority students that progressives think. Continue Reading »
After the 2016 election, when white working-class voters turned out for Donald Trump, the New York Times and the Washington Post sent their reporters to the hinterlands of Pennsylvania and West Virginia to see just what had happened. And off they went, like D.C. commuters sent . . . . Continue Reading »
Welcome to Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138! We’re a college town, home to Harvard, MIT, and a very large branch of Whole Foods. We’re one of the most “liberal” cities in the country, and our coffee mugs bear the slogan “02138: The World’s Most Opinionated Zip Code,” but all our opinions . . . . Continue Reading »
During one of the more infamous moments in Plato’s Republic, Socrates suggests that the ideal city needs a founding myth—what he calls “a noble lie”—to ensure its success. The myth has two parts. The first relates that every person in the city comes from the same mother, and . . . . Continue Reading »
Right now, a three-day conference is under way at Trinity Church in New York City. It’s the 44th National Theological Conference, hosted by the Trinity Institute. This year’s version is entitled “Creating Common Good,” and the theme is inequality. Continue Reading »
In several passages in the Summa Theologiae and elsewhere, Thomas Aquinas asserts that the inferiority of women lies not just in bodily strength but in force of intellect. To top this off, he maintains that feminine intellectual inferiority actually contributes to the order and beauty of the . . . . Continue Reading »
The shockingly violent reaction to the Rodney King verdict, destined to be remembered as the great Los Angeles Riot of 1992, has provoked more intense discussion among the American public about the nation’s perennial problems of race relations and urban affairs than at any time since the “long . . . . Continue Reading »
The Undeserving Poor: From the War on Poverty to the War on Welfare by michael b. katz pantheon books, 293 pages, $22.95 In The Undeserving Poor, there are two Michael Katzes on view, the historian and the social commentator, and the former is much the more persuasive. Katz, who teaches . . . . Continue Reading »
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