How do you spell tendentious? Sociologists Robert Putnam and David Campbell on religion and politics. Without evidence they assert that the Tea Party is controversial not because of its strident fiscal conservatism, but rather because Tea Party activists are religious. In a recent op-ed in the New York Times, the duo held forth on the nature, influence, and significance of the Tea Party, which they say has become a toxic brand… . Continue Reading»
Although it is tempting to point to economic and social disadvantages as the root cause of the recent unrest in the United Kingdom, it is refreshing to find that part of Prime Minister David Cameron’s assessment is moral turpitude. In addressing the nation, he said that the “slow-motion moral collapse” of the youth is due to the unwillingness “for too long to talk about what is right and what is wrong… . Continue Reading»
Not to rouse bad memories, but you may recall that my last column contained a list of complaints regarding the misuse of certain words. You may also remember other things about it: Cuchulain battling the sea, mention of “psychotic episodes,” uncongenial dictionaries described as “scented and brilliantined degenerates” … Or perhaps my assertions that grammatical laxity leads to cannibalism … Continue Reading»
The New York Times recently reported on the growing practice of parents expecting twins electively aborting one so as to give birth to only one of the two. The article describes the situation of a woman, “Jenny,” who “was 45 and pregnant after six years of fertility bills, ovulation injections, donor eggs and disappointment”and yet here she was, 14 weeks into her pregnancy, choosing to extinguish one of two healthy fetuses, almost as if having half an abortion.” … Continue Reading»
You have probably seen him before: the Evangelical Christian who is distraught over God’s will for his job change, or speaks too strongly one minute and desperately seeks reconciliation the next. Who pours his soul out at accountability groups, but finds it difficult to comfort his recently divorced friend. American Evangelical Christians seem, at times, to be afflicted by neurosis. But it may not be such a bad thing… . Continue Reading»
Alarmed in 2006 by the hard lines of American political language, Orson Scott Card, an otherwise respected sci-fi novelist, was led to write the dumbest book of his career, Empire. It is his future history of the Second American Civil War. It is Card’s depiction of how a society slips into civil war, presented as a cautionary tale for an America polarized by ideology. That is where it flubs, I think; more momentarily. It is not much of a civil war that Empire depicts… . Continue Reading»
I want to start by sharing a story. Once upon a time, a student at one of the world’s oldest universities took a break from her studies to visit the Catholic chapel on campus. As she sat there in silence”praying for a sick relative or trying to settle her nerves before a test”the chapel suddenly filled with noise. A mob of about seventy fellow students charged in chanting anti-Christian slogans. They shouted obscenities against the Church and insults about the Pope… . Continue Reading»
There’s an old Cold War-era joke about an ex-Communist who gets into an argument with a young man newly infatuated with Marxism. After the youth repeatedly attempts to explain why Marx and Lenin had all the right solutions, the exasperated old man finally retorts, “Son, your answers are so old that I’ve forgotten the questions.” In many ways we conservatives are like the young Marxist. We tend to be more familiar with conservative solutions than we are with the questions they were meant to address… . Continue Reading»
Sixty-four years ago, on August 14, 1947, Great Britain’s empire in the Indian subcontinent was divided into the independent, self-governing Dominions of India and Pakistan. The division of the subcontinent into two states was bitterly opposed by the Indian Congress Party and Winston Churchill, but supported by the Muslim League (with Congress, one of the two major pro-independence parties in the British Raj) and the Attlee government, which had displaced Churchill in 1945… . Continue Reading»
It is rare for a book release, no matter how timely, to coincide with breaking news. In the case of Mark Steyn’s After America the alignment was downright spooky. As louts, brats and the non-thinkers who wish merely to be part of a “moment” terrorized the citizenry and burned down London neighborhoods, across the pond one could enter a bookstore, lift Steyn’s latest from a shelf and read … Continue Reading»
