So, a friend and I get talking yesterday. He’s a lefty, kind of. Actually, he insists he’s a middle, maybe even slightly right-shaded social democrat sort of person, and in any sensible country (like, say, Luxembourg or Denmark) he would be recognized as the moderate conservative . . . . Continue Reading »
Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. I have over the years discussed it with numerous people, including priests and bishops, and nobody can explain why in New York City people are so determined to “get their ashes.” At the Ash Wednesday Masses, my parish and hundreds of others . . . . Continue Reading »
Michael Joyce has died at age 63. He was a dear friend and, during his fifteen years with the Bradley Foundation, was of enormous help in launching the Institute on Religion and Public Life, the publisher of F IRST T HINGS . A more adequate tribute will appear in a forthcoming issue of the . . . . Continue Reading »
Back in my home state of South Dakota, the state legislature voted on Friday to ban all abortions except those to prevent the death of the mother. The governor, Mike Rounds, hasn’t yet signed the bill, but said he was leaning toward doing so¯though two years ago, he vetoed similar . . . . Continue Reading »
Adam Kirsch is books editor of The New York Sun , a paper that has in its first few years (actually it’s a revival of a long-ago paper by the same name) made itself nearly indispensable for New Yorkers. Kirsch is a literary critic of some distinction. His recent book, The Wounded Surgeon , a . . . . Continue Reading »
The leftist media in this country and organizations such as the Anti-Defamation League are not the only ones given to inciting alarm about the dangers posed by evangelical Christians. Steven Stalinsky of the Middle East Media Research Institute reports that the Arab press routinely claims that . . . . Continue Reading »
The Huge Event of the Week, February, 20-25 An ominously huge event overshadows reality this week, and it has been almost wholly neglected in the American press. During the Muslim holy day last Friday, the golden dome of the Ali al-Hadi Mosque in Samarra gleamed in the sun, the pride of Shia Iraq . . . . Continue Reading »
Around the turn of the first millennium, Danish pirates were successfully demanding protection money from the British. Rudyard Kipling wrote a poem about it, and Walter Lacqueur, the distinguished foreign policy writer, was reminded of it when reviewing Bruce Bawer’s new book, While Europe . . . . Continue Reading »
I wanted to add a word or two to Fr. Neuhaus’s posting last week about the conference on religion and liberalism held at Columbia University on February 10. I was there, and the account of it presented in the New York Sun didn’t sound much like the event I attended. The papers were far . . . . Continue Reading »
Over the last several months, an enormous amount has been said about how the United States is falling behind the rest of the world in science: endless newspaper editorials, chin-pulling on television talk-shows, widely publicized demands for legislative action. After the scandals of faked science . . . . Continue Reading »
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