thoughts in and out of season
James Kalb For another example of what looks like a gathering counterattack against technocracy by actual scientists, see Understanding the Derrida virus by the physicist, mathematician, and architectural theorist Nikos Salingaros. (I’m in the acknowledgements, which rightly suggests that I have a great deal of sympathy for what Professor Salingaros has to say.)
A summary of recent research, Hardwired to Connect, shows that even if you put all this stuff about traditional morality and spiritual values to one side, and just look at biochemistry, children still need something very like the authority of family and local religious institutions. It’s useful to keep these things in your back … More ...
Conservatives can be divided into (1) pessimists, who think the trend is down, down, down, and (1) optimists, who think things aren’t so bad. The pessimists point to things like Grutter, Lawrence, and the business-as-usual attitude of most mainstream conservatives to those decisions. The optimists point to things like practical limitations on the … More ...
Here are some extremely interesting observations by a Lutheran observer at Vatican II. From what the man says it appears that the bishops got to Rome without any particularly pressing concerns of their own to deal with, they were asked to pass on grand issues for which they weren’t prepared, the experts argued rings around … More ...
It’s interesting that it’s moral conduct—in particular, active homosexuality—and not moral or theological teaching that puts the kibosh on communion and ecumenism: UPI Analysis: A rift worse than schism? The Anglicans have been consecrating bishops for years who think homosexuality is just great and who reject almost any Christian doctrine you care to mention. But … More ...
I can remember when the L.A. Times and Chicago Tribune were conservative papers. Nowadays there’s no such thing in the mainstream press, they’re all much too professionalized to be anything but left/liberal, so the two have become operatives for the Democratic Party and the pro-abortion movement just like everyone else. So it’s no big surprise … More ...
A straw in the wind: Google accepts ads for pornography but not legal firearms. They do have standards, you know.
The Google semi-monopoly, like the Microsoft semi-monopoly, does make me a little nervous. The main reason I moved my website from counterrevolution.net to jkalb.freeshell.org was that Google simply would not index more than one … More ...
Today people say there is no history “as it really was.” A story is a human construction, and its truth is mostly a matter of acceptance by the relevant community. So if that’s so, why shouldn’t those who accept that the human world is a human construction, to be remade in accordance with desire, try … More ...
Affirmative action is a sacred cause, so if you’re sarcastic about it they don’t like you. Authorities at Southern Methodist University and University of California at Irvine have shut down bake sales put on by conservative students at which beneficiaries of affirmative action were charged less than white male students. At SMU officials called the … More ...
Here are news items that bring out the oddity of the claim, which is now thought fundamental to humanity, morality and justice, that “discrimination” is a definite thing that must be wiped out: