Culture

When the Children Aren’t the Future

By Justin Katz | December 12, 2009 |

Mark Steyn looks to Vermont for the creeping of Europe’s demographic trends into the United States: … in a very basic sense there is no “state”: Graying ponytailed hippies and chichi gay couples aren’t enough of a population base to run a functioning jurisdiction. To modify Howard Dean, Vermont is the way liberals think America…

A Positive Unintended Consequence of Controversy

By Justin Katz | December 12, 2009 |

Mary Eberstadt notes that, leading up to the turn of the millennium, the taboo against pedophilia appeared to be next up on the list of cultural norms to undermine: The phenomenon of pedophilia chic revealed the intensely troubling possibility that society, especially literate and enlightened society, was in the process of sanctioning certain exceptions to…

Turning the Tide on Toy Totin’ Tots: Prov and East Prov to Hold Toy Gun “Buy”-Backs

By Monique Chartier | December 11, 2009 |

If I were the type to cling to my guns and paranoia, this might strike me as some sort of pre-conditioning. “Look, Johnny and Suzie, it’s normal to hand your guns to the nice man from the government.” Children in Providence and East Providence can trade toy guns for real candy or toys on Friday…

Weeping for the Future

By Justin Katz | December 11, 2009 |

In the comments to this morning’s post on Bush’s reviving poll numbers, Mike Cappelli expresses his concerns, generally, about the attitudes and worldviews of up-and-coming generations. It brought to mind something that I’ve noticed, as if all of a sudden, over the past year: This texting thing has become a real problem on the construction…

Anti-Intellectual Radicals

By Justin Katz | December 6, 2009 |

I’ve been meaning to offer kudos for this excellent letter by David Carlin, who is, somewhat surprisingly, a sociology and philosophy professor at CCRI: The question of whether or not anti-SSM people are motivated by bigotry is an empirical question, and I submit (as would Dr. Harrop, I believe) that if their motives were empirically…

No Fingers Weaving Quick Minarets

By Justin Katz | December 5, 2009 |

You’ve seen this news, I imagine: Swiss voters on Sunday overwhelmingly approved a constitutional ban on minarets, barring construction of the iconic mosque towers in a surprise move that put Switzerland at the forefront of a European backlash against a growing Muslim population. Muslim groups in Switzerland and abroad condemned the vote as biased and…

Random Mutterings

By Marc Comtois | December 3, 2009 |

Having some kind of head cold nastiness for the better part of a week has left me more befuddled than usual and less able to focus thanks to various apothecary concoctions. Here’s what I’ve been muttering about…. Apparently, Gen. Treasurer Frank Caprio is going to campaign as a right-of-center progressive. Tiger Woods has garnered a…

A Proper Progress

By Justin Katz | November 27, 2009 |

Father John Kiley steps forward to defend the Western period of exploration as a time when we “began to also hope in progress,” not in religion alone. Indeed, Fr. Kiley credits the likes of Christopher Columbus and Leonardo de Vinci not just with their particular discoveries and innovations, but with the whole technological drive of…

The Cringing Generation

By Justin Katz | November 23, 2009 |

The end of a recent Mark Steyn column on the nanny state’s murder of the “reasonable man” standard rings too true not to pass along: Sikhs like to carry their traditional kirpans — knives up to eight inches — and the New York City Board of Education and the Supreme Court of Canada, among many…

Also About Refashioning America

By Justin Katz | November 22, 2009 |

A fair number of people who might be said to lean right — libertarians and moderates and such — would do well to consider a review of the current standing of Catholic charities by Archbishop Charles Chaput, of Denver: When we look closely at Church-state conflicts in America, we see that they now often center…