thoughts in and out of season
James Kalb More questions from my Finnish correspondent, with responses:
… More ...Q: If the possession of property is necessary for development of responsibility and virtue, it seems reasonable to desire an extension of this possession to as many as possible. Why don’t American conservatives make more of that issue?
A: I think that the notion that government action
A Finnish correspondent sent me some questions about the current overall situation, where it’s likely to go, and what to do about it. I thought others might find them of interest, so here they are with my responses:
… More ...Q: How do we know that faith in the omnicompetence of technique will give way to anything
Computer simulations of artificial societies are leading to social science that seems illuminating, and conceivably might even be useful at some point. At least that’s what an account by Jonathan Rauch in The Atlantic Monthly suggests. Some interesting results:
From Newman onward, the chief sensation many converts from Anglicanism to Catholicism have had when looking back at their old communion is amazement at its utter nothingness. Converts’ views aren’t always fair, but it does seem that the habitual accusations against a serious enterprise would involve something worse than general dottiness. An recent example: the … More ...
Ba’athism is said to be an Arab form of Naziism. A point in favor of that interpretation is that Saddam’s regime, like the Nazis, seems to have been heavily involved in the occult. If you make power your God, and say it trumps truth, then it seems there’s no limit on what imaginary … More ...
Is there a site that keeps track of homosexualist puffery the way VDARE keeps track of Christmas bashing and PC Watch and Tongue Tied keep track of PC weirdness? Anyway, here’s a few items to help you keep your grip on where things are:
The War Against Christmas competition at VDARE is worth checking out. From a blogger’s point of view, it’s a public service that saves the rest of us from having to list all the seasonal enormities, for example the community bulletin board in England that doesn’t allow notices about Christmas carols or the policy of the … More ...
Black parents are upset that a white principal spelled out the N-word as an example of something that shouldn’t be used, while congressmen are upset that the FTC now allows the F-word to be used as an expletive.
These issues are impossible to decide in a way people agree makes sense. Since language is part … More ...
The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights is upset because Kwanzaa and Hanukkah cards put out by major companies are ever-so-respectful, while Christmas cards are tasteless, irreligious, and downright offensive. The Catholic League thinks that demonstrates bigotry, to which (they say) multiculturalism is congenitally related. The analysis isn’t wrong, exactly, but it’s less-than-illuminating. … More ...
The confidential memoranda I mentioned recently outlining the strategy to manipulate international law to make abortion a universal enforceable human right have been read into the Congressional Record (*.pdf file) and so are publicly available. There’s nothing particularly surprising about them, but it’s useful to have what’s going on laid out, especially in an age … More ...