Justin Katz
It’s a tricky business responding to the personal anecdotes that opinionists sometimes use in their columns. The reader was not there, for one thing, and it isn’t always evident what emotions the memory revives, for another. But the stories are offered, ostensibly for the purpose of illustrating an important point relevant to current events, and…
Peggy Noonan gets it exactly right in her recent musing about modern media’s effect on children: For 50 years in America, whenever the subject has turned to what our culture presents, the bright response has been, “You don’t like it? Change the channel.” But there is no other channel to change to, no safe place…
It’s worth noting, as an addendum to Andrew’s post, that the two metrics aren’t merely correlative. A substantial portion of the tax revenue goes toward those sorts of programs that attract poor people to the state (see, e.g., here, here, and here). In other words, the option is more likely to be “all of the…
The Providence Journal’s editorial on the Supreme Court’s partial-birth abortion ruling isn’t quite as deceptive/deluded as Mary Ann Sorrentino’s, but at the very least, it’s misleading (emphasis added): The U.S. Supreme Court’s 5-to-4 decision upholding the right of the federal government to impose a ban on a certain form of rarely performed second-trimester abortion is…
Inasmuch as it is difficult to discuss a document that is not readily available to the public, herewith is Ethan Wingfield’s letter of resignation as Chairman of the College Republican Federation of Rhode Island (printed with permission): To all, I write this evening to announce my resignation as Chairman of the College Republican Federation of…
After slipping into another certainly fruitless discussion with a certain of our regular commenters, it occurred to me that one of humanity’s detrimental tendencies, with particular implications for modern society, is to think of societal mechanisms with too narrow of a focus, usually adjusted to the breadth at which our preferences appear clearest. The case…
At the risk of confirming suspicions of conservatives’ reactionary squeamishness, I have to admit to huge, visceral aversion to this sort of thing: Women might soon be able to produce sperm in a development that could allow lesbian couples to have their own biological daughters, according to a pioneering study published today. Scientists are seeking…
I have intended to keep up my end of the same-sex marriage conversation with Matt of Unlikely Words, but various factors have delayed my doing so. For one thing, life keeps trying to trip me up (in ways stated and hinted on Dust in the Light and in ways kept private). Perhaps a more significant,…
Contra Ian Donnis, you can make this stuff up: Mohler began by summarizing some recent research into sexual orientation, and advising his Christian readership that they should brace for the possibility that a biological basis for homosexuality may be proven. Mohler wrote that such proof would not alter the Bible’s condemnation of homosexuality, but said…
