thoughts in and out of season
On the occasion of a long-time colleague’s hundredth birthday Trent Lott paid a compliment that suggested that Federally-mandated integration had been a mistake, and that some other way forward would have been better—perhaps one that preserved at least the legality of voluntary separation. The response of many people, including some prominent in the conservative movement, … More ...
Religion is inevitable. A religion is an understanding of what is real, together with conclusions for the basic principles of morality. Any such understanding can reasonably be called a religion, since it provides an account of ultimate reality that is not fully demonstrable but gives answers regarding ultimate questions by which we live.
Each of … More ...
Patty Murray provides a textbook example of the use of divisive rhetoric as a diversion from issues by her denunciation of the use of divisive rhetoric as a diversion from issues. She says something utterly brainless about Osama and gets complaints. Her response? To lecture us about those “on the extreme fringes of society … More ...
Let sleeping dogs lie, be culturally sensitive, and above all don’t rock the boat: FBI investigators were ordered to stop Clinton-era investigations into suspected terror cell linked to al Qaeda. It’s hard to push an investigation forward when the higher-ups, for whatever reason, don’t want it to happen. And it gets even weirder when … More ...
At one time people thought it common sense to distinguish between a Connecticut Yankee and a Southern black and expect very different things from them. Today that kind of distinction is thought outrageous, but people still differentiate a Harvard graduate from a high school graduate who just got out of the Marines. The change is … More ...
There’s only one possible explanation for everything: Sen. Patty Murray (D-Washington) says the reason Osama is so popular worldwide is that he’s into day care centers. In the meantime, the reason “[t]here are crises in every one of our schools in this country” is that there’s not enough Federal money to go around.
Where … More ...
What it’s like to teach literature in multicultural technocratic England: Teachers, targets and theatre trips. Taking schoolchildren to the theater becomes impossibly difficult when there are no standards, so you can’t expect people to behave right and keeping the kids safe becomes an infinitely complex task. So you don’t bother doing it. Back in … More ...
A suggestion that there are limitations to manipulation: How anti-racism advertising can backfire. It seems that if someone doesn’t fully accept the official line that all groups are equally good in all respects, antiracist advertising can make him think about the issues and drop the official line altogether.
An odd feature of the piece … More ...
A common Leftist claim is that established moral principles serve the interests of the ruling classes. Oddly, the claim isn’t applied to moral principles of which the Left approves. In particular, it is not applied to a principle that in spite of its novelty seems to outrank all others today, the principle that “discrimination” is … More ...
A short listing of unevents for the unholiday, mostly not taking place in New York: Making Christmas Disappear.