Culture

Old Arguments and an Older Profession

By Justin Katz | October 22, 2008 |

It’s jarring to read familiar arguments put forward in the context of prostitution: Proponents say the measure will free up $11 million the police spend each year arresting prostitutes and allow them to form collectives. “It will allow workers to organize for our rights and for our safety,” said Patricia West, 22, who said she…

Carrots Down the Rabbit Hole

By Justin Katz | October 20, 2008 |

The range of protected groups continues to, umm, grow: For years, Swiss scientists have blithely created genetically modified rice, corn and apples. But did they ever stop to consider just how humiliating such experiments may be to plants? That’s a question they must now ask. Last spring, this small Alpine nation began mandating that geneticists…

Don’t Overlook This Part of the Story

By Justin Katz | October 19, 2008 |

It doesn’t pass judgment upon nor level recriminations against Regino Romero — who appears to be doing his best to support his family and do right by his children — to note an easily ignored and often dismissed piece of his story (emphasis added): If money were not so tight, Regino Romero would use the…

Changes in Responsibility and Import

By Justin Katz | October 19, 2008 |

In his two-part (one, two) revisitation of Humanae Vitae, Fr. John Kiley misses the mark in one instance. From part two: [Contraception] destroys unitive intimacy by dividing the couple: the condom places all responsibility on the husband; the pill or diaphragm places all responsibility on the wife. By passing responsibility to one or the other,…

A Creative Lack of Imagination

By Justin Katz | October 2, 2008 |

In search of a Why for my heartbroken disappointment at finding the fifth installment of George R.R. Martin’s excellent Song of Ice and Fire series absent from the bookstore shelves although long expected, I found my way to this post on the author’s blog: Doing Good Is Its Own Reward… … but when you can…

… that is, except Sarah Palin

By Monique Chartier | September 19, 2008 |

and millions of other women. A bumper sticker snapped in the greater Providence area last evening: The surprising un-welcome from some quarters, described so well by Donald, to the arrival of Governor Sarah Palin on the national political scene made it quite clear, contrary to this seemingly guileless bumper sticker, that feminism extends considerably beyond…

Don Roach: Then and NOW

By Engaged Citizen | September 3, 2008 |

Then and NOW What a difference twenty-four years and a political party make. In 2008, the National Organization for Women (NOW) has an interesting take on Sarah Palin’s selection as John McCain’s running mate. It is quite a departure from their role in 1984 campaign 2008: NOW statement on Sarah Palin (emphasis added): Gov. Palin…

Teach the Children

By Justin Katz | August 19, 2008 |

Obviously, the two articles aren’t in direct opposition, and I’m not suggesting that one presents anything nearing an argument against the other, but the two felt related, so perhaps they’re worth juxtaposing. First, AP education writer Nancy Zuckerbrod’s memoirish piece comparing early childhood education in the England versus the United States: The head teacher and…

Our Loss of Memory

By Donald B. Hawthorne | August 6, 2008 |

Jonah Goldberg writes about Forgetting the Evils of Communism: The amnesia bites a little deeper: Alexander Solzhenitsyn is dead. Peter Rodman is dead. And memory is dying with them. Over the weekend, Solzhenitsyn, the 89-year-old literary titan, and Rodman, the American foreign-policy intellectual, passed away… What I admired most in both men was their memory.…

Lessons to Be Drawn

By Justin Katz | July 26, 2008 |

In response to Mary Eberstadt’s thought-provoking piece about the accurate prognostications of Humanae Vitae, Todd Zywicki notes (and Glenn Reynolds seconds) the possibility of a cost-benefit analysis with respect to the sexual revolution. It’s difficult to draw a boundary around the topic; to put it in the form of a question that I posed a…