Justin Katz
In a comment to my post on sex education, Rhody points to another of those differences of understanding between conservatives and liberals that seem nigh impossible to resolve: I think the best way to discourage sex before marriage is building kids’ self-esteem and letting them know they don’t have to give it up to feel…
As it happened, the Monday following a weekend during which my interest was piqued by a study making claims about, as the title states, “Explaining Recent Declines in Adolescent Pregnancy in the United States: The Contribution of Abstinence and Improved Contraceptive Use,” Rhode Island Education Commissioner Peter McWalters announced that a particular abstinence-only curriculum had…
Among the qualities that I love about Rhode Island is its size. For some Americans, for example, attending an event across their state requires a plane and a hotel. Rhode Islanders can traverse theirs without even stopping for gas. One can get to know this state; it’s manageable. Of course, its manageability is also its…
Jonah Goldberg
Earlier today, Marc noted the “neat little trick” whereby “moderates” and those to their left claim to tolerate everybody except the intolerant and then define as intolerant anybody with whom they disagree. To my ear, there’s something similar in the recently vogue usage of the term “mandate,” as in: “The election did show that there’s…
I don’t want the previous post to remain long untempered by a statement of my substantial admiration for Rocco, particularly now that he’s come out as Rhode Island’s blogger in Baghdad, D. Alighieri. I do not stand where he stands, nor would I declare myself in possession of the courage that he has shown. Still,…
Over on Autonomist, my friend Rocco DiPippo — to whom I am tremendously indebted for non-blog-related reasons — writes: …politically speaking it was idiotic for Republicans to showboat over the Foley matter. And incredibly, after the Foley revelations, Republican pundits lined up to publish a self-flagellating stream of articles saying how it might be “good”…
It ought to raise suspicions about their cause when marriage advocates seek to advance it through divorce: [Karen L. Loewy, staff attorney for Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders] said Rhode Island recognizes marriages validly entered in other jurisdictions, unless there’s a strong public policy reason not to, and she said there’s no such reason…
I found this line, from Ethan Wingfield, particularly interesting: Brown is one of the most relaxed institutions there is. Students can drop out of a course on the last day of the semester and get the class erased from their records. Perhaps the key would have been to pitch a grade-inflation angle to keeping the…
I wonder if you’ve fully articulated your beliefs, here, Marc: I agree that–other than their unique family structure–there is nothing that sets these folks apart from “average” people. I ask because I think your “however” is insufficiently strong to stand its own ground in the cultural arena: However, I think that the baseline structure of…