Culture

Killing on the Radio

By Justin Katz | December 14, 2005 | Comments Off on Killing on the Radio

Shortly after 2:00 p.m. today, I’ll be discussing Israel’s recent euthanasia law with Howie Barte on WHJJ, 920 on the AM radio dial.

Are Terrell Owens and Guy Dufault Related?

By | November 9, 2005 |

Andrew points out that Guy Dufault’s so-called apology to Governor Carcieri wasn’t really an apology. As the Governor himself said, “[Dufault] only apologized for inadvertently allowing his plans to smear me and my family to become public.” Yesterday also brought us Philadelphia Eagle wide receiver Terrell Owens’ “apology statement:” I fight for what I think…

Fashioning a New Elite, a Truer Sky

By Justin Katz | October 29, 2005 |

Blogs are a marker of a new elite. More accurately, they represent one area in which the ways society works around elite structures must be reconceived. That’s the central theme with which I approached the annual professional development seminar of the Legislative Information and Communications Staff Section (LINCS) of the National Conference of State Legislatures…

Out Beyond Expectations

By Justin Katz | September 28, 2005 | Comments Off on Out Beyond Expectations

David Wilcox and Nance Pettit’s new CD, Out Beyond Ideas, puts to music mystic poetry from multiple religious traditions. My review, of sorts, suggests that they’ve uncovered and enhanced commonalities that underlie human societies, and that conservatives should look past the too-obvious backstory of the project to commonalities that ought to underlie our own.

A Sequence of Plans

By Justin Katz | September 2, 2005 |

My latest FactIs column, “When Plan B Becomes Plan A,” suggests that something is awry when a drug that requires a prescription for low concentrations is on track for over-the-counter status in higher concentrations. Of course, Plan B is a “birth control” pill; such does sex — and the consequences thereof — skew Western minds.

Teaching Our Children Well: Rediscovering Moral Principles & History

By | August 24, 2005 |

This posting continues a conversation begun with the previous posting entitled Religious Without Being Morally Serious Vs. Morally Serious Without Being Religious. Rather than the canard of there being some remnant trying to establish a theocracy in America, I would suggest there is a different dynamic going on. The culture war led by the secular…

A Four-Year Echo

By Justin Katz | July 31, 2005 | Comments Off on A Four-Year Echo

It’s saddening to admit that I finished reading Minette Marrin’s “Confronted with our own decadence,” in the London Times, with a mordant smirk. I recall, just about four years ago, having the very thought with which she ends: Despite all this, I do, now for the first time, feel a faint glimmer of optimism. One…

The Social Engineering Beyond Challenge

By Justin Katz | July 21, 2005 | Comments Off on The Social Engineering Beyond Challenge

“Breaking the Glass Taboo,” my latest column for TheFactIs.org, responds to Providence Journal editorialist M.J. Anderson’s nostalgia for the days of the Baby Boomers’ youth and to recent research finding that removing men from the home can be part of a recipe for creating “exceptional” boys. I didn’t go into this in my column, but…

A Reason for Tradition

By Justin Katz | July 7, 2005 | Comments Off on A Reason for Tradition

My latest column for TheFactIs.org — “Reasoning with the Id” — responds to a recent piece by Lee Harris. To summarize too drastically, Harris seeks to find a place for tradition in a world of reason. Me, I think is more accurate to stress that rationality already exists in a world of tradition.

Hard America, Soft America: Competition vs. Coddling and the Battle for the Nation’s Future

By Donald B. Hawthorne | July 2, 2005 |

I recently read Michael Barone’s book entitled Hard America, Soft America: Competition vs. Coddling and the Battle for the Nation’s Future. It is well worth reading. Here is an excerpt from the Introduction to the book: For many years I have thought it one of the peculiar features of our country that we seem to…